Bill Berkowitz
October 27, 2005

Faith-Based Public Relations

Mike Paul, the president of MGP & Associates PR, claims that his public relations firm's philosophy 'is grounded in both business and biblical principles'

In this era when the George W. Bush Administration is putting its faith-based stamp on just about everything, leave it to an enterprising New Yorker to come up with a new way to feed at the new federal religious feeding trough.

Mike Paul claims that biblical precepts guide his public relations work. Paul, who runs the New York City-based MGP & Associates PR, was front and center -- publicizing and speaking -- at the "What is an Evangelical?" seminar held in New York in early September. The seminar was the fourth in an ongoing series specifically geared towards breaking down barriers between evangelicals and the media.

In light of the Rev. Pat Robertson's statements advocating the assassination of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and comments by some evangelical leaders that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans, the event was particularly timely. Co-hosted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Christianity Today magazine, and the New York Divinity School, the seminars are media-only events geared toward educating radio, television and print media and dispelling stereotypes about evangelical Christians.

While seminar organizers didn't completely disassociate themselves from the Rev. Robertson or the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Bob Wenz, V.P. of National Ministries of the NAE, made it clear that while "They [Robertson and Falwell] are people who we love to work with ... we have a broader constituency than that."

"One of the key messages that will come out of this conference is that the evangelical community is not a monolith, no different from the black community, the white community, and the Hispanic community," Wenz said in a pre-seminar interview with the Christian Post.

"There has been an upset over the portrayal of evangelicals. Some stories are truly accurate and some truly stereotyped," Paul, a speaker at, and spokesperson for, the seminar told The Christian Post.

"If you're a Christian organization and you want to get stories placed on mainstream media consistently, you need to form a relationship, you need to think from their perspective, not just our own," Paul added. "It's a two-way street."

At the gathering at New York Divinity School in Times Square, Paul said that "Many evangelical organizations don't fully understand journalists and the challenging world of media, yet many still complain when they get horrible coverage, see stereotyped Christian perspectives in the news or no one knows who they truly are at all."

Whether Paul successfully gets a two-way "relationship" going with the press remains to be seen; an early October Nexis search didn't turn up any articles on the "What is an Evangelical?" seminar and a Google search found three, all from the aforementioned Christian Post.

Paul does more than attempt to bridge the evangelical/media gap. During an August 12, segment on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" he was introduced by guest host John Gibson as "a reputation management and public relations expert." Gibson asked Paul whether anti-war activist and mother of a killed soldier Cindy Sheehan would be hurt by "her alliance with anti-war groups," a story Fox was vigorously promoting.

Paul averred that the association would "hurt" Sheehan, "in the long run." The story, he said, would shift from Sheehan the grieving mother to Sheehan the anti-war activist, and "she can't wear two hats for long." On whether the president should meet with Sheehan, Paul felt that since they met once, another meeting would set a "precedent" for any grieving family and that would be "the wrong thing."

Then, Paul really got on message.

GIBSON: Wouldn't he actually score political points, instead of letting her make it appear that he's afraid to see her?

PAUL: The president has the ability to take it, as you say. He is a person who is caring, who can show that empathy.

But the bigger question is where do you stop? How many parents do you do this for? This war has others who have died. There are future people that will die. What type of precedent does that set for the president of the United States?

GIBSON: Well, what if it sets no precedent? Suppose it's just one? He says OK, there's political pressure. The anti-war types want me to face Cindy Sheehan. She symbolizes every other parent who's lost a child or a husband or a relative. That's the one I'm going to talk to.

PAUL: Well, the problem is she doesn't symbolize that. If she were a person who were out there by herself, who are - was grieving over a cross that was put out there initially, and it was only her who was grieving from a personal perspective for her son, then you're absolutely right. That would be the right person.

But that's not the situation now. This is an anti-war activist who is leading from that perspective right now. She has over 100 other people that are out there with her. She has ads that are being paid for by other liberal groups. And this is going to continue to go on.

She is the poster person now for the anti-war movement. She is not just a grieving mother. If she were only a grieving mother, then I would say yes, there's a possibility that that would happen, but his aides and his closest relations and consultants will tell him that this is a wrong thing for him to do.

Mike Paul is in the image-creating and image-reconstruction business; his firm works to create positive public perceptions for his clients and, when needed, he patches up mangled reputations. When a celebrity, sports star, religious or political leader, and/or business executive gets into trouble, Paul tries to get them started-up again.

Paul, who is Black, heads up MGP & Associates PR (website), a New York City-based public relations firm. Before setting up his own operation, he worked for two of the top PR firms in the world: He was a senior associate at Burson-Marsteller, and he was a vice president and senior counselor of Hill & Knowlton's New York Public Affairs Group. Paul also served in the administration of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as executive vice president of communications, marketing and advertising for the New York City Economic Development Corp.

For the past 10 years, Paul has run MGP & Associates PR using the client-reassuring slogan, "Because Your Reputation is Everything." Paul also prides himself on running an operation that squares with Biblical principles. The company's website claims that its "philosophy is grounded in both business and biblical principles," and its staff make sure that "our ethical and moral standards are the highest in the industry."

MGP & Associates PR appears to see itself as a standard-bearer of morality and ethics for the public relations industry. Some might call that an oxymoron, given the sorry state of the industry these days. MGP & Associates PR may be setting the bar at a pretty low level. The company, however, insists that it is picky about the clients it chooses, and that its "founders prayerfully consider all decisions before they are made."

My Brief Chat with Mr. Paul

Media Transparency telephoned Mike Paul at his New York City offices to ask about work his company was doing for Bishop Harry Jackson and his High-Impact Leadership Coalition.

Bishop Jackson, the Black senior pastor of the 2,000-member Hope Christian Church in College Park, Maryland, has emerged as a national political figure this year. In January, when the formation of his High-Impact Leadership Coalition (HILC) was announced, a press release prepared by MGP & Associated PR described the group as a "grassroots nonprofit organization" whose "mission is to help educate and empower church, community and political leaders in urban communities across America regarding moral value issues important to us all, especially among African Americans."

A paragraph at the tail end of the release advised those "interested in attending the summit" in Los Angeles where the HILC's plans were to be formerly unveiled to call Mike Paul. By contacting Paul, inquiring minds could learn more about the Black Contract with America on Moral Values, or interview Bishop Harry Jackson.

In mid-August, during an event called "Justice Sunday II - God Save the United States and This Honorable Court!" at the Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee -- a live nationwide television simulcast produced by Family Research Council and Focus on the Family Action -- Bishop Jackson was the only Black speaker to address the crowd.

Bishop Jackson's work with MGP is interesting because of the increased attention paid to Black leaders, particularly Black religious leaders, by the Republican Party, and his emergence as a national spokesperson for so-called traditional family values.

Over the years, I have spoken with conservative leaders, Bush Administration officials and staff members of various right wing organizations. I have been impressed by the courtesy with which they dealt with my inquiries, their willingness to respond forthrightly, and, when they did not have the information I needed or did not particularly want to comment on an question, they would come out and say so without equivocation.

My conversation with Mike Paul, conversely, was brief. I identified myself as a columnist with Working Assets' WorkingForChange.com. I then asked him about what work his firm was doing for the High-Impact Leadership Coalition.

Paul said that he was doing "national public relations." I asked what that entailed. Instead of answering the question, he asked me again who I was writing for. I said I was a columnist with WorkingForChange.com, an Internet site run by Working Assets, the socially responsible alternative telephone company.

He then said, "Look, I'm in a car trying to help out a liberal rag. I deal with big media outlets, and your rag is probably seen by only a handful of people. This phone call is done. I gave you my answer. Have a good day."

Paul's Faith-Based Approach to Public Relations

In December 2004, in an article about the growing influence of Christian faith in the workplace, Mike Paul told PR Week's Keith O'Brien that his "faith is extremely important, and it is a part of who I am, as a being."

Paul became a born-again Christian in 1997, a "development [that] touched all parts of his life," O'Brien wrote.

While MGP is "not at a Christian PR firm, and Paul takes on many secular clients," his firm's Christian clients include Young Life, a global Christian organization; Concerts of Prayer of Greater New York; and Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., "who Paul says was pushing moral values during the election season," and the City Covenant Coalition.

According to its website, the Brooklyn, New York-based City Covenant Coalition "is a Coalition of 'ascension gift' ministers and ministries that come together in covenant to transform cities and impact the nations with the 'gospel of the Kingdom of God.'" Joseph Mattera, the director of the City Covenant Coalition (CCC), is a major player in New York City's so-called defense of marriage movement, and an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage. Paul's firm did the press work for the "The 'Defense of Marriage' Press Conference," organized by the CCC and held at New York City's City Hall on March 29, 2004.

Christians should bring their faith to the workplace Paul told PR Week's O'Brien. But different people take different approaches to "letting that shine through." Paul said that, "I won't necessarily do that with a Wall Street firm, political leader, or professional athlete, but they will all know within a week of hiring me that my faith is an important part of my life."

According to O'Brien, Paul said that some of his secular clients refer to him as a "choirboy" in their first encounters. "But guess what?" Paul asks. "It's the choirboy you want to help you when you're in the midst of hell."

O'Brien reported that Paul claims that he "strives to be an example about truth, humility, accountably and transparency": "Ironically this is very much a perfect fit towards what we should do in the business," Paul said.

He does not have a problem with taking on an "unethical client."

"If a client was unethical, and [wants to] come back to the truth, then I want to help them," Paul told O'Brien. "If [he or she] is looking for someone to spin something, my firm is not the answer. I don't have a problem walking away from a situation that I know is wrong."