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I forget when and where it was in which, as a reporter, I heard a stunning lecture on the impact of birthrates and basic demographics on the rise and fall of religious institutions in the United States and elsewhere.
Living in Los Angeles, it has been easy to think that for the past two weeks there has been no news but Michael Jackson news. The King of Pop has reigned supreme over nightly newscasts and Internet rumors and A1 centerpieces. So I was more than a bit surprised to survey other major West Coast newspapers last night and find that most didn’t even bother sending a reporter to the Staples Center to cover Jackson’s larger-than-life memorial service.
Associated Press music writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody praised the “poignant and serene” memorial service for Michael Jackson:
It’s not a surprise, but Nashville police today classified the deaths of former NFL MVP Steve McNair and Sahel Kazemi as a murder-suicide, with Kazemi killing McNair because she suspected he was having an affair with another woman — no, not his wife — and then turning the gun she had just bought on herself.
Before we launch into Pope Benedict XVI’s views on Michael Jackson, no, wait, the state of the global economy, I would like to note an interesting GetReligion-esque riff by the omnipresent “Diogenes” over at Off the Record blog at the conservative Catholic World News.
I came so close to being able to avoid the Michael Jackson worship service held at the Staples Center. But I caught a few minutes while feeding the world’s hungriest baby. (Seriously, I think I gave birth to Otesanek.) I caught the “We Are The World” group sing and a couple of teary eulogies.
Independence Day weekend might not be the best time for a major story to get its due. Case in point is this fascinating New York Times story about Iranian clerics defying Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the rigged presidential election there.
There has been no shortage of news stories about the anticipated religious overtones of Michael Jackson’s funeral later today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (The New York Daily News reported yesterday that the family had stalemated on what religion meant most to MJ, so the service would be God free.)
