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Back in the mid-1980s, the booming world of Evangelical cable television endured a round of scandals that reporters dubbed “Pearlygate,” which kicked off with the fall of the Rev. Jim Bakker.
Michele Bachmann has certainly drawn a media spotlight in recent weeks since she announced her candidacy, as some wonder whether she’s just the media’s “flavor of the month.â We’ve talked a little bit about how the media has handled her faith with mockery or puzzlement, and it’s a bit depressing to see little serious coverage of her beliefs so far.
Before we jump headfirst into this post, let’s pause for a moment and pay tribute to that famous saying popularized by Mark Twain:
For this week’s Crossroads, host Todd Wilken and I talked about media coverage of changes in New York’s marriage laws and why the media isn’t more interested in exploring how those changes might affect religious adherents and their institutions.
The Economist, which I don’t often look to for its religion reporting, has an article this week that is rich on scene-setting descriptions and bland on substantive reporting.
Happy Canada Day to any of our Canadian readers out there. In honor of our own national holiday coming up on Monday, I dug into my guilt file and pulled out the coverage from a few weeks ago of Goshen College’s decision to stop playing the National Anthem.
The Associated Press ran a religion story about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ restatement and clarification on political neutrality toward candidates and parties. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, is Mormon. So are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, both candidates for the Republican nomination for president.
A Godbeat pro who shall remain nameless (unless he chooses to identify himself) posted this news story on his Facebook page with a tongue-in-cheek analysis:
The following post is not really about Franklin Graham and his upcoming festival targeting Latinos in the greater Los Angeles area.
