Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
If everyone reading this GetReligion post could be very quiet, we’re going to explore a New York Times feature on Ghanaian immigrant funerals in the Big Apple. I ask you to pipe it down because the Ghanaians are partying like it’s — well, like someone is dead — and we sure wouldn’t want to interrupt the dancing, laughing and drinking with something so benign as discussion of spirituality and/or religion.
Even though I’m the mother of two young girls, I’m not worried about them getting caught up in the whole princess complex. My husband is some kind of anti-royalist so he keeps any princess talk in check. Last time the girls tried to dress up as princesses, my husband gave them a lecture on Constitutional governance.
Sadly, it isn’t unusual to open up a copy of The Baltimore Sun and find a story about clergy sexual abuse. Our town isn’t that far from Philadelphia, after all.
Call me shallow, but I click on a story headlined “La Salle suspends professor who hired dancers.” Yeah, those kind of dancers. The Philly Inquirer reports:
Wedding bells can be found in Ben Roethlisberger’s future, but cohabitation will have to wait. The Pittsburgh Steeler’s quarterback revealed some of the nuptial plans to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but buried at the bottom of the story readers will find an interesting nugget with no details or explanation.
Right up front, let me note that voodoo simply has to be one of the most confusing, complex and loaded subjects in the wide, wide, wide world of religion news.
Granted, the piece I am about to critique is more stenography than journalism. Read: a reporter goes to a staged news event, soaks up one side’s point of view and spits it out on newsprint as the gospel truth.
Last month, I highlighted media coverage of campaigns to get worshipers to confession. I needled the Miami Archdiocese a bit for using Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C Major to accompany their television advertisement. Johann Sebastian Bach is my favorite Lutheran composer, in a very crowded field. I was surprised that a couple of commenters didn’t know he was Lutheran, on account of how well regarded he is as a musician, composer and theologian.
