You really can’t write about major league baseball player Josh Hamilton without focusing on the faith aspect of his story. Even the reporters writing about him admit this in their articles.
Define "cult" -- give three examples
Long ago, during my days in the Church-State Studies program at Baylor University, I took a course on contemporary religious movements and “cults.”
New monks are revolutionaries?
Stephanie Simon of The Los Angeles Times scored a coup: She interviewed young evangelicals who left their previous lives to live as monastics. Her story was rich with detail and nuance. But I wonder if she missed a major story.Simon introduced readers to five young adults, plus their children, who left their comfortable suburban homes for a spartan, communal one. As you may imagine, Simon described in great detail the travails and triumphs of such a radical life change. Here is how she depicted the decision by one of the families, the Porrett’s, to leave the house:
Church of the Jedi has a new hope
The force is growing in North Wales. What started as something of an Internet joke has grown into something more significant and concrete as a group of Jedi-loving residents of Holyhead are taking their 2001 census statements seriously that their religion is Jedi.
Journalists mirror red/blue divide
Every couple of years, journalists and pundits proclaim the death of the red-state/blue-state divide in American politics.
Pew vote fading for GOP (redux)
Those who watched the Republican debate Thursday night might have noticed the lack of religious content. The debate was about the economy for the most part. The economic downturn is what is on everyone’s mind this week, and it could end up being the primary issue this election season.
Scandal in St. Louis, again
I wonder exactly how many reporters the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will use to cover the Rick Majerus story.
Do pews prefer Obama or the Clintons?
The big, hot, all-consuming story these days inside the Beltway is the war of words between Barack Obama and Bill and-or Hillary Clinton. Things are getting really rough out there and, frankly, this is to be expected when one of the candidates — that would be Clinton — has such a high negative rating with the public. Close races cause heat.
A scream inside public-radio world (updated)
There are many, many quotable passages in that famous letter by New York Times editor Bill Keller, in which he responded to a blue-ribbon panel that produced a study document entitled “Preserving Our Readers’ Trust.”
