Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
As a rule, your GetReligionistas are fond of the regular Belief Watch column that appears in the crowded front pages of Newsweek. But I have a bone to pick with the recent mini-feature that ran with the headline, “Stop Your Sobbing — Now.”
OK, about that Eliot Spitzer business. There have been public calls for the New York governor to step down or face impeachment. So far, he has not announced an exit, stage left, but this is a developing news story. It’s possible that by the time you read this, New York Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will be in charge.
Stephanie Simon had a fine Column One feature the other day in the Los Angeles Times about a battle that is brewing — avoiding this pun is impossible — down in Alabama between the Southern Baptists and the beer drinkers who view home-based microbrewing as a kind of sacrament. You gotta love the dateline, too — Harvest, Ala. — and the lede that takes us into the catacombs of some true beer believers.
For Christians who observe the liturgical calendar, the pre-Easter, 40-day penitential season of Lent is upon us. In Western Christianity, Lent began on Ash Wednesday — February 6 this year. In the East, Lent began yesterday.
To the 1,342 readers (give or take a few) who sent us variations on the “Seven Deadly Sins” stories being published everywhere — we heard you.
That was one of the hot story angles that the mainstream press pounced on a decade or two ago when reporters discovered the snarky glory of covering the annual meeting of the CBA, which was once known as the Christian Booksellers Association. Among the insiders, this icky side of the Christian gifts industry is referred to with the overarching term “Jesus Junk.”
Few immigrant groups have it easy in the United States. When my maternal grandparents from Ireland immigrated in the early 1920s, they saw “No Irish Need Apply” signs in big-city storefronts. So it’s natural for reporters to feel sympathy for immigrants, even those who came to this country illegally.
Death and burial issues bring up a complex mix of beliefs, faith, rituals, customs and cultural traditions. The Chicago Tribune‘s religion section was able to cover a few of the issues in a rather short story on the growing number of religious traditions specially catered to today in the Chicago area.
It’s clear, to anyone who reads major newspapers, that one of the story templates of this election is the attempt by top Democrats to reach out to church people. I mean, search this here weblog for the words “Democrats” and “pews.”
