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The Denver Post‘s Eric Gorski hasn’t been exclusively on the Godbeat for a while. So I was quite happy to see him dip back into religion reporting for his piece on the Church of Scientology’s grand-opening celebration in Denver. We’re told that the celebration filled a city block downtown with balloons, confetti and cheering throngs.
As regular GetReligion readers will know, I have — for quite some time now — curious about what the word “Islamist” means when it is used in mainstream news coverage of the Islam, either in lands that are majority Muslim or those that are not. In other words, does “Islamist” mean one thing in Cairo and another thing in Detroit?
You know, I love a good news report involving the details of liturgical events and the Agence France Presse recently served up, well, a really BIG liturgical story.
A few years ago, I read a fascinating story in the New York Times about Buddhist teachers Michael Roach and Christie McNally. A decade earlier, they’d taken vows never to separate, night or day. And yet, the article explained, they were celibate. It was one of those interesting, if a tad fluffy, stories written under the heading “Living Together.” The headline was “Making Their Own Limits in a Spiritual Partnership:”
One of the most interesting facts about the branch of Orthodoxy to which my home parish belongs is that the Church of Antioch is one member of the family of Eastern churches that has rarely controlled its own culture and, thus, its own destiny.
A friend sent me the bizarre news about the naked man shot to death while he was chewing off a homelessman’s face and said “Sound like demons?” linking to Mark 5. Yeah, so I’m guessing your average reporter knows next to nothing about demons, but I was curious to see how it would play out in the media.
Prepare to be moved to tears, because we have a lovely story to share. A friend sent me this amazing Associated Press story about a woman coming to terms with a stunning photo from her childhood. I would post the photo here, but AP owns the photo so you can find it here.
Her little bird — a poor slight thing the pressure of a finger would have crushed — was stirring nimbly in its cage; and the strong heart of its child-mistress was mute and motionless for ever.
This is a conclusion I have drawn in my years as a religion reporter. Story proposals on a new doctrinal development or a report on a major church conference seldom excites the interest of an editor. [A story proposal about doctrinal development discussed at a conference in Canada is the kiss of death].
