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 other day, the divine Ms. MZ wrote an enthusiastically depressing post about some of the bad news that we keep hearing about the state of Godbeat reporting in the mainstream press. Grap a box of tissues and head back over there to read that post, if you dare.
When the firestorm erupted over Brit Hume’s suggested that Tiger Woods receive the forgiveness and redemption offered by the Christian faith, I hoped we’d see some more substantive coverage rather than just the religiously sub-literate offerings of the histrionic. We’ve seen a few good stories about Buddhist beliefs and I was also appreciative of Lisa Miller’s post explaining evangelical Christianity to her Newsweek audience:
When mainstream reporters write in and challenge something that we’ve published here, we always want to let that happen — especially if they will do that on the record. We want some of that discussion to happen out here on the “front page,” so to speak, rather than back in the comments pages.
If you have ever lived in, or near, Washington, D.C., you know that there are only two things that our nation’s capital talks about in the fall and early winter.
Grading religion writers involves evaluating their work on stories both simple and complex. I always offer extra credit to those enterprising and creative journalists who seek out important stories that transcend today’s headlines. That’s why TIME’s David Van Biema gets a gold star for his 2,400-word piece, “The Color of Faith.”
News Flash: The New York Times believes that a small group of powerful U.S. evangelicals are forcing Ugandan policy makers into something they didn’t already want to do. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the front page article from yesterday on the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. The dateline says Kampala, but the article appears to be strung together from blog posts and could have been written from Antarctica.
Fox News analyst Brit Hume has taken some major hits over his advice to Tiger Woods that he embrace Christianity if he wants redemption. I’ve embedded the clip here. In a society that is deeply uncomfortable with any substantive discussion of religious differences, that Hume favorably compared Christianity to Buddhism is downright shocking. Now, I’m sure that there are readers here who think Hume admirably showed concern for Woods’ soul and readers who think he’s an anti-Buddhist bigot (and many other views). But I think the whole brouhaha is most interesting for the media freak out over response to his words.
When religion reporters get together we like to discuss the great mysteries of our field. You know, questions like, “Why can’t more journalists learn that ‘Episcopal’ is an adjective, while ‘Episcopalian’ is a noun, even though it sounds like an adjective?”
