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David Gonzalez has a fantastic story in the Sunday New York Times on a Pentecostal storefront church in Harlem. It’s the first of three articles exploring life in the church, called Ark of Salvation. The two future installments will look at the struggles of pastor Danilo Florian, a factory worker by day, and the church’s efforts to reach out to the next generation.
The Washington Post ran a short story on page A17 Friday about the religious makeup of the 110th Congress that highlighted the record-high number of Jewish lawmakers.
I know that there are plenty of people out there who consider Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard to be the ultimate scribe for the GOP and the Bush White House. I mean, check out the illustration I attached to this post.
The other day in the National Press Club I happened to stroll by a press conference held by the Institute on Religion and Democracy while I was on my way to another press conference. I was able to catch a few minutes of the press conference before mine started and I resolved to look at how the mainstream media treated the story.
For the second time in a week, Time blogger Andrew Sullivan is highlighting what could be a huge religion ghost story. At the end of his nationally televised speech last night, President Bush said goodnight from the library of the White House personal residence using these words:
Anyone who reads GetReligion — or the Washington newspapers — knows that one of the biggest religion stories going right now here in Beltwayland is the decision by a circle of major churches in Northern Virginia to exit the Episcopal Church. Let me stress once again that this is a global, national, regional and local story and it is just getting started.
The big religion story at the start of the 110th U.S. Congress last week focused on Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who was ironically and ceremonially sworn in on a Koran once owned by President Thomas Jefferson. Frederic Frommer of the Associated Press was thorough enough in his report published Tuesday to note that Ellison’s mother is Catholic. But she supports her son, of course, and thinks the controversy is a good thing.
Chris Hedges is the the former New York Times bureau chief in the Middle East and the Balkans. He has covered many wars. And he just wrote a book about evangelical Christians. He used to be Presbyterian and is the son of a pastor. He graduated from Harvard Divinity School, planning to become a member of the clergy. However, I gather he is no longer Christian.
OK, consider this a short update on our comments-page arguments about whether public debates about abortion are, in and of themselves, a “religious” matter.
