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You may recall a recent post by Bobby Ross Jr., about a press release that the Associated Press published about the Claremont School of Theology’s plan to start providing theological education for Muslim imams and Jewish rabbis, as well as clergy for United Methodist and other liberal mainline Protestant congregations.
Happy Independence Day! On Friday, we looked at the 4,000-word New York Times attack against Pope Benedict XVI. Much of the story was a good exploration of the complexity of Vatican canon law that contributed to difficulties in quickly resolving some of the sex abuse crisis. But much of it — including the first breathless paragraphs — was blatant editorializing against Benedict without substantiation. I came out strong against it because it was a deeply unfair piece that argued against where its own reporting led. I thought it would be interesting to review how the piece was being received in other quarters.
I must confess that my first post about the Beliefnet.com sale, which included information on the conservative roots of the buyers, ended with a gentle note of snark.
As you would expect, your GetReligionistas have been getting quite a bit of email asking what we think of the sale of Beliefnet.com by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Folks are especially interested in the semi-mysterious buyers.
The New York Times has published yet another massive (4,000 words this time) hit piece on Pope Benedict XVI.
Salt-and-pepper hair. Western-style mustache. Cowboy hat. Thomas Mitchell looks like my kind of editor.
As Bobby “Bible Belt” Ross Jr. noted the other day, this summer’s meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention did all kinds of interesting stuff. I choose to write about the Gulf of Mexico resolution for Scripps Howard, but, frankly, the divorce resolution was just as interesting and I still hope to dig into that one. It is rare to see conservative believers (or liberal believers, for that matter) point the finger of judgment at themselves.
There was something that confused me about this Associated Press story “Pope to create new office to fight secularization.” It’s by no means an in-depth story — just a quick wire report on some business that came out of Vatican City this week. But check out this lede and supporting paragraphs:
