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For years, professional religion reporters have debated what to say when a source or newsmaker turns and asks: “Hey, reporter, what in the world do you believe?” A decade or so ago, the Religion Newswriters Association even held a workshop on the topic, allowing Godbeat veterans to talk shop on this prickly subject.
The June 14 U.S. News & World Report includes three items that touch on God-beat concerns. Columnist Gloria Borger strives to make sense of the pew gap, but her generalizations get in the way.
As some of GetReligion’s readers have observed in our Comments feature, gay marriage is a frequent topic in this space. It’s a topic I would love to set aside, were it not such an inescapable talking point in religion circles and, by extension, on the Godbeat.
I happened to sit next to a hero, a wise elder of religion writers, as the Anglican Church of Canada selected its new archbishop last week. He observed that few of Canada’s major dailies had sent reporters to cover the meeting, and that this reflected on how Canadian culture sees the church as largely irrelevant. I said a few reporters were present from dailies, but I had dismissed his point too glibly: the National Post depended on Douglas Todd of the Vancouver Sun; the Globe and Mail relied too much on telephone interviews; the Toronto Star let Canadian Press handle most of the week’s news.
It’s time to ask the question again: Has anyone in the GetReligion.org audience seen a mainstream news report on the issue of Sen. John “Call me JFK” Kerry and Communion that quotes the key Vatican language on politics, life issues and conscience?
Poynteronline’s Book Babes wonder how much significance lies in editor Sam Tanenhaus’ decision not only to review a spiritual memoir in The New York Times Book Review, but even to open the review on the cover. Granted, various readers may consider either decision equally blasphemous to the Times’ orthodoxies.
As a Southern Baptist preacher’s kid who grew up in Texas in the 1970s, I had lots of reasons to reject Ronald Reagan. That may seem strange to some of you, since it is now assumed that Southern Baptists and the Republican Party that Reagan built are wedded at the hip.
As Terry has indicated in this space, I spent the last week in St. Catharines, Ontario, covering the Anglican Church of Canada’s 37th General Synod for Anglican Essentials Canada.
I found an interesting commentary out there online about a major victory for the Anglican left in the sexuality wars in Canada.
