Here is an old, old story that has been bugging me for some time now, which is why it ended up in tmatt’s GetReligion Folder of Guilt.
What mainline hole in the ground?
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Packaging of the soul
One part of Michael Kinsley’s legacy at Slate is an almost predictable fondness for contrarianism. This sometimes results in a bracing departure from pack journalism, such as Kinsley’s proposal that all parties in the debate about gay marriage would best be served by removing government from the discussion entirely.
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Zen and the art of Episcopal news
Those rowdy Anglican conservatives out there are very upset that the mainstream press has not paid more attention to the election of Father Kevin Thew Forrester as the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. If you wish, click here to get a sense of just how upset they are.
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More stories about Lenten disciplines
Let’s look at a few more Ash Wednesday stories. Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette explores the meaning of Lenten discipline by focusing on a group of Presbyterians who are fasting. The story features the Rev. Elizabeth McCormick of First Presbyterian Church of Frostburg, Md., who is encouraging her congregation to fast. McCormick and her husband used to be missionaries in Sudan. She taught at a seminary in Khartoum and he was a financial adviser for the Presbyterian Church of Sudan:
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’Tis the season . . . to be penitent
Today is Ash Wednesday. In the Western Christian calendar, it is the first day of Lent. It occurs 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter and begins the most sacred part of the Christian year. It’s probably known mostly for the imposition of ashes on the forehead, a custom that aims to remind Christians of their complete sinfulness and mortality. They’re made in the sign of the cross to direct Christians to the necessity of Christ’s suffering and death for their salvation.
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Know your Lutherans
Yesterday we received a note in our story suggestion box from a pastor of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod:
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Is Rush the new Pat Robertson?
Raise your hand if you think that religious conservatives play a major role in the power structure of the Republican Party today.
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The Fairness Doctrine and religious broadcasters
Perhaps this reveals too much about my sailor-like vocabulary, but you have to like a religion story that begins with the F-word. The Tennessean religion reporter Bob Smietana began his story on the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week as follows:
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From our "too much info" department
In the immortal words of Meg Ryan in one of my all-time favorite flicks: “I have no response to that.”
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