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This weblog has received a fine comment from Neil Averitt, author of the Washington Post travel piece about his visit to Mount Athos that I mentioned last Thursday. Since this is precisely the kind of dialogue with journalists that this blog welcomes, I thought I would pull his letter out of the comments pages to share with more readers.
I’m talking about a religion ghost in the ongoing saga between the Notre Dame traditionalists who believe the school is losing its soul as it attempts to compete against modern-day collegiate athletic programs and those who believe it’s a competitive athletic program that is essential to maintaining the traditional Catholic school’s soul.
We all agreed to take a look at Jon Meacham’s lengthy mash note to the sainted Billy Graham. I alternately enjoyed the Newsweek piece and felt it went a bit over the top in luscious praise. But I’m pretty sure I would have hated it if I hadn’t read Meacham’s earlier pieces on the Nativity, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When Newsweek‘s Jon Meacham is on target, there are precious few more elegant stylists writing about religion in contemporary America. God is in the details, or the devil is, depending on which folk saying you believe, and Meacham’s eye for detail is what makes his reporting such a pleasure to read.
I wanted to like Jon Meacham’s Billy Graham exclusive Newsweek cover story. It contained lots of good information. There were colorful, well-described scenes and a solid understanding of Graham’s mission as an evangelist. It dealt with most of the Graham-related scandals. At about 4,500 words, the piece was thorough and non-repetitive.
As noted in the past, Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham really doesn’t do ordinary journalism anymore.
Several readers have dropped me notes, seeking my take on that Washington Post travel feature the other day focusing on what it is like to visit the Holy Community of Mount Athos, on its rich, green, mountainous peninsula in northeast Greece.
I spent yesterday in an unformfortable chair waiting to see if I has going to end up on a jury. There’s a good chance I’ll be back in one of those chairs again in the days ahead. The good news is that this allowed me to read some long articles that I had torn out of magazines in recent days and stashed in my battered DC-commuter shoulder bag.
While it’s still too early to be talking 2008 presidential politics, we can’t help ourselves here at GetReligion, particularly when one of the country’s major publications puts out a landmark piece on how religion will affect the potential candidacy of not just a particular candidate but of the entire race.
