Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
It looks like we are going to need our own Anglican-esque “Lutheran wars” logo for use with future posts about the battles in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the wake of its trailblazing stand in favor of the ordination of gays and lesbians living in committed, lifelong, monogamous same-sex relationships.
I’m saving the best (Got News?) for last. But first, let’s cover culture war news from the Values Voter Summit held in D.C. And right off the bat I wanna say (yeah, that’s how we talk in Philly — you gotta problem with that?) that I’m ambivalent about any journalist who uses that term as a descriptor rather than the title of the Family Research Values conference. The term implies that conservative activists are the only ones with values, or that those on the left are value-free, or that voters who fell into the middle of the spectrum don’t take their values to the voting booth. In general, the reporters below tend to be clear that this is a term of choice, not of reality.
A couple of days ago I wrote about Darryl Fears’ snarky Washington Post story about the independent journalists who have targeted community organizing group ACORN. Their videos show employees of ACORN advising how to set up a brothel with underage girls (who are sex-trafficked!) in the most tax-friendly way. It’s not much of a religion story but Fears has been trying to make it one. And with the reticence that much of the mainstream media has had in covering the story, perhaps it’s good that the Post is covering it at all.
The Associated Press had a fascinating look Dave Ramsey, a finance guru. What’s the religion angle? Well, apparently one of his major markets is Christian churches. And he mixes Christian teachings with his message of living debt free and saving money. Jay Reeves penned the piece which is full of information, particularly for an AP piece. Here’s how it begins:
The Washington Post ran a story the other day that was quite scary, if you care about the institutional church. The only problem I had with the story is that it wasn’t scary enough and, in particular, it wasn’t hard enough on one of the fastest growing forms of Protestantism in the nation (and the world, for that matter).
I can’t say I was expecting to find coverage of a religion angle in the brouhaha surrounding community organizing group ACORN, but we have one.
Sometimes we seems like a society that has a desire to major in the minors. Why spend more than five minutes (OK, 10) discussing whether it was appropriately presidential (in fairness, he thought his words were off the record) for President Barack Obama to call rapper Kanye West a “jackass”? Why focus on some nondenominational pastor’s sexual misbehavior when so many other churches are grappling with issues around mission, doctrine or social justice?
Alexei Barrionuevo of The New York Times really wants you to know just what everyone wears to church in Brazil: churchgoers wear jeans, sneakers and caps turned backwards; jujitsu fighters, including Pastor Dogao Meira, show off their bare chests; and the preacher, Pastor Mazola Maffei, hops onto the stage clad in a t-shirt and “army pants,” which I can only assume means camos.
As tmatt mentioned yesterday, I was able to cover the taxpayer protest here in Washington this Saturday. I cover protests here all the time but I don’t think anyone — including the people who came up with the idea for the protest, the marchers, the media or the police — had any idea it was going to be as big as it was.
