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There’s something curious about the way the media have been handling the difficult and complicated story of Rifqa Bary. She’s the Ohio teenager (pictured here) who fled to Florida after she converted to Christianity over concerns her Muslim father might kill her. We last looked at this story when CNN inexplicably referred to the girl as “Muslim” even though the whole point of this saga is that she’s not.
After Barack Obama moved into the White House he needed to find a dog and a church. The search for a dog ended in April with Bo, a Portuguese Water Dog. But whatever happened to the church search? And who would become the president’s pastor after he split with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright last spring?
When my family made the decision to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, we helped start a tiny mission in the Tennessee mountains — in Johnson City, to be precise. In the early days, Holy Resurrection Orthodox Mission included a family in with very recent roots in Egypt and its Coptic Orthodox traditions.
There are cities and regions in these here United States that, when you mention the name, certain foods instantly zoom into your mind.
Get out your party hats and reading lights. If it’s the last week of September, it’s Banned Books Week. This is the annual awareness campaign that draws attention to censorship. From the American Library Association:
Last week the man who would have been the 45th head of the continent-spanning Ottoman dynasty, founded by Osman I in 1299, died. Ertugrul Osman instead lived in a rent-controlled flat in New York City.
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.
I love following Michael Paulson’s Articles of Faith blog but one of his posts last week depressed me. He was explaining that he was at the Religion Newswriters Association 60th annual convention where travel budgets and downsizing of the religion beat meant decreased attendance. He said that when he first started covering religion for the Boston Globe nearly 10 years ago, the beat was almost trendy:
President Barack Obama will be speaking to both houses of Congress tonight about his efforts at reforming health care. It is news to no one that the five pieces of legislation currently under consideration aren’t being cheered by all Americans. In fact, while many people might agree that health care could use some reforming, they’re not agreeing about many of the particulars about how to do that.
