Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Yesterday morning, I asked my 16-month-old daughter to pick out one of her books and bring it to me. Instead of “That’s Not My Bunny . . .” or some similar book, she picked up my latest copy of First Things and went through it page by page. It made me laugh but also made me immediately wonder how the journal’s founder Richard John Neuhaus was doing. I knew he’d been in poor health and had received last rites.
We talk about “ghosts” quite a bit at this blog, by which we mean religious issues that are hiding, uncovered, in mainstream news stories.
Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post wrote an exceptional front-page story on Tuesday about the uncertain future of the Church of the Saviour, which the Rev. Gordon and Mary Cosby founded 60 years ago. Cosby preached his final sermon — at age 91 — on December 28.
Oh the constant joy it must bring to be a religious person associated with President-elect Barack Obama. With Baptist minister Rick Warren being sued by atheists over the use of the Lord’s name in an inauguration prayer, Obama’s old home church appears to be breathing a sigh of relief now that the election is over and Obama has officially moved to Washington, D.C.
Yes, it’s easy to criticize the work of an editorial intern, even one who is a Fulbright scholar and has a master’s degree. Still, where was a decent copy editor at The Nation when Drew Haxby wrote about the sexuality debate within Anglicanism? For that matter, why should any copy editor have to deal with so much stilted writing?
Many of us were born to teenage mothers or had children as teenagers. My dear father and President-elect Barack Obama were both born to teenage mothers. At this point in history, however, the general social outlook on teen pregnancy is that it is a net negative. Perhaps this is in part because teen marriage has declined significantly.
This past week saw two excellent examples of the American media’s efforts at finding and portraying in the most positive light possible Muslims that make claims of being moderate. These two examples, one in The Los Angeles Times and the other in The New York Times, both portray Islamic preachers. Both reach their audiences primarily via the television. And both articles keep the basic beliefs of both preachers fairly obscure.
There’s an episode of 30 Rock where the main character, played by Tina Fey, turns her Arab neighbor into Homeland Security because she thinks he’s training for an act of terrorism. As she’s contemplating whether to turn him in, she walks by a public service announcement that says “If you suspect ANYTHING, do EVERYTHING.” She finds out, after he’s taken away, that the neighbor was auditioning to compete on The Amazing Race.
We normally focus on covering news in our posts, rather than commentary about news. After all, everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
