Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Let’s gather ’round the TV as we celebrate one of America’s biggest holidays, Super Bowl Sunday. And if the game’s a dud we can laugh at the commercials, many of which feature beer and babes.
Christians at Christian institutions love to pontificate over how Christian the Christian institution should remain. That appears to be the case over at Northwestern College in Minnesota where a debate over its identity persists.
So far, nothing I have seen coming out of Haiti has changed my mind about how journalists should approach the basic “theodicy” story.
On December 1, 2009, CBA (which was formerly called the Christian Booksellers Association, back when Christian bookstores sold more books than gifts and other merchandise) asked the Department of Justice to investigate alleged predatory pricing by big-box stores and online retailers that threatens the very existence of the nation’s dwindling number of Christian retailing outlets.
Year after year, America’s cultural conservatives say the same thing after the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Trust me, I am aware that the Eastern Orthodox Churches have some rites that are unique and, to the eyes of outsiders, may seem a bit on the wild side.
On Thursday, a flight from La Guardia was diverted after a bomb scare. One of the passengers, a Jewish teenager, was doing his morning prayers and it alarmed the flight attendant. Not because of the prayers, per se, but because of the tefillin he was using. Based on passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy, Orthodox Jews use two small square boxes with straps attached to them and place on on the head and tie the other to the arm. Inside the boxes are parchment with Scripture.
As anyone knows who has read GetReligion for more than a day or two, the purpose of this weblog is — through positive and negative criticism — to lobby for improved coverage of religion news in the mainstream press. We like to argue that many major stories are haunted by “religion ghosts” that professionals need to learn to recognize and to include in stories throughout the newspaper, not just on the religion beat or on the religion page.
Want to start your day with a real tearjerker (the good kind)? Take a few minutes to read this story by the Washington Post about a Maryland pastor whose family was stranded in Haiti after the earthquake. Yes, it’s five pages long, but hit the “print” button so you can read the whole thing lest I be accused of plagiarism for posting too much of it here.
