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Let me be the first — chicken in cheek — to chide The Arizona Republic for going with an Associated Press report instead of assigning one of its own reporters to cover such a fascinating Godbeat story in its own backyard. I look forward to the photos and coverage of the actual event.
You might think more journalists would like to interview Randall Sullivan about his latest book, The Miracle Detective, or to review it. The irony in his life is rich: a writer for Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal, author of a book investigating the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., and the son of atheists looks into possible apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje and winds up a believer.
Is it possible to spot a God-beat ghost while listening to the radio? While driving in rush-hour traffic on I-95?
This may seem like a strange thing to do, but I want to encourage readers who are working journalists to do something after they have read Doug’s latest post on music tends in the church. Google the following words and then hang on — “worship wars.”
Writing in the May edition of Touchstone magazine, senior editor S.M. Hutchens sees all sorts of dangers in contemporary church services that emphasize performers and egocentric lyrics. Hutchens begins his essay, “Please Me, O Lord,” by describing what he witnessed during his return to an evangelical congregation:
Will the release of a paperback edition of “The Da Vinci Code” be a sign of the End Times? Will everyone who refuses to read Dan Brown’s anti-Bible masterwork be automatically raptured?
Since Gene Robinson was first elected at a diocesan convention in New Hampshire, hundreds of journalists — and I’m among them — have fallen back on the overly tidy shorthand that he is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.
While this may seem out of place on a God-beat blog, let me call attention to a new study released by the human-rights think tank Freedom House. It’s called “Freedom of the Press 2004: A Global Survey of Media Independence” and was released to mark the upcoming World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
