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In its coverage of the charges against two Unitarian Universalist ministers for celebrating gay marriage ceremonies, The New York Times shows an atypical concern for state intrusions into matters of faith.
Kathy Shaidle of relapsed catholic, in noting the death of “Lord of the Dance” composer Sydney Bertram Carter, uses the jocular headline “We’ve missed our chance to kill him.”
Jeffrey Rosen’s lengthy profile of John Ashcroft in the April Atlantic is testimony to what makes this magazine essential reading. Let Vanity Fair propagate the urban legend about Ashcroft’s fear of calico cats and express its horror that Ashcroft’s father once anointed him with Crisco. Rosen has better work to do: Engaging Ashcroft as a politician and a thinker.
Newspaper and TV reporters have begun digging into the bizarre world of Marcus Wesson, the man charged with killing nine of his children and grandchildren in Fresno, Calif., during the weekend, and some have latched onto an overly simple explanation: he may be an Adventist. Reports also suggest that he was a polygamist and that he fathered grandchildren with two of his own daughters.
Gayle White and Tom Baxter of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report on how much the church-and-politics atmosphere has changed since 1960. When John F. Kennedy ran for president 44 years ago, he had to assure skittish Protestant ministers that he wouldn’t let his Catholicism influence his political decisions.
Talking about yourself at length can be a troubling habit, but Spalding Gray managed to turn it into an art form that transcended mere self-absorption.
60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley’s profile of Bishop Gene Robinson was a good introduction to the man — especially for anyone who has lived in a cave since Robinson’s election last summer. The story touched all the familiar bases: first openly gay bishop elected last June, heated debate at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in August, dissents at Robinson’s consecration in November, pew-level responses ranging from anguish to elation since then.
Goodbye, Babylon, a boxed six-CD set of music and sermons distributed by a startup called Dust-to-Digital, has led to some remarkably faith-friendly writing in recent months. Here, for instance, is veteran reviewer David Fricke in the Jan. 29 Rolling Stone:
