Mollie Hemingway

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For the love of money

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It’s always interesting to see how religion beat professionals tackle the big issues of the day. And these days, that means the economy. Recently we looked at a PBS program on the moral and religious dimensions of Wall Street problems. Steven Waldman had an item questioning whether attacks on “greed” were too simplistic. Among other things, he notes that Prosperity Gospel folks have sent some interesting messages about financial rewards from God.


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Left of the dial: campaign dispatches

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More than any other story in this campaign cycle, Democratic outreach to evangelical Christians has some serious staying power. We have been told over and over that Democrats have ramped up their outreach to religious voters and we’ve been told all about every part of that effort.


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Southern Baptists and porno mags

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What is it about the traditional Christian view of a male priesthood that causes mainstream journalists to just lose their minds? Normally I write about this topic when we’re analyzing the outsized and generally inaccurate coverage of Roman Catholic Womenpriests. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wanted to get into the act with a story on Southern Baptist opposition to female clergy.


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Sinners and winners in media coverage

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Last week, the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture hosted a panel of media professionals talking about how the media are covering religion and morality in the 2008 camapign. When I heard about the event, I was disappointed that I couldn’t attend. Thankfully there was a brief write-up of the event. Peggy Fletcher Stack, senior religion writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, condemned the treatment of Romney by the press. Don Wycliff, veteran journalist for the Chicago Tribune, remarked that sensational treatment of religion goes back to coverage of “born again” Christian Jimmy Carter:


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Is greed good?

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Even though we always have a few readers who resist it, I wish we were able to cover an even wider area of religious topics or topics that touch on religious issues than we do now. As last week’s breathtaking corporate bailout occurred, I was surprised we didn’t see any coverage of the moral or ethical issues involved.


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Wearing your Sunday best

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When my husband and I were going through premarital counseling, our pastor shared guidelines on appropriate wedding day attire. It was easy enough for us to comply with.


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Obama courts the faithful

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With the mainstream media’s obsession with Gov. Sarah Palin, they haven’t really had as much time to look at the other candidates in the race. But I wanted to look at a few stories coming out of the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. The first is a report from the Roanoke Times. The report describes a series of small Democratic rallies with religious themes:


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Why we need foreign bureaus

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Nothing makes you miss the former prevalence of overseas news bureaus like a really fantastic foreign service report. Emily Wax, who has moved from Africa to India, filed a personal but newsy account of the violence ravaging the state of Orissa.


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Of sacrifice and fatherhood

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With so much to criticize around here these last few weeks, I wanted to take a moment to highlight an absolutely wonderful story about a Virginia man who died last week. The man was deeply religious and the Washington Post managed to show that with a beautifully detailed story. Reporter Jonathan Mummolo began his piece as follows:


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