Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Say what you want about The New York Times — actually, don’t say what you want — the paper does have some great resources at its disposal. One of my favorite features is their city journal. That’s where stringers and foreign correspondents file slice-of-life reports from exotic locales.
The vast majority of people in America are Christian. So it shouldn’t really surprise newsrooms that Christians have a wide variety of vocations.
In the 1963 film “The Great Escape,” it’s obvious how the Allied prisoners escaped from a German prisoner camp: they built an underground tunnel. In a Washington Post story of the same name, it’s not at all clear how as a teenager NBA All-Star Caron Butler escaped from his drug-infested neighborhood.
Your GetReligionistas have, from time to time, asked editors and reporters to ask the “Why?” question in that old journalistic sequence, “who, what, when, where, why and how.” That question can be pretty hard — hellish even — in some stories linked to tragedy and disaster.
To mark St. Valentine’s Day, Monica Hesse of The Washington Post wrote about polyamorous couples. Her story described the lives of eight people who are in relationships with more than one person.
A few readers sent along an excellent story by Neela Banerjee in the New York Times. She looked at custody disputes across the country where religion comes into play. The story is fantastic. Wonderfully balanced, very informative and full of excellent reporting:
Margaret Ramirez of the Chicago Tribune wrote a curious and rather representative story about Barack Obama’s favorite pastor. It showed readers that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who retired, had expanded his United Church of Christ congregation dramatically. But her article failed to explain why his pastorate succeeded.
Here’s a quick follow-up note on that post I offered about the disputed quotes between former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Ed Young of the giant Second Baptist Church in Houston.
Remember that little discussion of “theodicy” that we had last weekend? This is actual a topic that journalists, as a rule, do not mind digging into from time to time. They enjoy putting God in the dock whenever there is a great tragedy, especially natural disasters.
