Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Today’s gay-marriage story in the Washington Post (the newspaper really needs to develop a logo for this regular feature) focuses on another complication in this major change in the laws of the District of Columbia. What happens when one of the two partners is not a citizen of the United States?
The other night I caught just a portion of Soledad O’Brien’s interview of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. I rarely watch television news shows but I enjoyed the interview. O’Brien had a good “get,” as they say, and made sure to make the most of it.
Do you wonder if every religion news story from here on out is going to involve some kind of clash of civilizations? I hope not but here’s another entry into that category. We’ve covered the various stories surrounding the Danish cartoon controversy that erupted a few years ago. German Chancellor Angela Merkel honored the creator of some of the controversial cartoons at a ceremony this week. Since 2006, Kurt Westergaard has had his life repeatedly threatened by Muslims angry over his art. Here’s how AFP put it:
Several weeks ago, there was a flurry of stories about someone in Israel convicted of “rape by deception.” Here is a typical lede for the story, this one from the BBC:
Dr. Francis Collins finds himself in the middle of an ethics-, science-, politics-, money- and religion-filled debate instead of in the chemistry lab lately. Despite Christopher Hitchens’s recent shout-out, you have to wonder if the embryonic stem-cell research debate has left him fairly friendless.
I hadn’t really been following the news about the congregation in Florida that plans to burn a Quran. Gen. David Petraeus weighed in against the plan and it’s receiving a lot of coverage in countries with predominately Muslim populations. This picture is of a protest in Kabul. In fact, it’s downright surprising how much coverage this story has received considering that this is a tiny congregation. Of course, in the day and age of Westoboro-media-paloozas, I shouldn’t be surprised …
Frequently when we’re talking about violence against religious minorities, it’s a foreign issue. But it happens stateside as well, sadly. Recently there have been a few attacks that have received media attention. When Michael Enright stabbed his New York City cab driver Ahmed H. Sharif, for being a Muslim, it was major news. When a fire broke out at a construction site of a Tennessee mosque, it was major news. This weekend word came that the ATF has ruled that fire arson, it was also major news.
Tmatt already looked at some early coverage of the “Restoring Honor” rally held in Washington this weekend. I went down to the Lincoln Memorial to catch part of it but couldn’t even come close to hearing, much less seeing, what was going on. But I did meet a ton of people. It was a completely different event than the tea parties I’ve seen. Last September, there was a huge gathering in D.C. of people upset at the size and scope of the federal governemnt. This was even before health care legislation was signed into law. The protesters carried thousands upon thousands of creative and witty signs and it was really something to see. I was pretty sure I’d never seen a protest with so many employed people, or so many people who had children. And grandchildren.
