Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Yesterday I noted a Detroit Free Press story that referred to a Good Friday Mass at a Catholic church. No Mass is celebrated on Good Friday but the service is called the Mass of the Presanctified. So I sort of gave the reporter a pass, even though it violates Associated Press style guidelines.
So often I read a story about some newsmaker and am disappointed when there’s no information about the individual’s religious life. I’ve come to expect that any detail about where, say, heroic pilot Chesley Sullenberger goes to church or doesn’t go to church will be difficult to find — much less any in-depth discussion about what religious or philosophical values may or may not motivate the person.
A few years ago, I reviewed the book, “Sunday: A History of the First Day From Babylonia to the Super Bowl,” for the Wall Street Journal. The book devoted quite a bit of time to the history of playing and broadcasting sports on Sunday. It used to be controversial but now, of course, the National Football League practically owns Sundays for part of the year. When my review ran, the number one comment I got from readers was how infuriated they were that their children and grandchildren were expected to practice and play sports on Sunday morning.
Every year I steel myself for the onslaught of Holy Week stories the mainstream media love. You know the ones — media pieces attempting to undermine miraculous stories about Jesus and his life. Some of them have been very bad. But this year those attacks have not been limited to Holy Week. Hurrah.
On my way to church tonight, a media friend living in another country called me to tell me she couldn’t believe what she just saw on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. She said it was so dismissive of Christian prayer that she almost wondered if she’d misheard.
We’ve remarked before how the media usually tell religious news stories when those stories interact with the true passion of the media: politics. This story, from the New York Times, is no exception. The whole hook is how a small religious sect is working the political system for survival. The Saddam Hussein years were hard for many groups who perished or suffered under his notorious oppression. But the post-Saddam Hussein years have been difficult in particular for non-Muslim groups. It’s an important story that hasn’t been covered as much as should be. So I was glad to see this story about the Yazidi, (who are definitely faring better post-Saddam):
Considering how common in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies are, isn’t it surprising how little the media discuss the attendant issues?
This Sunday in Bible Class, one of the parishioners said something about how ours is a “fairly liturgical” church. My pastor immediately responded, feigning offense, “What do you mean ‘fairly’?” The truth is that I am a member of a very liturgical church and our pastor puts a lot of thought into each aspect of the liturgy. He teaches us what each part means and why it’s important. And even though I learned these things as a child, I love the refresher. And I’m very grateful to attend services so rich with meaning.
The BBC has what could have been an interesting little story about Muslim prayer practices and rules. Unfortunately, it has very little doctrinal meat to it. The story is this:
