Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
The day that Redskins safety Sean Taylor was declared dead, Leonard Shapiro of The Washington Post wrote a column exploring the reasons for Taylor’s murder. Shapiro wrote that he could not say ultimately why Taylor was killed.
It’s about the theology, of course, not the politics. There are plenty of Catholics, Orthodox, evangelicals and mainiline Protestants out there who plan to vote for Gov. Mitt Romney or who can contemplate that issue without getting into discussions of heaven and hell.
Following the departures of various parishes, the Episcopal Church is working hard to keep the parish properties from the groups that have joined other Anglican bodies. There has been lots of Washington-area coverage since many of the parishes are from Northern Virginia. But The New York Times‘ Brenda Goodman reports on a story out of Savannah, Ga. Here is how it began:
As the early coverage of the Mitt Romney address continues, I would like to ask a basic question: Are most mainstream reporters assuming that the Christians — Catholic, Orthodox, evangelical and mainline — who do not consider Mormonism “to be Christian” are those who know little or nothing about the details of Mormon doctrine or those who actually know quite a bit and disagree with it?
It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for: Mitt Romney Speechifying Day. There are so many stories out there that we are able to look at only a fraction of them. And we’ll be sure to follow coverage throughout the days ahead.
Are the makers of Bella trimming their sails? I can’t tell. They might be telling one thing to the religious press and another to the secular press. Or mainstream reporters might be blind to the religious angle.
It has been a long, long, long time since I have been inside the imposing sanctuary of the Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
So even though I’m normally complaining about how journalists only notice religion when it involves politics, I’m giving myself up to the political machine this week and discussing more stories about Romney and his Mormonism. Coverage has been all over the map. Contrast, for instance, this headline from The Boston Globe:
Things have been pretty busy for me lately, but that will change in just under two weeks. Apologies for my low level of posts lately. I wanted to slip in a brief note to highlight what seems to me an impressive journalistic endeavor for a local newspaper. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., sent reporter Trevor Aaronson along with a local Baptist church’s mission group to India to report on missionary work in the world’s second-largest country.
