Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero asked his Twitter followers this week if atheism was a religion and whether it should be protected under the First Amendment clauses dealing with legal protection. I thought of those questions when coming across coverage of how the founder of the Jedi Church was treated at the Tesco supermarket.
I thought I would share a chunk of my Scripps Howard News Service column for this week — filed on the fly while dashing all over greater Los Angeles — because it grew directly out of posts and comments here at GetReligion.
I’ve been following the news about the disruption of an alleged terror plot with some interest. Two of the accused — Najibullah Zazi and his father Mohammed Wali Zazi — hail from my native state of Colorado. The news of the plot broke shortly after the eighth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. I had a hunch that there was a religion angle to the story but it was left completely unexplored by many of the reports I was reading.
It looks like we are going to need our own Anglican-esque “Lutheran wars” logo for use with future posts about the battles in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the wake of its trailblazing stand in favor of the ordination of gays and lesbians living in committed, lifelong, monogamous same-sex relationships.
About eight years ago I went with a group of congregants in a previous church to partner in work for a week with a West Virginia congregation down near Kentucky in the “hollers”. I don’t eat meat, so I was eager to get to a grocery store and buy some lettuce and other vegetables to supplement the carb-heavy fare at the church.
It died down a bit in recent years but remember the so-called War on Christmas? That’s where various elements in the culture try to secularize or otherwise diminish the sacredness of the season leading up to Christmas. I myself like to talk of the War on Advent (the actual season that precedes Christmas Day) as well as the wars on various other liturgical seasons and festivals. And what about the Jewish liturgical calendar? How much do we read in the mainstream media about the meaning and significance of Jewish holy days?
Here is another look into the church-state future, another case of a classic liberal value from the past clashing with a powerful liberal value from the modern world.
The Associated Press had a fascinating look Dave Ramsey, a finance guru. What’s the religion angle? Well, apparently one of his major markets is Christian churches. And he mixes Christian teachings with his message of living debt free and saving money. Jay Reeves penned the piece which is full of information, particularly for an AP piece. Here’s how it begins:
