One of the first things that your GetReligionistas do when preparing a post in our WordPress software is to head over to the “Categories” function box and click all of the relevant choices for how we want this item stored in our archives. It’s a far from perfect process that keeps raising questions. For example, “Are Pentecostals really evangelicals?” Or how about, “OK, I know that Jordan is in the Middle East. But how about Iraq and Iran? How close is close enough? Do I really need to create ANOTHER new category?”
Ghouls and Goblins and Sundays
That’s my precious little cheeseburger pictured here. I also have the cutest little baby bat you’ve ever seen. We are enjoying Halloween and have been practicing our “Trick or Treat//Does that have nuts in it?//Thank you!” lines for weeks. But I have been having some scheduling issues with another holiday that falls on Oct. 31: Reformation Day.
Don't ask, don't tell, don't cover
At this point, it appears that Democrats who are fighting to survive in red zip codes are going to make it to Election Day without a clear resolution of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” standoff. That’s the last thing they needed — a final wave of ads talking about a hot-button cultural issue.
Japan lives and dies with its ghosts
What we have here is one of those New York Times think pieces about an important trend among important people in an important corner of the world. This is something that the Times does really, really well, most of the time.
Stop the presses! A Catholic Homer
When it comes to religion, Ned Flanders generally steals all the thunder for references to faith and The Simpsons. L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily newspaper, shook things up for a day, offering some quality fodder for religion blogs by declaring Homer Simpson as Catholic. We could probably create a context out of this, but check out some of the headlines:
Yet another big pew gap
You may have heard that we are convinced that many folks in the mainstream press just don’t “get religion.” Right?
Got news? Bible studies (plural) in mine?
I don’t know about you, but I had assumed that the spiritual leaders of the trapped miners in Chile would be Catholics. That was true of some, but not all.
Christianity vs. yoga?
I’m always surprised at how many people don’t know the relationship of yoga to Hinduism. The Washington Post/Newsweek “On Faith” had a piece on the topic a few months ago. In “The Theft of Yoga,” Aseem Shukla, an associate professor in urologic surgery at the University of Minnesota medical school and co-founder and board member of Hindu American Foundation, wrote:
Womenpriest trend pieces past expiration date?
Oh dear. Just as the rumors about Newsweek are becoming more positive, the news product offered by Time is suffering. Last week we looked at a very poor piece of journalism about female priests in non-Roman Catholic churches. And we looked at the odd defense offered by the reporter.

