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A friend who called my attention to Mark Lilla’s New York Times essay (about leaving behind his faith) raised this question: Will the Times ever publish a similar essay about a person who comes to faith?
Sundayââ¬â¢s Washington Post carried an excellent story on faith in baseball. Drawing largely on the local team, the Washington Nationals, for illustrations, reporter Laura Blumenfeld does a fine job of depicting the current state of faith in the dugout.
OK, I tried hard on my latest Pat Robertson post to keep things short, so I had better jump in here online (I am still in Chicago during some lectures) and address one or two concerns of readers who could see some of the holes created by my brevity.
What a great read The Associated Press’s Roger Alford provided for us this morning. I forget, being a Presbyterian and a city dweller, that water pollution is not an issue exclusively for fishermen and nature lovers. I say kudos to Alford for his work in digging up this piece — that includes some interchurch conflict over baptism at the end — and doing some quality research as well.
Earlier this week, our friends over at the ethics and diversity office at Poynter.org published a column that I wrote pleading for journalists to drop the Rev. Pat Robertson from their list of “usual suspects” that they call to speak for the world of conservative Christians and other moral traditionalists. I thought the headline was pushy, but appropriate: “Excommunicating Pat Robertson.”
I am struggling to dissect this front page piece in today’s Washington Post. Initially it seemed like a hit piece, but on a second reading, I have trouble finding any gaping holes in what is an extremely well reported and relatively balanced piece of journalism.
The October issue of The Atlantic offers another rich meal of religion references, especially in Joshua Green’s “Roy and His Rock,” an 8,200-word essay on Judge Roy Moore and his traveling granite monument of the Ten Commandments. The Atlantic‘s website limits access to the full article, but I’ll quote some favorite passages here.
There are many people on the Religious Right who are tempted to say that the great division in this land — shown by the “pew gap” — is between unbelievers and believers.
There’s more big news from the Catholic Church this week. As most of you probably already know, the Vatican is considering a ban on homosexuals from the priesthood. This is certain to create a new intense round of debate in the mass media on the nature of homosexuality and of the priesthood. I haven’t had the time to do a thorough search yet of the coverage, but it seems that The New York Times is on top of the issue:
