Journalism

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Easter as Rorschach test

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The Easter Vigil, held tonight, is one of my favorite services of the church year. At my church, we gather outside, bless a new Paschal Candle, offer prayers for those who will be baptized, and proceed into the darkened sanctuary. The smell of lilies, the holding of the candle before the darkened altar, the lengthy Scripture readings. But my favorite part is when catechumens are baptized and others are confirmed or transferred into membership.


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None dare probe abortion clinics

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Once upon a time, reporters investigated the abortion industry. In 1978, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a week’s worth of stories about unsafe conditions at local clinics. Two reporters and several representatives from the Better Government Association posed undercover. The result: two clinics closed down, a doctor’s medical license was revoked, and a governor’s task force about the clinics’ practices was appointed.


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Continuing to ignore the faith factor

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Once again, the local Indianapolis media are ignoring the religious issue involved in the second Muslim being elected to Congress. A week ago relatively high voter turnout for a special congressional election propelled local city council member Andre Carson into Congress. He is facing a stiff Democratic primary battle in less than 8 weeks, and if he wins will run against the Republican nominee in the general election in November.


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Race and religion in context

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A major challenge for reporters covering Tuesday’s speech by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the subject of race in America is getting the right amount of background. Obviously there are libraries of potential context that could arguably be inserted into a newspaper’s coverage, but that’s just not practical.


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Striking the Wright balance

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I watched Barack Obama’s speech on race and religion yesterday morning. But I imagine that I was one of relatively few people to actually watch the speech in its entirety (see it here) or read the whole transcript. That means that it’s been up to the media to summarize, translate and convey meaning about the speech to a larger audience.


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Race and religious affiliation

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I finally got around to reading Lauren Collins’ profile of Michelle Obama in the March 10 New Yorker. It’s sympathetic but no puff piece — packed full of information that isn’t necessarily flattering. Obama’s stump speech includes the idea that we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents, and so on.


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A major address on religion and race

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What a campaign season this has been. It’s amazing how much religion has played a part this year — from Huckabee’s surprising win in Iowa to Mitt Romney’s big religion in America speech. And now this, as reported by Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic:


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Leaving home for the court

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If you are part of a family that homeschools its children and is religious, The New York Times is your friend Sunday morning. The newspaper’s sports section has a nice news/feature story on last week’s national homeschool basketball tournament in Oklahoma City, and for once, the story doesn’t take the “zoo approach” toward homeschooling. (As a disclaimer, my 15-year-old sister played in this basketball tournament this past week.)


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