Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
We’ve seen many stories over the years of women proclaiming that they are Roman Catholic priests. In many of these articles, reporters forget to mention that the priests are in no way recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Tim Townsend has been a notable exception to this rule, and he had a nice follow-up story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last week.
Baptist Press ran an intriguing story this week. It was one of those laugh-to-keep-from-crying stories from the sort-of-secular public square.
Leading off a package of religion stories in the Lansing State Journal this morning is a solid feature on the effect the growing elderly population is having on religious communities.
USA Today religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman had an excellent article about Christian children’s book offerings. Apparently Christmas is peak season for sales of children’s Bible storybooks. Which makes sense. I’m buying this one, among others, for my nieces and nephews.
Early this month, I put up a major religion-news post, while offering no commentary about it whatsoever.
For four decades, opponents of the death penalty have waited for the moment when a state would abolish the practice.
My local newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, rightly leads this morning’s newspaper with the banner headline “EX-PRIEST ADMITS ABUSING BOYS.” The article describes a situation that is all too familiar to newspaper reporters covering local Catholic communities.
One of the sad consequences of journalists’ low reputation is that sources can claim mishandling even when it might not be true. Yesterday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s comments about the Mormon religion in this weekend’s Sunday New York Times Magazine 8,100-word profile were revealed. He claimed he was taken out of context. Yesterday, reader Hans noted:
Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s cover story on what the magazine calls “A New American Holy War” reads less like a news report than a sometimes exasperated prep-school instructor’s departmental memo about a pair of bickering students named Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. A quick aside about Newsweek‘s headline: Calling a lively religious debate in primary season “A New American Holy War” is like referring to door-to-door evangelism — whether by Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Southern Baptists — as “Spiritual Waterboarding.”
