So, what’s the story about religious voters in the 2008 election? Well, it depends on who you’re talking to.
John Green is our man
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Living on the wedge
Hearty congratulations to supporters of President-elect Barack Obama (including the mainstream media, heh!) and supporters of all winners in the many democratic contests people across our country weighed in on. And condolences to those who didn’t fare so well.
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Three is a trend
Yesterday, I made a quick reference to a religion story that has not dominated campaign coverage, to the say the least. That story is Roman Catholic bishops speaking out in defense of their church’s teaching in response to statements from pro-choice Catholic politicians and in response to statements from pro-choice candidates in general. Now there have been articles, most notably after the comments made by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Joe Biden. But I had no idea just how widespread the phenomenon was.
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The biggest loser
Usually I groan when I come across an Associated Press piece marked “analysis.” I like my AP reporters to report, not analyze. But in a year like this, when reporters have dropped most pretense of reporting in favor of overtly playing politics, it’s actually kind of a breath of fresh air to have something clearly identified as analysis. On this note, if media outlets’ horribly misnamed “fact checks” could go the way of the Dodo bird, I’d be most happy.
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Return of the Womenpriests
Congratulations are in order for Jessica Rowley, a St. Louis woman on the verge of giving birth to her first child. The pregnancy was deemed newsworthy by a St. Louis alternative paper called the Riverfront Times:
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Dia de los Muertos
Unlike last year, when we saw a few interesting stories about Reformation Day celebrations, I didn’t find a single one this year. Which is a shame since I was looking for an excuse to link to this awesome Reformation rap.
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When you assume
I’ve been anxious to read more stories about how religious voters are being courted or which camp they’re ending up in. The Washington Post had an article titled “My Son, the Senator” that discusses how Sen. Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, is helping the campaign of Sen. John McCain. After alluding to Joe the Plumber, the article says another Joe is on the scene:
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Some evangelical girls get pregnant
Margaret Talbot, writing in the latest New Yorker, has a fascinating piece about evangelical teenagers’ sexual attitudes and practices. It begins by noting that the news of and reaction to Bristol Palin’s pregnancy shocked liberals. They expected evangelical voters to freak out over the news rather than be unfazed by it:
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Blessed are the poor
For some reason, this collection of stories currently running on the Washington Post‘s religion page remind me of that old saw, I believe coined by Tom Lehrer, about how the New York Times would cover the end of the world: “World Ends: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit.”
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