Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Benjamin A. Plotinsky, managing editor of City Journal, has written a 4,000-word essay on Christian themes in science fiction. An editor at a respected journal gives serious attention to a theme otherwise restricted to fan sites — normally this would be cause enough for rejoicing among the editors of GetReligion.
I’ve never been one of those parents who worries about exposing her kids to fantasy worlds, whether they be those of of J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket, or C.S. Lewis. Reading them and talking about them together allows their young minds to stretch their imaginations and distinguish truth from fiction.
I’m thrilled when our readers send us story suggestions from papers we might not normally see. Search engines are a wonderful invention, but we still miss articles that might be wonderful examples of factual, fair religion coverage or ones that most clearly are not.
I love stories, like the one about giving up Facebook for Lent from a few weeks ago, in which ancient faith traditions struggle with the advent of modern technologies. How did the 15th-century church view the advent of the printing press, for example? Well, we have another example of the genre–a story in the Times Online (London) by Rome-based correspondent, Richard Owen that describes an effort by some Roman Catholic leaders to get laypeople to give up texting and other virtual communication for Lent.
The Divine MZ and I have decided to go shallow, for a day, in a blatant attempt to appeal to search engines.
We’ve been covering such fluff this week — abortion, environmentalism, statistical analysis — that it’s time we get to something really serious. I write, of course, about screen legend Lindsay Lohan (star of the Oscar-worthy I Know Who Killed Me).
My first preview of at photographer Jona Frank’s book of portraits about Patrick Henry College occurred through Mother Jones, where it appeared alongside image galleries on phone sex operators, Aryan outfitters, and women in Afghanistan. (Mother Jones‘ photo galleries reflect a wide variety of topics, but I’m mentioning the ones it promoted alongside the photos from Frank’s second book, Right: Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League.)
The only time I experienced culture shock was a few years ago upon return from a convention of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. One night at the bar, some of the people there got in a friendly discussion about our families. And, specifically, the size of our families. The men and women with 10 or more were quickly identified and feted. Then, I came back to DC and went to see the movie Anchorman. It’s a great movie but at the end, the mentally retarded character played by Steve Carrell is identified as a fundamentalist Christian who ends up having 12 kids. The audience roared with delight.
It’s a big year for anniversary events, isn’t it? Not only is Charles Darwin getting his moment in the spotlight in Rome, but the Dutch are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Protestant patron saint John (born Jean) Calvin.
