Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
As we’ve seen in press coverage over the past couple of months, the 50 billion dollar fraud allegedly perpetrated by financier Bernard Madoff has sparked debate and some soul-searching about Jewish identity in the Jewish community.
People in angry crowds shout all kinds of things, as anyone who has ever covered a protest rally can tell you.
Remember that truly bizarre passage in the Washington Post story about the massacre in Mumbai, the one that pondered the deep mystery of why the terrorists targeted Orthodox Jews and, well, other people who identified with the wrong world religions?
As a rule, your GetReligionistas do not write about opinion essays or even op-ed columns — unless they raise issues that are of interest to mainstream journalists who cover religion. It helps if the pieces focus on major Godbeat stories, of course.
Unlike all other Americans (give or take a few) I’m not a big fan of civil religion. I dislike the way it forces a syncretism and watering down of sacred beliefs in service to political goals. But there is a long-standing tradition of civil religion in America — invocations at political events, mentions of religious texts in inaugural speeches, veneration of Lincoln and other great politicians, interfaith events for political causes, etc. And so we will be witnessing a tremendous amount of civil religion in a few weeks when President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office to lead our country.
One of the pleasures of magazines is in an editor’s creative matching of writer and subject. When the matchmaking defies obvious choices, the results can be especially satisfying, as in Patricia Marx’s profile of two rabbis who inspect food factories in China for kosher compliance (abstract here; full article requires registration).
My great Aunt-Jennie was Jewish.As a child, I recall my parents teasing her, when a Jew became the focus of media attention: Aunt Jennie, is this good for the Jews?
It’s almost difficult to believe the size and scope of the scandal wrought by Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff. I knew the story had a religion angle because I follow the excellent work of religion reporter Brad Greenberg at the Jewish Journal‘s God Blog. I learned early on from him that Madoff is Jewish and worked with a significant number of Jewish investors and charities.
From a basketball and sports perspective, this lengthy profile in The Los Angeles Times headlined “Jewish coach, black players forged lasting bond” is a model for excellence in sports journalism. Unfortunately, the obvious religious element of the story — which the editors decided for one reason or another deserved top billing — gets little more than a few mentions in the article which runs close to 2,400 words.
