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 of today GetReligion has moved to a new server, as the editors have hoped to do for many months now. We’re happy about this move because it means we’ll begin using the Movable Type publishing platform (from the folks at Six Apart, who created TypePad, our host for just over a year now).
At least that’s the formula I would expect. In a PR release on Jan. 18, GQ added to my dread that barrels of snark would be on tap: “Rock music used to be a safe haven for degenerates and rebels — until it found Jesus. Now Christian-rock concerts have become a quiet force in America drawing worship and money and swaying the devoted. GQ correspondent John Jeremiah Sullivan went deep into Creation, the genre’s biggest annual festival, and found that the Lord rocks in mysterious ways.”
The major dailies published appropriately subdued stories earlier this week about the conviction of the Rev. Paul Shanley on charges of raping a Sunday-school student during the 1980s.
Time magazine prompted some snickers last week when it counted Catholics Richard John Neuhaus and Rick Santorum among “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.”
Some writers are worth reading because they are talented stylists. Regardless of whether I agree with the points these writers make, watching them make the case is its own reward. Several writers fill this role for me, including Christopher Hitchens, Andrew Ferguson, Paul Greenberg, James Lileks, Katha Pollitt, Anna Quindlen, Mark Steyn and Andrew Sullivan.
Blaine Harden of The Washington Post writes with sympathy for evangelicals who care about the environment — or “creation care,” as one pastor says he calls it because of evangelicals’ purported hang-ups about the word environmentalism.
On Thursday I asked if anyone recognized the church featured in the ill-fated “lusty cleric” Super Bowl TV ad for the Lincoln Mark LT pickup. Thanks to Tim at Random Observations, here is the answer: It’s La Verne (Calif.) United Methodist Church.
The past few months have been strange at the intersection of faith and advertising, beginning with the big three networks’ rejection of the United Church of Christ’s TV spots and continuing with Rolling Stone‘s temporary rejection of an ad promoting a new gender-inclusive version of the Bible.
Keith Olbermann has been on a tear about James Dobson and Focus on the Family for several days now, mostly on his MSNBC blog, but Tuesday night he took his grievances into prime time.
