Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Here is some exciting news. The professionals at the Religion Newswriters Association — the informal guild of people who cover the religion beat — have landed some scholarship money for people who want to learn more about this highly complex beat.
Last time I checked, the Southern Baptist Convention was still the second-largest Christian body in North America, after the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, I would assume that this 16-something-million flock considering a massive change in its name and identity just MIGHT deserve a story in a few major newspapers.
Imagine the better sense of goodwill that might now extend to The Passion of the Christ if Mel Gibson had talked even two hours per week in recent months with print journalists who know how to ask thoughtful questions. Diane Sawyer did about as well as one might hope for from a TV celebrity who’s famous for lobbing softball questions to people who are famous for being famous — or, in the case of Gibson, asking skeptical but poorly formed questions in an effort at being a tough interviewer.
As I stated early on, Doug and I will try not to turn this into a blog about “The Passion of the Christ” in the next few days. However, this whole blogging thing has me curious about what interests readers and what does not.
It’s hard not to think of Dr. James Davison Hunter when reading the Los Angeles Times Magazine’s lengthy piece on Catholic traditionalists. Hunter is the sociologist who wrote “Culture Wars,” an influential book a decade or so ago that claimed to have found the dividing line in America’s moral and religious battles over sex and salvation and lots of other things.
There is much to recommend in the “Who Really Killed Jesus?” cover story in the Feb. 16 Newsweek. It contains a wealth of information and weaves together the major themes in this media storm.
Readers will have noted several references in our work to another site on the Godbeat beat — The Revealer — which is based over in the J-school at New York University. (I say over at NYU because I live in Palm Beach County, the virtual Sixth Borough).
And this just in: a particularly interesting comment from a veteran out there in mainstream-journalism-land. He-she-it wishes to remain “noname” for obvious reasons.
