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Michael Paulson of The Boston Globe has been all over the God-and-politics beat during the Democrats’ convention, and in his story “Party refuses to cede the religious vote” he reaches a sublime point of irony.
The July-August issue of Columbia Journalism Review hands a dart to KNXV-TV of Phoenix because news anchor Katie Raml spoke at two WISH List events. Here’s an excerpt of how the Darts & Laurels column describes Raml’s offense:
It’s not quite the same thing as the Democratic Party’s snub of the prolife Pennsylvania Gov. William Casey in 1992, but John Kerry’s campaign has broken with tradition by not inviting the host city’s Catholic archbishop to deliver an invocation during this week’s Democratic convention.
Peter Steinfels asked several scholars a bold, even-handed question for his Beliefs column in Saturday’s New York Times: Which one book would you recommend to President Bush and Sen. John Kerry? (Beret tip: Philocrites.)
Eric Gorski of The Denver Post has written a finely balanced article about Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney’s latest interest: building unity between Christians who grew up Jewish and those who did not. Gorski uses the phrase “Messianic Jews” repeatedly, and that concept, among others, is at the heart of conflicts between the organizations Jews for Jesus and Jews for Judaism.
NARRAGANSETT — Sitting along a couch in the small office in the back of St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Ms. August, 81, Ms. October, 71, and Ms. September, 73, laughed and chatted with the rector yesterday afternoon as they leafed through a handful of photographs.
United Methodists did an amazing thing during the weekend in choosing William H. Willimon of Duke University as their next bishop in northern Alabama. Willimon, one of the few theologians to devote a book to humor, was jocular and self-deprecating as journalists reported on his appointment.
After being booed during her Saturday night performance and ejected from the Aladdin hotel and casino, Linda Ronstadt is on the fast track to reverential treatment in the entertainment media. Now that she’s been subjected to the cruelties of a Las Vegas crowd — which typically doesn’t travel to the neon oasis to hear odes to filmmaker Michael Moore’s patriotism — it’s best not to predict what Ronstadt will have to say about these lumpen Americans.
As I’ve noted before in this space, The Life of David Gale once offered this dubious advice regarding cultural geography: “You know you are in the Bible belt when there are more churches than Starbucks.”
