I generally like lists. But only if they’re good lists. And by good I mean lists that generally agree with how I see things. In other words, this week’s Washington Post “Ranking the League” (about the National Football League) is a bunch of garbage. The Indianapolis Colts are not #1. Somehow the geniuses over on 15th Street think that the San Diego Chargers and the Chicago Bears are better than the Peyton Manning’s Colts. Go figure.
Daring to pray for Gayle and Ted Haggard
You knew that when Gayle Haggard wrote the following words, there would be reporters as well as church members who took her at her word.
Readers want the full text
The Los Angeles Times did us all a favor earlier this week by posting the text of a sermon given in 2004 that has All Saints Episcopal Church under an Internal Revenue Service investigation. In the age of the Internet, all reporters need to follow this practice because there is really no reason not to.
Oh Canada
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across an article about the United Church of Canada and its move to add drinking bottled water to its list of “immoral” acts. While it seems trivial, it’s actually a very significant story, particularly from a business perspective.
Christ-free Christmas? Don't blame Islam
I heard something interesting last summer while I was over in Oxford helping lead a seminar on press freedom and blasphemy.
Pews, politics and Virginia's "grits line"
As I have explained before, I rarely get to linger over a dead-tree-pulp edition of The Washington Post, the newspaper that looms over the city in which I work. The reason is that I live in an old blue-collar suburb just south of Baltimore, one that is not considered worthy of Post home delivery, like the high-class suburbs not far from here.
A ghost in Wiccans' graves?
Following on the tails of last week’s post on pagans was this news story involving the widows of two U.S. combat veterans suing the federal government for refusing to let them place Wiccan symbols on their husbands’ headstones. As a side note, if you’re interested in more information on pagans, peruse the comments on that post. We received a surprising number of responses with links and info on the wide variety of pagan beliefs in the world these days.
Battle of the God covers
In a previous post today, I referred to Time and Newsweek competing with each other for the best religion-centered cover story last week. Newsweek offered a package of articles (here’s the mainbar) about the Religious Right, while Time offered a more tightly focused debate between Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins.
Sports reporters turning to God
The domain of sports reporting often overlaps into religion, and appropriately so. The best sports reporting focuses on people, and people are often religious.
