Back when I worked in retail management, secret shoppers were the bane of our existence. The corporation would hire people to come in and rate our service, orderliness, appearance, etc. You never knew when they were coming and their results seemed to vary wildly. You’d be praised on a day when you knew you and your team weren’t giving their best and rated viciously on another day when you were slammed and keeping everything going despite numerous obstacles.
Sympathy and controversy
Remember the Episcopal priest who became a Muslim? We discussed coverage of her story here and here last year.
Good without God
Given all the coverage of the New Atheist movement, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more religion beat stories on average atheists. Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote a story about local atheists and freethinkers a few weeks ago that has been getting republished throughout the country. It begins with an anecdote about a woman who experienced a feeling of euphoria when she became an atheist a few years ago:
Deciding when to forgive
Whenever really dramatic news breaks, I wish I could see how the future will play out for the various parties. But reporters rarely write about the ongoing lives of people who made news in the past.
Why are they reading the Bible?
So there are literally hundreds of stories out there about Pope Benedict XVI launching a marathon Bible reading this week. And the vast majority have the Who (The Pope), the What (marathon Bible reading session), the Where (the Vatican) and the When (right now). This Agence France-Presse story is representative. This Telegraph story was a bit better, but just touched on it.
Exiting the thriving evangelical pews?
If you’ve been following our coverage of the debates about Gov. Sarah Palin and her faith, you know that many people do not know what label to stick on her. Is she a “fundamentalist”? Is she a “Pentecostal” Christian? A “charismatic”? An off-the-rack, nondenominational, evangelical Protestant?
Praying about the economy
Many GetReligion readers have been anxious for more religion stories that deal with the economic crisis.
Mortgaging souls
Time‘s headline of “Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess” does an injustice to David Van Biema’s brief and informative update on prosperity theology’s march through the contemporary church.
Is yoga a religious discipline?
Of the many mailing lists I’m on, the Hindu American Foundation‘s is one of the more interesting. An advocacy group, they send out regular emails with news stories relating to Hinduism.
