Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
I was going to post this early in the week (hat tip to reader Larry Rasczak), but the Virginia Tech tragedy and several days of travel got in the way. I am currently in Southern California, after speaking for two days at California Baptist University.
What would the news coverage look like if three Muslims were found with their throats slit in an Islamic publishing house in a northern Scotland town? Two victims were citizens of the United Kingdom and one was from Morocco, and the apprehended suspects said they did it for their country because “they are attacking our religion.”
In a 5-4 ruling earlier this week, the Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The mainstream media are known for struggling with abortion coverage.
The tragic shootings Monday at Virginia Tech tell a story about life and death, and whenever those subjects are discussed religion will no doubt become involved. Tmatt wrote on Tuesday that the “religion shoe” would soon drop. And as predicted, religion did drop throughout the day’s memorial service.
Maybe it’s really difficult to write about Pope Benedict XVI. We noted that bad Newsweek International piece last week. And here’s another one that’s not the best example from the genre. Jeff Israely filed something from Rome for Time that was given the headline “A Step Backward for Pope Benedict?” Intriguing. Let’s learn more:
Laurie Goodstein had a very interesting feature in Sunday’s New York Times on Hispanics abandoning religion in the United States. Goodstein brings life to recent polls and surveys about the trend by speaking with immigrants about why they have ceased worshiping. One Guatemalan immigrant says he stopped feeling the need to pray to God when he came to America. Goodstein says research suggests that secularization is part of assimilation into American society. Studies indicate that Hispanics who identify themselves as having no religion are more likely to have previously been religious than other Americans.
You’ve been out there clicking from site to site, because you know that the 24/7 cable-news channels are trapped in old-video-loop hell. You’re looking for new information, but you are also waiting.
In response to tmatt’s post that GetReligion should comment on more stories about non-Christians, a reader Liv submitted this New York Times piece on religious tensions in Turkey. I mention this because it is an example of a story unrelated to Christianity that has massive application to the largely Christian nation that is the United States of America.
