Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
The force is growing in North Wales. What started as something of an Internet joke has grown into something more significant and concrete as a group of Jedi-loving residents of Holyhead are taking their 2001 census statements seriously that their religion is Jedi.
Those who watched the Republican debate Thursday night might have noticed the lack of religious content. The debate was about the economy for the most part. The economic downturn is what is on everyone’s mind this week, and it could end up being the primary issue this election season.
The former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson has withdrawn from the 2008 presidential race, and leading candidates are lining up to try on the big shoes of the only candidate who once played the president in Hollywood. More than half of Thompson’s support came from Christian evangelicals. Where will those voters go? Both Romney and Huckabee are laying claim to that support. Does McCain have a chance at picking up that support?
Trying to figure out how and why Senator John McCain triumphed over his competitors Saturday in the South Carolina primary is like trying to figure out why professional football teams have success in the playoffs. In other words, the calculus is not easy, but there are factors worth discussing.
For being on page A1 in The Washington Post, the article earlier this week on a high school athlete disqualified from a track meet for wearing clothing intended to be modest for religious reasons is missing a few things. Fortunately, we have the Internet, and the captions on the online photo gallery fill in a few details that were lacking from the story.
Did you notice? Once again, there wasn’t a single serious reference to religion or faith in MSNBC’s Democratic debate the other night. There was hardly anything said about God, church, or “belief” and not a word was said about prayer.
As likely is the case in most communities around the country, there are abandoned churches in neighborhoods that used to be vibrant and alive. I know this is true in my neighborhood (I can see the abandoned church pictured in this post from my window) and I have seen it in other cities, particularly off the coasts where there is plenty of cheap land and the geographic cores of cities have gone through a several-decades long transformation from life to death.
Chicago Tribune staff reporter Nara Schoenberg had a fairly solid profile last week of an Illinois teenage atheist who is, with her father, legally attacking the state’s “Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act” as a violation of her rights. The teenager, Dawn Sherman, is the focus of the story, and the reporter uses Sherman’s personal story to explain one side of the separation of church and state debate.
When you think of faith in sports, you don’t have to think too hard until you come to Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.
