Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Good for USA Today‘s By Cathy Lynn Grossman for writing about an important survey from the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research group that showed that people who do not go to church are finding religion elsewhere. Not many mainstream news organizations picked this one up, but it is significant and worth a closer look than what is possible the day after the numbers are released.
A recent Miami Herald story on the Afro-Caribbean religious tradition Santeria is receiving high compliments from the Pagan-oriented Wild Hunt blog for avoiding sensationalism. The comments on the blog, which is run by Jason Pitzl-Waters, give a sense for what many misunderstood or less commonly known religious traditions feel when they are portrayed in the media.
The headline in Saturday’s Detroit News brought the news that the “controversial” church of Scientology had paid $3.5 million for a prominent downtown building for office and outreach program use. The larger story is that Scientologists in Michigan are moving their headquarters and expanding to meet a greater demand and need for the church’s services.
For political junkies like myself, tonight’s Iowa caucuses is kind of like the first day of Christmas. Finally, after so much waiting, we finally get to find out what is in those political Christmas presents.
If you are a Western reader, don’t be surprised if this Al Jazeera story on the increasing presence of radicals in Indonesia doesn’t fit your typical Associated Press or Reuters news story. But the cultural and religious presumptions provide insights are worth looking at briefly. Also buried within the story is a bit of news that probably could use some more reporting and explaining.
A couple of days ago, The Des Moines Register ran a very long piece — just under 2,500-words — on a pastor and his incredible ability to overcome challenges and seek and receive forgiveness for his sins. The sins in this case would be gambling. In particular, the pastor’s sin was gambling (and losing big) with church money. Needless to say, this pastor was fired from his job.
In a few hours, the fate of the Washington Redskins’ emotionally and spiritually harrowing season will be decided as they take on the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field. There are many reasons to look at the Redskins’ season and wonder why they are in contention for a playoff spot — especially the shocking and tragic murder of safety Sean Taylor.
The best way to put a buzzkill on the typical Christmas War story is to focus on who benefits the most from the battles. If every story on Nativity scenes on public land mentioned the amount of money the lawyers were taking in, people might view the whole debate differently.
What a year it has been for religion-in-sports stories. The year started off with Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy leading his team to a Super Bowl victory proclaiming the power of God at every opportunity, followed by a series of religion and baseball-related stories.
