So we’ve been chronicling a few of the problems with the media coverage of President Obama’s mandate that requires employers, including religious organizations, to purchase insurance that covers contraception, abortifacients and sterilization, even if one or more of those things violate their religious beliefs. Our January posts on the matter are here and here. Our February posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The March posts are here, here, here and here.
Crystal Cathedral: Empty pews, hollow story
Once again, we the people who care about religion news are seeing another sad round of thin mainstream press stories about the decline and fall of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his family’s megachurch monument — the Crystal Cathedral.
What LDS baptism for the dead is and isn't
In my guilt files are several stories about the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead. Many stories have just done an inadequate job of explaining this doctrine and practice of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Pod people: The world is not doomed
The other day I mentioned that reader Jerry submitted a story about Harold Camping repenting of his false predictions of the rapture and end of the world. We wondered how much coverage of the repentance we’d see relative to last year’s significant coverage. While the repentance won’t make it onto a list of top ten news stories for 2012, it actually has received some coverage.
IVF after Death
Bottle of mine, it’s you I’ve always wanted!Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted?  Skies are blue inside of you,  The weather’s always fine;For … There ain’t no Bottle in all the worldLike that dear little Bottle of mine.
The sins of Harold Camping
Vague spiritual connection aids drug recovery
It’s no surprise people seek some sort of higher power when overcoming an addiction, whether it looks like meditation, prayer or other rituals that help the process.
No such thing as free contraception
At a meeting of a few dozen female writers and editors yesterday, we got talking about civil society and the corrosive nature of politics. An editor I respect a great deal tried to calm things down by reminding us that the political climate isn’t necessarily more hostile than it was in the late 1960s (she told us that she saw targets for sale then wixth President Johnson’s face on them). But, she added, she was appalled by what she called the “deliberate misrepresentation” by the media. She was referring, of course, to the coverage of the HHS mandate requiring religious employers to provide insurance plans that cover abortifacients, sterilization and contraception, even if it violates the doctrines of their church.
The voiceless disappearing flock
Just last week, I praised a Washington Post story that â in a fair, respectful way â managed to personalize black ministers who (a) fought for racial equality and (b) oppose same-sex marriage.
