Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Stephanie Simon had a fine Column One feature the other day in the Los Angeles Times about a battle that is brewing — avoiding this pun is impossible — down in Alabama between the Southern Baptists and the beer drinkers who view home-based microbrewing as a kind of sacrament. You gotta love the dateline, too — Harvest, Ala. — and the lede that takes us into the catacombs of some true beer believers.
Few immigrant groups have it easy in the United States. When my maternal grandparents from Ireland immigrated in the early 1920s, they saw “No Irish Need Apply” signs in big-city storefronts. So it’s natural for reporters to feel sympathy for immigrants, even those who came to this country illegally.
It’s clear, to anyone who reads major newspapers, that one of the story templates of this election is the attempt by top Democrats to reach out to church people. I mean, search this here weblog for the words “Democrats” and “pews.”
Earlier this week an atheist in the U.S. military filed a lawsuit claiming that the Army had violated his right to be an atheist. Only the Associated Press has covered this very interesting situation. What was produced only gives one side of the story partly because the military, as one would expect, refused to comment on pending legal matters.
When former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee officially ended his bid for the presidency on Tuesday night, he said he’ll do whatever is necessary to get Republican nominee John McCain elected. But Washington Post reporter Perry Bacon — who has been on the Huckabeat — had an interesting story. Huckabee’s staffers have already begun preparing for a future run:
A recent California appellate court ruling raises major questions about whether parents have the right to educate their children. While the ruling will be appealed, parents who homeschool their children are reacting to their uncertain future.
The people have spoken in the great state of Illinois, and the law that required the state’s school students to pray or reflect for a moment every day seems to be on the way out. After passing twice through the state’s legislature (the second time by a supermajority due to the governor’s veto), the law that seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a goner.
The news out of England is that the House of Lords has, in a landslide, voted to do away with Britain’s common — but almost completely irrelevant — law making blasphemy a crime.
