Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Yesterday I complained about a Los Angeles Times story that profiled only one couple — an Evangelical Christian one — to represent the 61 percent of California voters who voted to limit marriage to one man and one woman. It was their support of the traditional definition of marriage that was ruled unconstitutional by the California State Supreme Court last week.
One would think that major changes at America’s second largest church and one of the most influential would make some news, but sadly most news organizations missed the story.
Eight years ago, more than 60 percent of California voters banned same sex marriage. It was this majority vote that was overturned by the California Supreme Court.
I was out of town this past weekend and have not caught up with that stack of Washington Post newspapers from last week, stacked outside my office. Thus, I missed an essay in the opinion section that ran with the headline, “Not the Party Faithful Anymore.” The author is someone named Mark Stricherz.
Reporters have pointed out that the California Supreme Court’s decision to redefine the state’s marriage laws is premised on the idea that homosexuality should be treated no differently than race. Now Maura Dolan of The Los Angeles Times fills in details about this assertion.
A journalist who strives to practice the discipline of balanced, objective reporting never has an easy task. Inserting religion into the job description only makes things more difficult. See here what washingtonpost.com/Newsweek On Faith columnist Claire Hoffman had to say about the subject a week ago:
Sometimes I’m surprised at how little the media covers the vibrant world of online religion. Snejana Farberov of Columbia News Service penned a piece about, loosely, God and the internet. She describes how churches broadcast their sermons online:
There’s a new sex scandal unfolding in the world of evangelicals, a small story that points toward an imporant and very complex larger story.
