Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Main Entry: bal-kan-ize …Inflected Form(s): bal-kan-ized; bal-kan-iz-ing … Etymology: Balkan Peninsula … 1: to break up (as a region or group) into smaller and often hostile units
My local congressional district has a special election in a couple of weeks to fill the House seat vacated by the late Rep. Julia Carson, D-Ind. You wouldn’t know it from reading our local newspaper The Indianapolis Star, but the Democratic candidate for the seat, Carson’s grandson Andre Carson, could become the nation’s second Muslim member of Congress.
The Los Angeles Times has a pretty off-the-rack news feature in print today about the Rev. Mike Huckabee and his ongoing “miracles happen” campaign for president, vice president, syndicated talk-show host, Rolling Stones bass player or whatever.
Much of the mainstream media coverage of the controversies in the Anglican Communion have focused on The Episcopal Church. Canada’s Globe and Mail looked at how things are playing out in another part of North America. Robert Matas wrote a story on Friday about a parish in Vancouver deciding to align with Anglicans in South America. He took the novel and welcome angle of determining why the parish had made its decision. For his lede, he told readers about the Bible study that parishioners at St. John’s Shaughnessy Church had taken part in prior to voting to request oversight from Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of Southern Cone:
Your GetReligionistas have, from time to time, asked editors and reporters to ask the “Why?” question in that old journalistic sequence, “who, what, when, where, why and how.” That question can be pretty hard — hellish even — in some stories linked to tragedy and disaster.
Amy Sullivan of Time wrote a story about recent efforts by Democratic officials to reach out to religious voters. Her story included some fascinating details about how John Kerry’s campaign bungled its chance to appeal to the same, such as this one:
The same-sex marriage wars have flared up once again in Maryland, which should not come as a surprise. It also seems that religion will play a major role in the discussions of whether the state legislature should back a legal redefinition of marriage or pass some other measure addressing the issue. Duh.
To mark St. Valentine’s Day, Monica Hesse of The Washington Post wrote about polyamorous couples. Her story described the lives of eight people who are in relationships with more than one person.
A few readers sent along an excellent story by Neela Banerjee in the New York Times. She looked at custody disputes across the country where religion comes into play. The story is fantastic. Wonderfully balanced, very informative and full of excellent reporting:
