The little movie that could, otherwise known at “The Blind Side,” is starting to cause some tremors out on the left coast.
Got news? Stark religious numbers
If you backed up a few years, or even a decade or two, one of the subjects that religion writers in the mainstream press used to debate could be summed up in this question: “Are religion columns a good thing?”
Blind Sided, yet again
Every now and then, the box-office prophets in Hollywood are shocked, shocked to discover that large numbers of Americans like to buy tickets to movies that are funny, clean, well-crafted and capable of tugging at a heart-string or two. There’s another tricky little subject hiding in there that many media people just don’t get, but we’ll look at that a bit later.
Flawed tribute in South Bend
We received a note the other day from a priest asking us to call attention to a South Bend Tribune editorial marking the retirement of Bishop John D’Arcy from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Even though GetReligion focuses on news reports, not editorial, this correspondent thought we would appreciate the respectful and balanced tone in this piece — especially considering the bishop’s role in the events surrounding President Barack Obama’s visit to the University of Notre Dame to received an honorary doctorate in law, in clear violation of a policy statement by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
This reporter gives thanks that ....
It’s Thanksgiving, of course. So I would like to give thanks that I was not in Laurie Goodstein’s shoes the other day when she heard about the upcoming “Manhattan Declaration” announcement — click here for details — and then got the news that she could only write 570 words about this very complex ecumenical statement.
More vague, worthless Catholic labels
Want to see how worthless vague religious labels can be when used in the mainstream press? Here’s a classic example from an ongoing story in Jackson, Mich., where a priest who backs church traditions — which ones, we are never really told — is clashing with many leaders in a “progressive” Catholic parish.
Time asks the Hasan faith question (kind of)
I was having a private conversation the other day, soon after the Fort Hood massacre, with a specialist in issues of religious freedom and, in particular, Jihadist persecution of moderate Muslims and various religious minorities in predominately Muslim lands.
WPost: Chaste vampires are not us
Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to the “Twilight” explosion in pop culture knows that author Stephenie Meyer is a somewhat unorthodox Mormon believer who isn’t exactly shy about letting symbols and themes from her faith, uh, bleed over into her vampire kingdom.
Sigh: Another 'Catholic voter' story
It’s time to head back into the tmatt GetReligion folder of guilt. To make matters worse, this is an example of a GetReligion theme that we keep trumpeting, like a call to battle. The fact that it’s something we say all the time, however, is evidence that it’s a journalistic sin that we keep seeing all of the time.
