Part of me is hoping we get a good sex scandal next week so we can move off of all-Park51-coverage all the time. On the other hand, now is not a bad time to be on the Godbeat, eh? We have all the excitement right now. There are great opportunities for all sorts of angles. Paul Vitello at the New York Times simply asked a bunch of different New York City Muslims how they feel about the controversy. The result was very well-executed and really fascinating. It’s not heavy on religion so much as accommodation and compromise, but I actually think that’s a better way to handle those very important issues.
Did bloggers cause Cordoba mosque controversy?
The two-thirds of Americans who oppose the Cordoba House might argue that theirs is a fairly understandable reaction against an ill-advised project. Some, such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, say that their opposition is part of a concerted effort that needs to be investigated.
Drop the preconceptions already (UPDATED)
Of all the ridiculous things written about the controversy over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, one has stood out for me. A couple of weeks ago Salon‘s Justin Elliott asked Why did no one object to the “Pentagon mosque“? He said that “right-wingers have been strangely silent” about Muslims praying in the Pentagon and having their own Muslim chaplain.
Hindu-esque Orthodox Christian commuters?
It’s amazing how much information can be packed into a 950-word newspaper story — and how much can be assumed and left unsaid.
Pastoring no plush gig
No one can make you feel guilty like a pastor. Or in this case a New York Times story about pastoral burnout that I’ve been meaning to write about for two weeks:
The history of Cordoba
We’ve had an interesting conversation going on in a recent comment thread about how the media cover Islam and Christianity. Some people have speculated that political correctness or moral relativism harms some media coverage. I wonder if it might just be some problems with history. A GetReligion reader sent in this CNN article cheerily headlined “Muslims in Spain campaign to worship alongside Christians.”
And now for the rest of the story
Louisville Courier-Journal religion writer Peter Smith always does a nice job of covering national stories at the local level or showing the broader significance of local stories. For years he has covered the lawsuit against the Vatican (we’ve discussed NPR coverage here) by a once-local man who said he was sexually abused by a Louisville priest in 1928.
The couple that pastors together
When I have time, I browse the Newseum’s front-page images from major newspapers across the nation. It’s interesting to see how different papers play various stories, and from time to time, I run across stories that make perfect GetReligion fodder.
Got news? Baptist cuts in Texas
Anyone who has lived in Texas knows that there are times when it seems that there are more Baptists inside the Lone Star state then there are people. When it comes to politics, separation of Baptists and state remains a vital issue.
