Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
As a rule, your GetReligionistas are fond of the regular Belief Watch column that appears in the crowded front pages of Newsweek. But I have a bone to pick with the recent mini-feature that ran with the headline, “Stop Your Sobbing — Now.”
That was one of the hot story angles that the mainstream press pounced on a decade or two ago when reporters discovered the snarky glory of covering the annual meeting of the CBA, which was once known as the Christian Booksellers Association. Among the insiders, this icky side of the Christian gifts industry is referred to with the overarching term “Jesus Junk.”
ABC’s Good Morning America had a bit about author Anne Rice the other day that caught my attention. Rice is the best-selling American author of vampire tales who has recently written a couple of religious-themed books:
Amy Sullivan of Time wrote a story about recent efforts by Democratic officials to reach out to religious voters. Her story included some fascinating details about how John Kerry’s campaign bungled its chance to appeal to the same, such as this one:
Columnist Bill Nemitz of the Portland Press Herald wrote a story that blasted Catholic Bishop Richard Malone for reinstating a sexually deviant priest. Nemitz was too easy on the bishop. Instead of blasting Malone as irresponsible and tone deaf, Nemitz might easily have accused him of violating Church doctrine.
I’m back in this forum, at the request of tmatt, just long enough to kick off a retrospective celebration of GetReligion’s fourth anniversary. Terry has asked us all to list the five favorite posts we’ve written in this site’s history, so cue John Coltrane.
A reader named Jason Gilbert sent in a crisp little note that said: “Why is Tmatt not commenting on this story?”
Last week the Associated Press put out over the wires a news story on Donald Miller and his bestselling book Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. The story was picked up in a number of newspapers’ religion sections over the weekend leaving many readers wondering what took so long.
The January/February issue of Psychology Today features a 5,000 word story, ostensibly on clergymen who lose their faith. While you have to get a copy of the dead tree version to read the whole thing, you can read the first few hundred words here. Having just finished writing a history of atheism for another magazine, I was excited to read the piece.
