Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Last February we looked at an intriguing First Amendment story in the Tacoma News Tribune. Reporter Ian Demsky looked at the fallout from a Washington State Department of Corrections settlement decision that gives inmates the right to adhere to two religions at the same time. One priest in particular took a voluntary leave of absence because he couldn’t support the state decision.
Since others will bring this up, let me state my bias right up front: I am a pro-life Democrat. I do not think there is any way to find a coalition for meaningful change — any kind of real compromise at all — on abortion policies in this country without the involvement of pro-life liberals, old-school conservative Democrats, mainstream Catholics, Hispanics, African-American clergy and many others who do not feel at home in the Republican Party.
Since the 2004 elections, evangelicals’ relations with the Republican Party have been, to say the least, uneasy. The botched nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the Bush administration’s lack of interest in pushing for a federal marriage amendment, the initial popularity of Rudy Giuliani as a GOP presidential contender — on these and other issues, the relationship has been less like that of a happily married couple and more like that of quarreling lovers.
In the days preceding and following Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States, we discussed some of the media coverage of whether politicians who publicly advocate for abortion rights would/should/could receive Communion at the papal masses in Washington and New York.
Long-time GetReligion readers may remember that I have been, and remain, very confused about the meaning of the term “emerging church” and how it relates to that other confusing term “evangelical.” There was even a time, two years ago or thereabouts, when GetReligion.org was named one of the top weblogs linked to the “emerging church” movement. That struck me as most strange. It still does.
Hey, there you go. It has taken almost the whole primary season, but it now appears that the national press — or, at least, the Washington Post, which is a big deal in my zip code — has accepted that there are religious believers in the Democratic Party. Hurrah.
Sometimes when I’m watching Jeopardy, which I do every night, I like to guess what religion or denomination contestants belong to based on clues — the college they attended, the mission trip they went on, their hometown — from their brief introductions. So Newsweek‘s Sally Atkinson is a reporter after my own heart.
The economy is big news these days. The rising gas prices and increasing number of foreclosures are important stories throughout the Midwest. When Indiana became a key state in the Democratic primary a few weeks ago, religion and the culture war issues took a back seat to economic plans, job growth issues and ideas about how to lower gas prices. Even Barack Obama’s Rev. Wright issues seemed to drop off the radar in the days before Tuesday’s election.
In March, an article in The New Yorker made some pretty big waves in Episcopal circles. As we discussed at the time, the article was actually a book excerpt from The Bishop’s Daughter by Honor Moore, whose father the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore was the trailblazing Episcopal Bishop of New York from 1972 to 1989.
