Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Last week I wrote about the noticeable lack of coverage of a recent Presbyterian Church (USA) ruling on issues surrounding homosexuality. The denomination has a few hundred thousand more members than The Episcopal Church but gets far less coverage. I asked why. Readers provided a number of interesting answers.
The Arizona Daily Star‘s Stephanie Innes seems to have the corner of the religion news in Tucson, Ariz. A reader wrote us a note about an interesting feature Innes has on the Rev. Coy Huffman in Saturday’s newspaper.
The “theodicy” issue seems to come up pretty often at GetReligion, which isn’t surprising since (a) disaster and tragedy are part of this sinful, fallen world and (b) the word “why” remains part of the “who, what, when, where, why and how” journalistic equation.
A few days ago, I called on reporters to examine why Catholics in the Wisconsin primary had moved from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. In response to my post, faithful GR reader Dale made a good point: Catholic voters migrated away from Clinton at the same rate as lower-income voters. Take it away Dale:
Last week the highest court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) ruled on a pretty contentious issue. I thought I’d wait a few days until more coverage of the ruling appeared in the mainstream press. But other than a few reports from veteran local religious reporters, I haven’t seen much of anything. Apparently a church ruling on homosexuality is only interesting to the media when it happens in The Episcopal Church.
I have always said that if you want to know what a political leader is really like, pay close attention to the beliefs and values of his or her spouse and children. I have taken flack, among evangelicals friends, for noting that the born-again President George W. Bush certainly seems to have a very upper-crust wife from the oldline Protestant side of Dallas and I have yet to see signs of traditional faith in the lives of his daughters. So be it.
Churches throughout the country have been given permission by the great and mighty National Football League to use their big screens during next year’s Super Bowl. The concession seems to come after pressure exerted by some national lawmakers (think anti-trust exemption and federal control over the airways) backed up by big newspaper stories.
Say what you want about The New York Times — actually, don’t say what you want — the paper does have some great resources at its disposal. One of my favorite features is their city journal. That’s where stringers and foreign correspondents file slice-of-life reports from exotic locales.
It is a truth too seldom acknowledged that white Bay Area journalists are exquisitely attuned to the ways of white southern Evangelicals.
