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It’s been two months since Haiti was rocked by a catastrophic earthquake, and the American attention span for this humanitarian crisis is clearly waning. That’s why it’s good we have media outlets constantly reminding us that Haiti’s problems are still ever present.
Sometimes, it’s amazing to see how far people will go to downplay the obvious role that religion plays in many parts of the world, for better and for worse.
Back in December, I had some passing words of praise for Matt Labash. I will make the obligatory disclosure that I’m friendly with him, but I don’t think that in any biases me when I say he’s easily one of the best magazine writers in the country. Just go ahead buy the recently released collection of his work and thank me later.
Earlier in the week I linked to the Washington Post story headlined “‘God gap’ impedes U.S. foreign policy, task force says.” Some readers will be delighted to see that it’s bylined by Godbeat fave David Waters. Here’s the lede:
Earlier this week in Haiti, a group of Christians ran a group of Vodou followers away from a pavilion where they were trying to conjure spirits as part of a memorial service to honor their deceased brethren. The Christians pelted the worshipers with rocks and accused the Vodou followers of being responsible for dangerous aftershocks that had hit Haiti since the devastating earthquake a month ago.
If you’ve heard about the exclusive story that will be in tomorrow’s Haaretz’s Weekend Magazine, the news that for more than a decade a Hamas founder’s son served as a spy to Israel’s security agency, then you’ve almost certainly heard a component of the story that’s two obvious for the media to miss. In fact, this element of the story was its own story — and a good story at that — in 2008.
I’ve long been fascinated by the “new evidence” stories. These are the sensationalized religion stories about how, you know, Jesus walked on an ice floe (not water), that he wasn’t crucified in the manner in which people think, that Jesus’ father was a Roman soldier . . . named Pantera, and so on.
From the very first days of this weblog’s existence, and up to the recent past, your GetReligionistas have been asking mainstream journalists to meditate on the following passage found in the Associated Press Stylebook:
I am not an expert on Turkey and I know that. However, I have been to Istanbul twice and, on one occasion, had a chance to talk to some pretty well informed people — Muslims and Christians — about the situation there.
