Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
The God-beat professionals at www.religionwriters.com have a biweekly listserv feature called ReligionLink that floats story ideas and resources for reporters who are looking for feature stories that spin off current events in the news.
In the April issue of Wired, Joshua Davis delivers an amazing report on Yitzhaq Hayutman, an English-born architect with a high-tech solution to Middle East conflicts: using lasers to project a restored Temple above the Dome of the Rock and, thus, to “induce the arrival of the Messiah and the coming of peace on Earth.”
When the Kobe Bryant sex scandal first hit the headlines, one of the first things that NBA insiders began discussing was its impact on his multi-million-dollar endorsement contracts. But the discussions had a twist. While some worried that a sexual-assault rap might hurt him, others decided that this might actually boost his stock “on the street,” in the urban marketplace of hip-hop, macho credibility.
If politicians are going to wade into the faith vs. works debates in the book of James, then it is going to be a long, long campaign on the God beat. And what if the Vatican steps in as a referee?
Lately it’s becoming popular among Episcopalians who support blessing gay unions to cite this remark attributed to the 16th-century theologian Richard Hooker: “Pray that none will be offended if I make the Christian religion an inn where all are received joyously, rather than a cottage where some few friends of the family are to be received.”
Christianity Today has posted (and others, such as Poynter.org, have quickly linked to) a Tony Carnes story about the behind-the-scenes efforts being played by the Christian journalists in mainstream media who are close friends with former USA Today reporter Jack Kelley. The key lines are:
Anyone who writes in the New York Times editorial pages with the label “conservative” stamped on his forhead is going to take his lumps, even if he is the culturally progressive kind of conservative (pro-abortion rights, pro-gay rights) who would be welcomed in such a heady locale. So it’s no surprise that lots of folks are taking closer looks at David Brooks these days. This tends to happen when one betrays his class, even to a tiny degree.
United Religions Initiative recently exhibited the winners of its Interfaith Sacred Space Design Competition. The competition asked architects to design worship spaces in which “people from all religious traditions can feel comfortable, safe and respected.”
My first full-time job in journalism was working as a copy editor, which meant that I spent much of my trying to write good headlines to go over news stories. One of the first rules I learned was this: Don’t put a funny headline on a story unless you think there is something truly funny about the content of the story.
