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Earlier this week, a regional church court heard a case in which a Presbyterian pastor from Pittsburgh was accused of performing a same-sex wedding ceremony in violation of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
About three months ago, Stephanie Strom of The New York Times broke the news that hotel heiress Leona Helmsley had given $5 billion to $8 billion in her bequest to her dog Trouble. As I wrote, the otherwise fascinating story failed to account for the origins of Helmsley’s misanthropy.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Tim Townsend had an amazing story on Tuesday that shatters any notion that the religion beat is only about stuffy theology or culture wars. The religion beat this week in St. Louis is about cell phone texting your pastor during his sermon and possibly having him respond before his sermon is over.
When my husband and I were going through premarital counseling, our pastor shared guidelines on appropriate wedding day attire. It was easy enough for us to comply with.
New York Times religion writer Peter Steinfels devoted his Saturday column to media use of the word “orthodox” as a religious descriptor. The article, titled “The Audacity of Claiming the Last Word on This Word,” is a thoughtful and interesting media critique against the media being the arbiter of what makes an orthodox believer.
If you paid close attention to all of the mainstream coverage of the fighting between Russia and Georgia, you may have noticed that the stories ignored a crucial fact about these two nations.
For months, I have written about coverage of the Catholic priest shortage in the United States. My standard critique has been about stories’ technique — the reporter’s use of sources, point of view, details, etc. Now my critique is about their content.
It is my deep conviction that many religious people, and certainly most conservative Christians, do not “get” the important role that the press plays in a free society — just as many or most journalists do not “get” religion.
