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I have a friend who grew up in Japan and, a decade of so ago, he took me over for a week to speak to several gatherings of Christian missionaries with years of experience in that unique cultural environment.
It would be impossible not to be moved by USA Today feature story about the volunteers at Santa-America, who swing into action this time of year in 40 states to minister to children who are living in hospice care or those who face the lose of a parent.
I sit on the side of the cultural divide that is more familiar with MC 900 Ft. Jesus than Oral Roberts and his 900-foot Jesus. But it’s hard to forget Roberts’ dramatic televangelism, his faith-healing, the travails of his various ventures, his contributions to the world of direct mail and database management. The man’s a legend and many people are mourning his death.
Obviously, one of the major religion stories of the day is the death of the Rev. Oral Roberts at the age of 91. I would imagine that the major newspapers have had obituaries ready for a decade or more.
When the House of Representatives passed the Stupak amendment preventing federal tax dollars from being used to fund or subsidize abortions, it was hard to find a story that didn’t mention the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. That group, and several other organizations that oppose abortion, had worked for months to ensure passage of such an amendment. We’d been encouraging more reportage on abortion funding for months. But when the drama in the House happened, where they only passed the overall legislation because the Stupak amendment passed, I figured we’d see some good coverage of abortion politics as we moved to the Senate.
The roles of Newsweek and its religion reporter Lisa Miller’s as reporter (conveyor of information) and pundit (advocacy) have been blurred for a while now. One minute, Miller is reporting on a story, the next, she’s offering her personal opinion on it.
The other day I received this letter asking, quite simply, “Who is this ‘Mark’ person who keeps writing posts for GetReligion?”
