Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
I highlighted Ross Douthat’s excellent New York Times op-ed last time we talked about the censorship of the South Park cartoon. He had written a bit about what the incident meant in larger context:
Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story about how the Vatican handled abuse claims against the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the worldwide order Legionnaires of Christ. The story, which focuses on Vatican politics, hasn’t gotten as much play as the previous Times story attempting to link Pope Benedict XVI to an abuse case in Wisconsin. But this story also focuses on then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s role in handling the many claims against Father Maciel.
The birth control pill turned 50 this year. Time magazine celebrated the anniversary with a 5,000-word look at the sociological history of its development and use. And I have to say that while the piece reads a bit like a love letter to 1960s feminism, author Nancy Gibbs discussed religion and values throughout the piece. This seems like the obvious thing to do when talking about something related to sex and procreation — but we all know how many reporters would avoid including religion in the discussion.
Church splits, as anyone who’s ever been unlucky enough to endure one can tell you, are difficult. Writing about them is difficult, too. The point of disagreement leading to a break might not be the same for everyone. Different causes get lumped together. Personalities are wounded. It can be a mess.
The Associated Press has a story about three Church of England bishops who traveled to Rome last week to discuss the possibility of joining with the Catholic Church:
Every reporter has his off days. I have to think that’s what happened with this story, which ran on page 1 of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union. Written by an award-winning religion reporter, Jeff Brumley, the piece seems to take an almost personal interest in disparaging evangelicals. It’s kind of odd. Here’s the headline:
A reader alerted us to the airing of a PBS Frontline documentary on “The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan”. I had the chance to watch it earlier in the week and it is absolutely riveting. You can watch it online and I encourage you to do so if it has already aired in your market.
Reuters is definitely my favorite source for international religious news. But this story out of Srinagar, India, could use some help. Headlined “Visitors banned from Kashmir’s Jesus shrine,” it tells about a local Muslim fight over a shrine. And in so doing, it gives terribly short short shrift to the most fundamental Christian teachings:
We looked at some of the coverage of the Comedy Central’s censorship of the South Park program. South Park has long shown offensive images of Jesus and other non-Muslim religious figures. It has also attempted to show inoffensive “images of Muhammad” but been censored by the network — and other media covering the issue — out of fears of violence. I put “images of Muhammad” in quotes because their most recent censored images were actually of a bear and a taxi-cab (that Muhammad was supposedly inside).
