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Six of 17 chaplains Virginia State Police chaplains have resigned because of new restrictions on prayer. The state police superintendent ordered them to offer only non-denominational prayers at public events. All stories about movement on First Amendment protections are big and the Washington-area papers made sure to cover it.
It’s always interesting to see how religion beat professionals tackle the big issues of the day. And these days, that means the economy. Recently we looked at a PBS program on the moral and religious dimensions of Wall Street problems. Steven Waldman had an item questioning whether attacks on “greed” were too simplistic. Among other things, he notes that Prosperity Gospel folks have sent some interesting messages about financial rewards from God.
More than any other story in this campaign cycle, Democratic outreach to evangelical Christians has some serious staying power. We have been told over and over that Democrats have ramped up their outreach to religious voters and we’ve been told all about every part of that effort.
As I mentioned the other day, it was great getting to spend part of Saturday hanging out at the Religion Newswriters Association meetings here in Washington, D.C.
Last week, the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture hosted a panel of media professionals talking about how the media are covering religion and morality in the 2008 camapign. When I heard about the event, I was disappointed that I couldn’t attend. Thankfully there was a brief write-up of the event. Peggy Fletcher Stack, senior religion writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, condemned the treatment of Romney by the press. Don Wycliff, veteran journalist for the Chicago Tribune, remarked that sensational treatment of religion goes back to coverage of “born again” Christian Jimmy Carter:
Even though we always have a few readers who resist it, I wish we were able to cover an even wider area of religious topics or topics that touch on religious issues than we do now. As last week’s breathtaking corporate bailout occurred, I was surprised we didn’t see any coverage of the moral or ethical issues involved.
I spent part of my day in Washington, D.C., at the annual convention of the Religion Newswriters Association. The topic? What in the world is going on with blogging?
When my husband and I were going through premarital counseling, our pastor shared guidelines on appropriate wedding day attire. It was easy enough for us to comply with.
