Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Word Spy rightly honors journalist Alex Heard as the father of the word hathos, which he defined as “a mixture of hatred, disgust, embarrassment, and pathos” (The New Republic, Feb. 11, 1985).
Stephen Bates of the Guardian reports today on something remarkable: a “senior North American bishop” says the Episcopal Church is willing to punish African dioceses financially if it is disciplined for consecrating Gene Robinson as an openly gay bishop. Patrick Mauney of the Episcopal Church Center has previously said, “The disbursements are offered without strings attached.”
At first glance, it was a simple hard-news lead for a follow-up story on the deadly path of the remnants of hurricane Ivan into the misty blue ridges of Western North Carolina. Reporters Kristin Collins, Michael Biesecker, Josh Shaffer and Andrea Weigl of the Raleigh News and Observer wrote:
I got the strangest telephone call yesterday, one that is directly linked to a common problem/challenge/sin on the Godbeat.
Here’s David Gates, in the Sept. 20 issue of Newsweek, reviewing Philip Roth’s novel The Plot Against America, in which Charles Lindbergh is elected president (as the Republican candidate, naturally) and turns America into a fascist state:
So far, the Paul Crouch story has proceeded along the traditional lines of a low-level conservative sex scandal, by which I mean a scandal that is not part of some hypernews event (think Jim Bakker era) or a political crusade (think minister with strong ties to the White House).
Amid the many hosannas for The Question of God, the two-part PBS series hosted by Harvard’s Armand Nicholi (pictured), Richard Ostling of the Associated Press delivers this surprising criticism:
Interfaith worship is still a volatile an issue in some denominations. To choose one recent example, a task force in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado has recommended that liberals make a concession to conservatives by no longer administering Holy Communion to non-Christians.
Sometime this weekend, a TypePad software czar pushed a button that demoted me to “guest author” status here at GetReligion. Doug is the editor of the blog and he created it, with me as the associate. Yet I still have had the ability to handle my own posts (including all the typos) and art options. Now, I can post to the blog but cannot control the art, which is a major hassle for Doug — especially when he is on the road out there in dial-up territory.
