A story on the growth of the Hindu population in my hometown of Indianapolis caught my eye the other day, and while I don’t have a lot of thoughts on it, other than sharing tmatt’s opinion that it was a nice change of pace, I wanted to bring it up before the weekend.
God, libraries and Harry Potter
As GetReligion readers may know, I am starting to get interested in podcasting (in this post-Katrina era of crowded commuter trains). One of my favorites is the weekly Pottercast program put out by the fanatics at The Leaky Cauldron. This week’s episode (No. 6) is linked to the annual Banned Books emphasis by the American Library Association.
Meanwhile, at the Darwin Derby
While Washington, D.C., holds its collective breath waiting for the next round of the Supremes game, anyone who really wants to catch up on events in the Darwin Derby need only click over to the blog of the omnipresent Ted Olsen, Rob Moll & Co. at Christianity Today. They have decided to call this the “Unintelligently Designed Edition” and, yes, its 300-plus links sprawl out — but in a way that is not random or impersonal.
So an anonymous priest walks into a newsroom . . .
Where do we begin, when it comes to talking about the recent flurry of news reports about the Roman Catholic Church and the proposed — repeat, proposed — “ban” on the ordination of homosexual priests?
Jerry Falwell, gay-rights activist?
My Scripps Howard News Service column is out and it’s about the story behind an odd little news story involving a new gay-rights activist named Jerry Falwell. Does anyone have any theories as to why this story did not get more MSM attention (other than the fact that Falwell is as far from the limelight these days as Pat Robertson should be)? Just curious.
Monkey trial II?
The evolution versus God legal wars started anew this week, or at least that is how the media is framing the landmark Pennsylvania trial over whether a school district is legally able to require students to hear about the “intelligent design” theory.
Journalists and "cafeteria" Catholics
Talk about rigging the debate. While nothing may be higher on the Catholic agenda than abortion (even more, it appears at time, than war and poverty), it doesn’t mean the death penalty is some minor issue unrelated to Catholic teaching. A Catholic who supports the death penalty is a cafeteria Catholic. The church is not neutral on the death penalty and it is clearly in opposition to church teachings even if abortion is the only litmus test . . .
Another dangerous appeal for balance
And now we return once again (cue: swirl of soapy organ music) to As Public Broadcasting Turns. That’s kind of what I hear inside my head whenever I read news reports about the ongoing tensions in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting linked to the work of chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who, reporters always remind us, had this strange idea that PBS and NPR lean to the left.
Two articles, one viewpoint
Two articles in The Washington Post this weekend caught my attention (and some of our readers’ attention). Both took on a chunk of the big debate over “where we all came from” and both were displayed prominently in the main section of the paper.
