Terry Mattingly

Praying with the Coptic people

It is very ironic that one of the only mainstream news-media reports I have read about the plight of Coptic believers in Egypt was in the Baltimore Sun and it centered on the insights of people in — wait for it — Baltimore.


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Let 'veneration' be veneration

Do you remember that post more than a week ago about the issue of Catholics (and other believers in ancient communions) praying “with,” and not “to,” the saints? This issue came up in the context of the rapid movement of the late Pope John Paul II toward sainthood in the Catholic Church. Click here the original post on that.


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College frosh are depressed for some reason

Long ago, while I was working in Charlotte, the editors in my newsroom decided to do one of those sure-to-win-awards projects in which they would use hard statistics, personal interviews and a strong spine of new poll data to answer a big question.


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Anglican baptism lite? Say what?

This is one of those religion stories that, on one level, sounds perfectly logical to one set of readers. At the same time, other people may read the same story and want to laugh to keep from crying or, in a few cases, readers may want to laugh, then cry, then bash their heads into a wall.


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Time test flies a faith-free Romney story

I’m sorry to bring this up, but it’s time – once again – to wrestle with the complicated reality that is GOP superstar (sort of) Willard Mitt Romney and the challenges he presents to mainstream reporters who cover his, at this time, unofficial candidacy for the White House in ’12.


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Old hole in a Maryland Bible story

If you are a consumer who truly loves books (and libraries, and news magazines, etc.), that recent A1 Washington Post news feature on the death dive of the Borders bookstore chain was a real eyeopener. Grab a box of tissues and read it, including this shot of reality:


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Pod people: Faith, ink and sweaty palms

As you would expect, folks in GetReligion land are still thinking about that 6,000th-post landmark that we hit the other day, especially since it came so close to the site’s upcoming seventh birthday, which is on Feb. 1. Thus, you will not be surprised that this week’s Crossroads podcast turned into a discussion of the current state of religion coverage in the mainstream press.


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