For our fifth anniversary, we’re picking our top five posts from the last year. So I’ve reviewed all of my posts, a fruitful exercise that reminds me I’m still partial to stories about doctrine, the liturgical calendar and unlikely stories of how faith changes religious adherents. Even though these are my favorite topics to write about, they rarely elicit as much feedback as political posts. I normally dislike writing about politics but this last year was a huge exception.
Raiding GetReligion's vault o' hits
GetReligion celebrates its fifth anniversary this week, and contributors will mark the occasion with lists of our five favorite posts from the past year. I’ll kick this off.
Maybe baby, baby, baby, baby ...
So whaddya do when you are assigned to cover a story about a woman who just had octuplets (that’s eight, if you are counting) — and already has six young children?
Obama: Get (civil) religion
Here’s a term that you should get used to hearing once again, during the era of President Barack Obama — “civil religion.”
Healing: The church-state line? (updated)
Click. Click. Connect. Cancel?
As regular readers know, your GetReligionistas have had our issues with the postmodern Newsweek magazine ever since we opened this website.
Coping with complex sex talk
Trust me. There are times when your GetReligionistas get tired of writing posts that criticize the same publications for making the same errors, time after time. Meanwhile, we know that readers may also tire of hearing us praise some of the same skilled, talented professionals who know what they are doing on the religion beat.
Sex, lies and schnitzel
One of the journalism terms we use on this site is the “hook.” Like it sounds, it’s that thing in the lede of a story that snags reader/viewer/listener attention. There is so much news and information competing for attention that news consumers need a reason to stop and read or watch or listen to your story.
The art of covering Christian Science
Home to the denomination’s “mother church,” the city of Boston is ground zero for a small but influential American denomination. The Christian Science Church and its nineteenth-century founder Mary Baker Eddy continue to merit press attention, particularly in an American society that increasingly targets the link between mental and physical health.
