Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
This past summer I was talking with another religion-beat professional and this nationally known journalist put something into words that I had been feeling, but had not yet articulated. This scribe who will not be named said that on many days she or he felt like he or she was turning into a public-relations person for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
This week’s New York Times Magazine had an article about a Christian comedienne who’s all the rage on YouTube.
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.
