That’s my first response to the reader who contacted GetReligion concerning a CBS News report on the Joplin, Mo., tornado relief effort:
WHO are these good Samaritans?
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When the government dictates prayer
I’m not much for displays of civil religion but there’s one recent governmental intervention that really chaps my hide. That’s where the government requires citizens to submit prayers for governmental approval before they’re uttered.
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Study: non-Christians' brains atrophy
The other day we looked at the way the media handled a study that showed that Protestants who don’t identify a “born-again” experience had less hippocampal atrophy than Catholics, non-believers and those who do claim a “born-again” experience. I noted that all the headlines I could find highlighted that “born-again” Christians had “smaller brains.”
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Study: nonbelievers have small brains
OK, so Religion News Service has a provocative story on a provocative study that I’ve seen in a few papers. But the headlines that are running with the story are curious, to say the least.
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Averted apocalypse, media meltdown
Item 1: A journalist sent me a link to the clip of the Good Morning America show embedded here. Right at the beginning of this scene from a recent episode, the host asserts “A lot of Christians believe today is judgment day.”
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Define 'evangelical,' yet again
Sorry ’bout this, but it’s time for another picky post on religion-beat linguistics. But first, a question about one of the biggest and most important religion trends of the late 20th century.
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What. She. Said. (post-apocalypse)
Which is amazing if you stop and think about all of the important religious events and trends that made it into the headlines this week.
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Rapture of Harold Camping's claims?
So it’s after 6 p.m. and as far as I can tell, most of us are still here. [Insert joke about how funny that is.]
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Pod people: raptures, McGreevey & Osama
For this week’s Crossroads podcast, we talked a bit about media coverage of the group claiming the rapture is looming, as well as that surprisingly sad story about former governor Jim McGreevey and the abominable coverage of a Mass intention for Osama bin Laden. Host Todd Wilken threw me by asking for my thoughts about Matt Drudge. I defended news aggregators but cautioned that news consumers must be more cautious and skeptical while reading links.
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