Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
It’s often entertaining to read champions of the religious left excoriating fellow travelers for their cultural powerlessness or their unwillingness to stand up to the religious right. Consider Giles Fraser and William Whyte, writing in The Guardian as if Oliver Cromwell were in charge again and the public executions will begin tomorrow morning:
Two posts on Salon today prove that the alt-daily website can cover religion just as well, although not nearly as often, as it covers the sacrament of sex.
GetReligion doesn’t normally take notice of obscure right wing fisticuffs, but I’m going to make an exception because I was one of the dogs in the fight, and because the fight ended up in The Boston Globe.
Hanna Rosin of The Washington Post wandered onto David Kirkpatrick’s turf during the weekend, attempting to explain those strange new creatures in town who are called evangelicals. Rosin interviews several people, but the anecdotes of one political consultant, Lyric Hassler, provide the central image of the piece.
As Sen. Hillary Clinton makes centrist sounds on abortion, Kristen Lombardi of The Village Voice expresses some predictable misgivings: Clinton is “getting serious about God and guns” and “trying to sound like the second coming of John Wesley.”
The latest issue of Seattle’s The Stranger uses this year’s NARAL Chocolate for Choice fundraiser — an “evening of utter decadence . . . supporting a woman’s right to choose” — to look at the shifting politics of abortion, from the perspective of the left and the Democratic Party.
David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times is doing yeoman’s work on the conservative beat, especially in observing conservatives saying and doing the darndest things.
Some writers are worth reading because they are talented stylists. Regardless of whether I agree with the points these writers make, watching them make the case is its own reward. Several writers fill this role for me, including Christopher Hitchens, Andrew Ferguson, Paul Greenberg, James Lileks, Katha Pollitt, Anna Quindlen, Mark Steyn and Andrew Sullivan.
