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Back when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, I went on record saying he should be replaced by another Lutheran. I was joking but it looks like I was onto something. Sarah has covered the stories leading up to this moment, so it’s no surprise to GetReligion readers, but the Supreme Court is sans Protestants.
I highlighted Ross Douthat’s excellent New York Times op-ed last time we talked about the censorship of the South Park cartoon. He had written a bit about what the incident meant in larger context:
The birth control pill turned 50 this year. Time magazine celebrated the anniversary with a 5,000-word look at the sociological history of its development and use. And I have to say that while the piece reads a bit like a love letter to 1960s feminism, author Nancy Gibbs discussed religion and values throughout the piece. This seems like the obvious thing to do when talking about something related to sex and procreation — but we all know how many reporters would avoid including religion in the discussion.
I have mixed feelings about newspapers conducting their own polls. On on hand, it seems too easy: conduct a poll, interpret the data and you have a story. On the other hand, it allows them to quickly pounce on a story in the news that scholars might not touch for several years.
As the old saying goes, there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who think that there are only two kinds of people in the world and people who do not think that there are only two kinds of people in the world. I once shared that one-liner on one of my son’s clever high-school friends and she dryly replied: “What about the people who just don’t care?” Good point.
Every reporter has his off days. I have to think that’s what happened with this story, which ran on page 1 of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union. Written by an award-winning religion reporter, Jeff Brumley, the piece seems to take an almost personal interest in disparaging evangelicals. It’s kind of odd. Here’s the headline:
FROM: Terry Mattingly, GetReligion.orgTO: Tim Keown, c/o ESPN MagazineRE: Potential answer to Pujols question
Here is a sticky question: What is a reporter supposed to do when writing a story about a religious group that does not see itself as a denomination and strives not to use traditional (remember that word) language to describe itself and much of its work? Do you use the traditional terms and explain that the group being covered does not use them or do you use the group’s unique terms, knowing that you’ll need to translate them for readers?
