Remember that 2004 pre-election coverage when political reporters were trying to parse theological statements made by Roman Catholic archbishops? Some reporters had trouble understanding how Catholic leaders had the audacity to discuss whether pro-choice Catholic candidates were violating church teachings. And everyone obsessed about the abortion issue at the expense of other issues Catholic leaders care about. Part of the problem might have been the use of political reporters to discuss a fundamentally theological issue.
A Godbeat forum at USA Today
For more than a week now, I have been trying to remember to let GetReligion readers know that the digital team at USA Today has created a website that makes it easier for people interested in religion news to read the analysis pieces that run every Monday on the op-ed page. The feature is called “Monday: On Religion,” which only slightly freaks me out since my weekly Scripps Howard News Service column has been running for 17 years and it’s called “On Religion.”
A note to religion reporters
Can anyone guess what the top two books at Amazon were Tuesday afternoon? If you guessed that the books had anything to do with religion, you would be correct.
Killing embryos
Last night, as I settled in to watch my St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers (fairly, no less!), I told my husband about a political ad I’d seen the day before. It featured actor Michael J. Fox asking people in Missouri to support an amendment to their state constitution that would ensconce embryonic destruction for the purpose of stem-cell research.
DiIulio loses faith in the Gray Lady
It’s hard to deal with life in the faith-based-politics era without running into the work of researcher John J. DiIulio Jr., the Democrat (and Roman Catholic) who briefly headed up President Bush’s faith-based outreach to religious groups that try to help their neighbors.
The BBC's failed multiculturalism
The BBC doesn’t like Christians, and there are discussions of ways to change this. As revealed by the British conservative tabloid the Daily Mail, “the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism.” To most on the right, this is not shocking news.
Quiet return of the pink elephant
It isn’t news when the officially edgy Style section of The Washington Post prints a lengthy feature story that opens like this:
Is "glossolalia" in the AP Stylebook?
My fellow Godbeat scribes, I come to you today to ask a question that has been bothering me for several weeks.
Clinton praying with Republicans
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s ability to be an effective member of Congress’s upper chamber is directly tied into her affiliation with a lawmakers’ prayer group sponsored by the Fellowship. It was in this group that Clinton first started turning herself into “the consummate Washington player,” as documented by Joshua Green in the cover piece of the November Atlantic.
