Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Hello, readers. Look at this story, now back to me. Look at this survey, now back to me. Sadly, the story isn’t what you might expect from survey results, but if the reporter checked on some variables, the story might be worth reading. Anything is possible when you consider the religion angle. I’m on a horse.
You know a story is going to be bad when the headline is “National Organization for Marriage crusading against gay nuptials in NY.” Crusading! Hide your kids! Hide your wife!
Just for the fun of it, pretend that you’re a line editor at a 100,000-circulation newspaper in the Southwest — say, the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson.
Flash back a few years and you may remember all of those big headlines about the controversial decision by Pope Benedict XVI to park Vatican tanks on the lawn of Canterbury Cathedral and, thus, begin an ecclesiastical invasion of England. Click here for a refresher course.
I’m always yammering on about how much I wish the mainstream media would cover stories dealing with the day-to-day lives of religious adherents. The problem with these stories, of course, is that it can be difficult to find stories that are newsy or terribly exciting.
I love all most of our reader submissions, but the other day we received one that sounded pretty surprising. It comes from Hasan Hakeem, a member of the Ahmadiyya Community and the Chaplain of the Kenosha County Jail in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I’ll go head and just quote it:
As spring turns to summer, it’s the time for shaved-ice snow cones, cool dips in the swimming pool, hot nights at the ballpark … and steamy legal battles over whether prayer is allowed at high school graduation ceremonies.
