Social Issues

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Round up the usual suspects (updated)

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As my GetReligion colleagues and the media (particularly the Brits, of course) have again and noted this week, again portrayed Pope Benedict’s move to create a personal ordinariate for conservative Anglicans as a bold move to poach members from the world’s third-largest denomination. Terry had praise for a story in the New York Times which noted that accepting Anglican priests into the Catholic Church was by no means without precedent.


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Secret symbol of Christianity?

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So I finished the 5-part (plus epilogue!) New York Times series about the hostage-taking, captivity and escape of reporter David Rhode. I enjoyed the series, and it reminded me of the one about a similar situation involving the Christian Science Monitor‘s Jill Carroll.


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In the name of the Fathers

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As you can see from the numerous posts on media coverage of the pope’s outreach to conservative Anglicans this past week, clerical celibacy has been a subplot (not solely fostered, but certainly abbeted by a speculative press). And then there is of course, the shadow side we have seen covered before — the sex abuse scandals of the past 25 years. These involve mostly pederasts — clergy abusing children.


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A case of mistaken photography

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Slate has an awesome annual feature called 80 over 80. It ranks the country’s most powerful politicians, businessmen, and cultural leaders who are in their ninth decade. Ranked according to their power and importance, look who comes in at #1:


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Down, down, down ... up?

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Coverage of the new arrangement being offered by Pope Benedict XVI to traditional Anglicans is making mention of the division within the Anglican Communion over ordination of women, ordination of openly gay clergy, the elevation of a noncelibate homosexual to the bishopric, and the blessing of same-sex unions. And when discussing those issues, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Episcopal Church has come close to schism over these issues.


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Seven years of scandals? Try 25

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Sunday evening the Catholic diocese of Wilmington, Del. filed for bankruptcy protection — just ahead of the start of Monday morning trials to weigh the claims of potentially hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse. This is big news here in the United States — and also abroad. As in the Irish Times article just referenced, it is being treated as a business story as well as, if not more, than a religion story.


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If this dorm is a-rockin ...

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A couple of weeks ago, I harshed on the Los Angeles Times for its flippant and even silly treatment of the problems that arise from having sex in campus dorms. The hook for the story was that Tufts University enacted a policy forbidding sexual activity if the student’s roommate is present. The Times story never dealt with the morality of extra-marital sex or even just the morality of having sex in someone else’s unwilling presence or in their shared room. Instead it had a brief discussion of legal implications.


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Sharia doesn't discuss execution for apostasy?

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There’s something curious about the way the media have been handling the difficult and complicated story of Rifqa Bary. She’s the Ohio teenager (pictured here) who fled to Florida after she converted to Christianity over concerns her Muslim father might kill her. We last looked at this story when CNN inexplicably referred to the girl as “Muslim” even though the whole point of this saga is that she’s not.


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