Okay, not a real beat farmer — but Rainn Wilson, the actor who plays the wonderful Dwight Schrute on “The Office,” had an interesting op-ed on CNN.com. It begins with Wilson explaining that he’s not joking, and then he provides an introduction to Baha’i. He says that Baha’i began in Iran in the mid-19th century and that Baha’is believe there is only one God and one religion. All the world’s divine teachers bring the same message and Baha’u'llah refreshed it for the current day and age, he says. He talks about the historic persecution of Baha’is by Muslim authorities in Iran. And then he gets to the newsier part:
Getting to the point a bit too quickly
A reader pointed us to a curious interview that runs in the upcoming Newsweek. Newsweek is, of course, the magazine that used to be a weekly about news (thus, one assumes, the name) but is currently attempting to complete a transformation into a liberal opinion magazine. Or is it?
Out of orders
My Saudi Valentine
I wondered whether we’d end up looking at any Valentine’s Day stories here at GetReligion. While rooted in Christian history, the day is not featured on the actual liturgical calendar. But the most interesting mention of Valentine’s Day came in a story about how the king of Saudi Arabia shook up the religious establishment there.
Limiting speech in the U.K.
News coverage in this country tends to focus almost exclusively on American happenings. A review of the Religion Newswriters Association’s top 10 stories from 2008 confirms this.
The Fairness Doctrine and religious broadcasters
Perhaps this reveals too much about my sailor-like vocabulary, but you have to like a religion story that begins with the F-word. The Tennessean religion reporter Bob Smietana began his story on the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week as follows:
A faith dispute goes public
The Akron Beacon Journal published quite a story Sunday that touches on issues with which many families struggle, but so rarely do they spill out into the public square. In this case, a family’s personal controversy over the child’s decision to join a non-denominational Christian group known as the Xenos Christian Fellowship created a story that the newspaper could not ignore.
The media get religion . . . literally?
The aim of this web site is to help media professionals “get religion.” Well, journalism professor Stephen Bates, writing in Slate, also thinks media professionals need to get religion. But he means something else entirely.
Indulgences sell newspapers?
Too frequently in print journalism, headline-induced spin ruins an otherwise solid news article. Such seems to be the case in this New York Times article on the alleged “return” of indulgences.
