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The newspaper coverage of the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling that tossed out a lawsuit against a Pentecostal church over an incident that resulted in a 17-year-old girl being held down on the floor of the church has been more than solid. The two articles from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have been a model in careful use of religious language and balance.
Lura Groen is a graduate of one of the seminaries that trains pastors for service in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. But because she refuses to adhere to a chastity requirement, she is not on the approved roster of the ELCA. But a Houston congregation called Groen, a lesbian who is bisexual, to be their pastor anyway.
Ralph Z. Hallow of The Washington Times wrote an intriguing story about elite evangelical opposition to Mitt Romney, a prospective GOP vice-presidential running mate:
So we all know the accepted consensus on abstinence programs: They don’t work. Right? A few months ago, the CDC issued a really shoddy survey claiming that one in four teenage girls had a sexually transmitted disease. The relative standard error was so high (greater than 30 percent) as to render the survey useless.
Some tragic news is coming out of Tennessee. Yesterday, a man armed with a shotgun walked into a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville yesterday and killed two people and shot seven others. Whenever something senseless like this happens, the media rush to determine why. Early reports from Knoxville had neighbors suspecting anti-Christian animus:
A reader who is, at the moment, rather upset with the GetReligionistas sent me a story the other day that he wanted us to critique. It’s from the Los Angeles Times and briefly tells the story of the LA police chief’s decision to donate money to the organization that is fighting the ballot initiative against the legalization of gay marriage.
Whenever we write about stories involving Roman Catholic Womenpriests, we get a ton of reader feedback. Part of that is because much of the coverage has been so weak over the years. But part of it is because the issues surrounding the group get at the heart of what animates many believers — authority, Scripture, social issues, personal determination. It’s all very interesting stuff.
When I moved to Washington over ten years ago, the population demographics were noticeably different than they are now. Many of my older black neighbors and their families have moved to the suburbs in the ensuing years, their homes replaced by younger white couples. A Wall Street Journal “Page One” feature by Conor Dougherty last week picked up on the trend in DC and other major cities and looked at what the changes mean to the culture.
Except for one small detail, Tamar Lewin of The New York Times wrote a memorable story about the debate over rising tuition costs at American universities. Lewin focused on Berea College in Kentucky, a tiny school that does not charge its students admission, and contrasted it with other universities.
