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Last week I mentioned that I’d been the unlucky recipient of an intimate encounter with a TSA agent. As many more Americans have undergone the “how’s your father” with the agents, stories have been getting out about Americans wondering how much of this is security versus security theater. Here’s one mom’s story. Here’s Penn Jillette’s account.
For the past day or so, I have been reading the coverage of the somewhat surprising election of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. At this point, I have to admit that I am confused about the various labels that I am reading.
I’m the first to pounce on stories making fun of people advocating abstinence before marriage. And there have been many examples of such stories over the years. So I had to highlight — and praise — this Washington Post article that looks at the nuptials of one couple that abstained from premarital relations.
It’s not from the Los Angeles Times’ religion reporter, but the paper has here a well-done story heavy on religious themes.
OK, this is going to be a story that is buried in online debate about the labeling of the different candidates, including the winner, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.
A few years ago, Newsweek‘s Lisa Miller attempted to argue that the Bible didn’t really have much to say on marriage, except that it should include same-sex partnerships. In the first paragraph of the theologically illiterate and snark-infested piece, she asked “Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple–who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love–turn to the Bible as a how-to script?”
As you would expect, I spend a very high percentage of my time surrounded by religious believers of various kinds — especially academic leaders from the middle of the evangelical Protestant world (and Eastern Orthodox folks from my own parish).
Last week I highlighted some of the coverage of the jury that deliberated the death penalty for convicted murderer Steven Hayes. Many media reports did a good job quoting the jurors and affected family members even when those quotes included religious language.
Once again, a major mainstream news organization has decided to report on the fine folks of Oklahoma voting to ban Sharia law in my home state.
