Godbeat

Whispering with Rocco Palmo

We usually examine mainstream media reporting here, but we also have our eyes set on non-mainstream sites that cover religion. Earlier this month, tmatt highlighted a piece from the Baltimore Sun on Rocco Palmo who runs Whispers in the Loggia, which regularly scoops mainstream press.


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Mass confusion in Phoenix 2.0

It seems that the recent Arizona Republic news feature about Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s decision to require priests in his diocese to stop offering consecrated wine to the laity during most Masses stirred up so much debate that the newspaper decided to produce a sequel.


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Glowing Richard Dawkins in NYTs?

Writing a provocative, timely, compelling profile is tough. How do you write a profile without becoming enamored with the successful book sales, the dynamic speeches or the captivated audiences? You want to describe and elaborate on why an individual is so successful or effective in his or her work, so it’s difficult to remain completely objective.


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Ghosts in the sexy air our kids breathe

I recently wrote a Scripps Howard News Service column that I thought was a bit of a stretch, in terms of the religion beat. Still, I had heard my share of emotional discussions about the issue that I knew there was some strange kind of fire underneath the smoke.


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And the Religion Newswriters Association award goes to ...

Who cares about the Emmy Awards ceremony that was held on Sunday? What really matters are the latest award winners from the Religion Newswriters Association. The group’s 62nd (!) annual conference was held last week. I followed as many tweeting religion writers as I could and it sounded awesome, particularly the panel discussion and the karaoke.


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Witnessing prayer on Texas' death row

Last night, the Supreme Court halted the execution of a man convicted of killing two people in Texas 16 years ago. There’s no dispute about his guilt but his lawyers contend that the sentence itself was unfair because of a racial question asked during his sentencing trial.


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