A long, long time ago — a quarter century, to be precise — I was a copy editor and rock columnist at a daily newspaper in Central Illinois. Careerwise, what I wanted to do was write about religion, which was one reason I had studied the history of religion in America as well as journalism at Baylor University and then did a master’s degree in church-state studies, which combined theology, political science, history and some law.

Since the purpose of this blog is to look at mainstream coverage of religion news, you would think we would spend quite a bit of time dissecting the coverage of mainstream print’s only wire service dedicated to covering religion. Makes sense, right? That would be the Religion News Service, or RNS, now operated by Newhouse.

When I first received a forward of this story, I thought for a second that it might be an urban legend. But no, it does seem to have been posted by the Associated Press. I have not seen it in any Florida media, however, and that surprises me. Rather than critique this simple story, let’s just read the heart of it.