Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Summing up a life as eventful as Corazon Aquino’s is a talented obituary writer’s dream. In these early hours after the death of the former president of the Philippines, I think Phil Bronstein of the San Francisco Chronicle has done the finest job.
While it may surprise GetReligion readers who reside in some parts of the United States, there are thousands of evangelical Christians — millions, globally — who worship in United Methodist pews week after week. That is certainly true down in the Southeastern corner of the Sunbelt, where there seems to be a United Methodist congregation in every small town and in almost every zip code.
Several months ago, your Religionistas created a feature called “Got news?” Ever since, we have been trying to explain to people what this slugline does and does not mean.
If you thought R&B artist Chris Brown’s career would be hurt by viciously beating his girlfriend Rihanna and threatening to kill her, you would be wrong. His song “Forever” is one of the top 10 iTune downloads after being featured in the YouTube video that’s taking the world by storm. Now, when I think of everlasting love and romance, I can’t say I think of Chris Brown. Or autotune. But one young couple did just that — sending their bridal party that is seemingly larger than their guest list joyfully down the aisle of a church dancing to that hit for the ages.
I came across an interesting quote over at Beliefnet editor Steven Waldman’s blog. It comes from an essay written by the founder of the Interfaith Alliance, C. Welton Gaddy, and published on the Huffington Post. In it, Gaddy shares memories of newsman Walter Cronkite, a former chairman of the Interfaith Alliance. The Alliance exists to fight groups that it believes are part of the omnipresent religious right:
Terry highlighted one of the more glaring holes in some of the stories covering the public health insurance debate. There have been some other problems with the media’s look at the abortion debate.
Move over Azzam the American. You may be a spokesman for Al Qaeda, but another American in your midst has stolen the media spotlight.
A reader passed along two stories appearing on the Fox News website. One, about a Liberian immigrant family shunning their 8-year-old daughter because she was raped by four other children, managed to completely avoid any discussion of religion. (Liberians tend to be Christian, animist or Muslim.) Another, about an alleged murderer put religion front and center in the headline and lede:
I think I am going to have to create a GetReligion list of “Big Ideas,” the concepts that drive what we do here. These two ideas would certainly be near the top, “Words have meaning” and “Ideas have consequences.”
