Godbeat

The evolution of a story

It’s a good thing I have been following the Proposition 8 battle because if I hadn’t, there is no way I would have understood this Los Angeles Times story at all. It’s about a protest organized by opponents of the Proposition 8, the initiative that passed Tuesday amending the California Constitution to define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman. While a non-constitutional ballot initiative saying the same thing passed with an even greater margin 8 years ago, the state supreme court had ruled that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Anyway, this initiative — already in the works before the June ruling — passed and there have been various protests around the state.


Please respect our Commenting Policy

Define "evangelical" (or lose your mind)

As any regular reader knows, your GetReligionistas are rather picky when it comes to how journalists use the imperfect words that describe various religious groups in American and around the world. There’s that “fundamentalist” clause in the Associated Press Stylebook, for starters. We are not postmodern journalists. Maybe it’s the religious history major in me.


Please respect our Commenting Policy

Writing the next chapter

Another chapter in the story of President-elect Barack Obama was written last night, and snippets are emerging about that section regarding the role faith played in that chapter. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has already updated their “Religious Biography” of Obama.


Please respect our Commenting Policy

Three is a trend

Yesterday, I made a quick reference to a religion story that has not dominated campaign coverage, to the say the least. That story is Roman Catholic bishops speaking out in defense of their church’s teaching in response to statements from pro-choice Catholic politicians and in response to statements from pro-choice candidates in general. Now there have been articles, most notably after the comments made by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Joe Biden. But I had no idea just how widespread the phenomenon was.


Please respect our Commenting Policy

The biggest loser

Usually I groan when I come across an Associated Press piece marked “analysis.” I like my AP reporters to report, not analyze. But in a year like this, when reporters have dropped most pretense of reporting in favor of overtly playing politics, it’s actually kind of a breath of fresh air to have something clearly identified as analysis. On this note, if media outlets’ horribly misnamed “fact checks” could go the way of the Dodo bird, I’d be most happy.


Please respect our Commenting Policy