Back in the early 1990s, I wrote a column about the “Scopes II” conflict in east Tennessee between public educators and conservative Christians.
Generic fundamentalists attack church-state wall!
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In case of rapture, this blog will be unmanned
A pastor friend of mine passed along a truly horrible story by Reuters’ Andrea Hopkins. The premise is that “moderate” Christians are fighting “fundamentalist” Christians with regard to the rapture. The article is poorly written in a journalistic sense: it’s one-dimensional, doesn’t grasp scope of the issue and is layered with opinion.
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Newsweek's error of biblical proportions
I had one of those days today that took no prisoners. Somebody must have drawn a line in the sand at some point, and I stepped over it without knowing what I was doing. Texans and John Wayne fans will get that reference.
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Andrew Sullivan's scary bedtime stories
Like any journalist who has worked for an opinion journal, Andrew Sullivan is entitled to some favorite themes. One of his favorites for the past few years is the insidious threat of what he calls Christianism, or theoconservatism. In his 7,400-word New Republic takedown of Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, that theme is so prevalent that it calls to mind one of those outrageously large American flags favored by car dealerships (at least in the Deep South), popping defiantly in the wind.
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Big cats will keep fighting over e-word
By now, it should be pretty clear that the word “evangelical” is so vague that it is almost meaningless — unless a careful reporter places it in context and gives the reader some clue as to its application in a particular story.
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Bible Girl enters a Pentecostal firestorm
The story is ugly and lurid, packed with the kinds of details that are almost impossible to include in mainstream news coverage.
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What's 33 years between friends?
I suspect I’m not alone in being weary of Ted Haggard media coverage. But I thought I might mention another recent piece because so many readers sent it in and because it points to a few larger sins in journalism.
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When geoscientists attack
Once upon a time, I thought I wanted to become an economics professor. This delusion lasted from early high school until I took enough postgraduate classes to be convinced otherwise. I loved my field of study and I had fantastic professors. One way in which they were helpful was to counsel me to keep my private views on everything from monetary theory to the Coase Conjecture hidden.
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The Safety Dance
So if it’s Monday, that must mean I write about something from The New York Times Sunday Magazine. And so I will. Mark Oppenheimer used the hook of a nondenominational university in Arkansas permitting dance for the first time as a way to explore some Christians’ view of dancing. The piece is ridiculously smooth and well-written and looks at the issue from a number of angles.
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