One of the first things that your GetReligionistas do when preparing a post in our WordPress software is to head over to the “Categories” function box and click all of the relevant choices for how we want this item stored in our archives. It’s a far from perfect process that keeps raising questions. For example, “Are Pentecostals really evangelicals?” Or how about, “OK, I know that Jordan is in the Middle East. But how about Iraq and Iran? How close is close enough? Do I really need to create ANOTHER new category?”
The missing 'places of Jewish worship'
A lot more details have come to light as the international probe into a terror threat emanating from Yemen has widened. But some details should have been much clearer from the start.
Ghouls and Goblins and Sundays
That’s my precious little cheeseburger pictured here. I also have the cutest little baby bat you’ve ever seen. We are enjoying Halloween and have been practicing our “Trick or Treat//Does that have nuts in it?//Thank you!” lines for weeks. But I have been having some scheduling issues with another holiday that falls on Oct. 31: Reformation Day.
Symbolic details behind the Metro story
I was on the Washington, D.C., Metro today (my normal commute is by rail from Baltimore) and, as you would imagine, things were a bit tense. Maybe I am wrong, but I think there was more security out than normal.
Islamophobia vs. bad journalism
Here in the nutty, right-wing, Bible Belt state of Oklahoma, we go to the polls Tuesday to cast our ballots and, hopefully, stop the incessant radio and TV commercials from those who are sneaking in our borders and accosting our way of life. I am talking, of course, about the politicians. Seriously, folks, I am willing to give my vote to the first candidate to shut up for a full five minutes.
Teasing out terror ties
News broke this week that Farooque Ahmed had been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to bomb Metro stations here in Washington, D.C. The first draft of the story I read didn’t mention anything about religion but the mentioned ties to al-Qaeda and Pakistan suggested it might become a part of the story. When the breaking news story was updated by the Washington Post, we got:
Pontificating on immigration
We’ve had an interesting discussion after a post yesterday about an article on a group that monitors Muslim extremism. One of the last commenters, Irenicum, had a few interesting parts, such as noting how often “we’re stuck in a false dichotomy of ‘every Muslim is a potential terrorist’ to ‘there is no radical Islam.’” His last line, though, made me think of another news story:
Religious voices: Beck, Colbert & Leibowitz
This morning, I received my annual email from The Jewish Daily Forward, announcing the “Forward 50,” the newspaper’s list of the year’s 50 women and men who have made a “significant impact on the Jewish story in the past year.”
Juan gets cut off short -- again
So Juan Williams gave a lecture — on the legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall — at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he received a standing ovation from a pack of lawyers from Baltimore. That, my friends, is not a Fox News crowd.

