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I have to admit that I opened up the Washington Post snark section today and my little Christmas-loving heart took a leap. There I saw a news feature by reporter Monica Hesse that began like this:
Forget the primaries. Here in D.C., the big news is that Joe Gibbs resigned and retired as head coach and leader of the Washington Redskins. The Washington Post played its boxed collection of Gibbs URLs above the New Hampshire coverage this morning. Mercy, talk about a clash in local religions.
Now you have to admit, in the midst of all the primary craziness, that this tale from the front lines is kind of fun.
Here is another example (click here for previous discussion of a similar case) of a major story from Britain that needs — somehow — to be confirmed at a level great than the voice of one person who wields great authority. Consider the lede in the Telegraph report by Jonathan Wynne-Jones:
That sound you heard the other day in England was nervous coughing. It seems that the leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, is determined not to let gays, lesbians and bisexuals in England sit on the sidelines while traditionalists in the rest of the world take shots at her troubled flock.
On the TV right now, Chris Collingsworth of NBC is talking about the Washington Redskins and the belief among the players that they are playing in honor of the late superstar Sean Taylor and that he is still with them.
While I am not trying to turn this into a sports blog, we are in the bowls and playoff session — a series of secular holy days — and the topics keep coming up. Thus, I spend a really interesting hour the other day on the telephone with Washington Post sportswriter Kathy Orton, who will, apparently, be writing an ongoing feature at the “On Faith” weblog called “Praying Fields.”
This is the time of year, of course, when news organizations post their Top 10 lists for the year. On the religion beat, the list that gets the most attention is the one produced by a poll of the members of the Religion Newswriters Association. Click here to see it’s announcement of the results.
