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Jeff Stein, the national security editor for Congressional Quarterly, has been doing some brilliant reporting lately. Yet it’s all so simple. Ask the leaders of our nation, particularly those in positions of power in intelligence, national security and international affairs, to explain the basic differences between Sunni and Shiite Arabs.
If you are a steady consumer of Anglican Civil War coverage, you probably turned to this morning’s Washington, D.C., newspapers with a sense of anticipation — knowing that members in some of America’s most prosperous and historic Episcopal parishes started voting Sunday (emphasis on the word “started”) on proposals to exit the Diocese of Virginia and the progressive national church.
Somehow we missed this when we discussed coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Turkey. We discussed this Dec. 1 article from the Los Angeles Times’ Tracy Wilkinson.
We here at GetReligion typically like just about everything the Los Angeles Times’ Stephanie Simon writes. She thrives on writing highly descriptive narratives that manage to touch on all sorts of issues, usually with religious themes. For instance, her piece on abortion still sticks in my mind and is a must read for journalists covering the subject.
In case you have been on another planet for the past few days, 37-year-old Mary Cheney, the high-profile gay daughter of the Vice President Dick Cheney, is pregnant. The mainstream press accounts all note that she is expecting this child “with” Mary Poe, her partner of 15 years, but journalists are allowing the couple a rare zone of privacy and are not exploring the precise meaning of the word “with.”
Buried in the back of the local section of the Sunday Washington Post was this short story about a religious service at the Fairfax (Va.) Adult Detention Center. It’s a rather random story, and the Post has been doing more of them lately (check out this one from Sept. 9 on a skateboard ministry in southern Maryland), many of them relating to religion.
I am not a regular presence at the theater or a frequent reader of theater reviews. So it goes without saying that I know little about writing a good review of acting or singing. With that said, I thought the New York Times article on singer/actress Kristin Chenoweth was a half-decent read.
Stories filed at the end of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Turkey highlighted his visit to — and prayer inside — a Muslim mosque. That’s a good thing, since it’s very newsworthy when a leader of the Christian religion worships or prays in a place of worship for non-Christians.
John Dickerson of Slate has a solid piece that fleshes out Mitt Romney’s Mormon issue and provides us with some interesting news tidbits. Dickerson calls on Romney to explain his beliefs in a clear, concise way that gives voters an idea of how his faith will affect his life. According to Dickerson, Romney’s people say he will address such questions once he officially announces his candidacy sometime early next year.
