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Between the lines of the coverage of Rick Warren’s forum with the two major presidential candidates was a rather significant development: A pastor, not a member of the media, was asking the questions and controlling the agenda of the first major presidential contest in 2008.
With the real estate on airwaves and newsprint getting harder to come by, most religion stories that get published or broadcast deal with politics or major social drama. But some of my favorite stories are the slice-of-life depictions of congregational life. Unlike the impression you may get from the media, it isn’t all about fighting over doctrinal issues . . . there are other fights, too!
Yesterday I noted the importance of the abortion issue to evangelicals at the Saddleback Forum. It’s also important to Catholics and other religious advocates of pro-life policies — not that you have to be religious to be pro-life, of course.
As the countdown continues until Saturday’s Saddleback Church “Civil Forum on the Presidency,” journalists continue to probe the ministry of Rick “Purpose Driven Pastor” Warren. To no one’s surprise, the big news kid on the preacher’s block has weighed in on his new, improved, nuanced, broader take on the Gospel.
For how sex-obsessed our culture is, it’s surprising how little we talk about the spiritual side effects of procreation and contraception. The way we view our bodies and the manner in which we approach sex are some of the most profound theological questions we face in our daily lives, and yet it doesn’t seem to make it into mainstream media much. There are exceptions of course.
As any regular GetReligion.org reader would know, we go out of our way to note the exceptionally good work that many religion reporters do on this very complex and difficult beat. A quick glance in the archives will also tell you that, more often than not, we are fans of the work of Tim Townsend of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The media run so many of those tear-jerking profiles of hardships Olympic athletes overcome that they lose their effect after a few days. But there’s at least one story that resonates deeply. Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese “Lost Boy” and a member of the anti-genocide group Team Darfur, certainly suffered more than most in his 23 years.
Most people complain about how long this campaign season has been, but I’ve loved every minute of it. The primaries, the world tour, the advertisements — I can’t get enough.
We never run out of stories to analyze here, but election years seem produce even more media coverage of religion than normal. Considering mainstream media’s trouble with getting religion, I am confident the religion beat would be doomed if not for the media’s great love of politics and the prominent role that religion plays in political fortunes.
