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Frankly, I do not quite know where to start, in terms of focusing on the role of religion in the mainstream media coverage of the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. For starters, his Catholic faith is a given. At the same time, so is his standing as a deeply troubled leader, husband, father, uncle and patriarch of the always controversial Kennedy clan.
You might remember the unbelievable story of Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton. He’s the guy who had the unbelievable performance at last year’s Home Run Derby. It wasn’t just that he had a first-round record — crushing 28 home runs in the first round and at one point hitting 13 home runs in 13 swings. But what was particularly noteworthy about the whole thing is that he’s a recovering addict. And what puts this into GetReligion territory is his incessant discussion of his faith and how God saved him from a rather miserable life.
So last week, President Obama pitched his health care reform plan to religious leaders. Elizabeth looked at some of the coverage last Thursday of the “false witness” remarks. One angle that received surprisingly little mainstream coverage was Obama’s statement that “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.”
Let’s talk demographics for a moment. Hispanics are the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States. Around a third of American Catholics are Hispanic. And, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) website, Hispanic evangelicals are a booming demographic: “Hispanic born-again Christians make up 37 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population and 88% of all U.S. Hispanic Protestants, 43% of all U.S. Hispanic Mainline Protestants, and 26% of all U.S. Hispanic Roman Catholics.”
This was definitely the weekend for coverage of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s decision to change its position on the rostering of clergy in same-sex relationships. One of the nicer things was seeing reporters include local perspective. But one reader sent in a local piece that was not so good.
As a magazine fan who does not consult Vogue about anything, I am quite happy to see that magazine give lengthy coverage to Jenny Sanford, First Lady (for now) of South Carolina.
I’ve just returned from a vacation in Colorado and am catching up on the news of the past few days. I’m pleased by the amount of coverage we’re seeing of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s recent convention, although the depth of the articles varies wildly. Some are fantastic and cover a lot of ground and some are somewhat lacking.
If you were looking for cutting-edge discussions of gay theology back in the 1980s, all you had to do was head on over to the Iliff School of Theology, the United Methodist campus attached to the University of Denver. As one former faculty member of the university once told me, Iliff in that era was “the most liberal institution in American that still called itself Christian.”
The impression we get from this New York Times profile of the other Ted Olson — that’s conservative legal mind Theodore Olson, not Christianity Today managing editor Ted Olsen — is that you’ve got to skip Sunday school if you want to think independently on the subject of same-sex marriage.
