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No room for God in the sensational?

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The East Valley Tribune, the daily newspaper that covers the Pheonix, Arizona’s East Valley, has a very interesting profile about a month ago about a former reporter for the National Enquirer who was told often to be careful about using the word “God” in his articles and to “steer clear of ‘any way endorsing religion or faith.’” The Tribune rightly put this information in the lead of the profile of this ex-tabloid reporter Chris Benguhe but does little to follow up for why this is the case in tabloid journalism land.


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Ch-ch-ch-changes at GetReligion ?08

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The other day, while I was meeting with a bunch of Godbeat pros at the Religion Newswriters Association (here and here for pieces of that), it hit me (ouch) that GetReligion is creeping up on the fifth anniversary of the day when Doug LeBlanc clicked “publish” and put the original test site online.


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Religious caricature double standard?

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Just as Young Man Pulliam said last week, Deborah Howell devoted her most recent ombudsman column to the controversy over Pat Oliphant’s anti-Pentecostal cartoon that was published on WashingtonPost.com. Howell had noted in an earlier column that readers were right to complain over the cartoon. This weekend, she ran a lengthier piece about political cartooning in general.


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Newman's exodus to ... what, exactly?

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Actor Paul Newman did not need steady film roles to stay in the spotlight. Choose your favorite Newman: unpretentious neighbor in Westport, Conn.; octogenarian race-car driver; entrepreneur and philanthropist; political activist and financial supporter of The Nation. One chapter has proven more difficult to flesh out: When and why did he become interested in Unitarian Universalism, and what did it mean to him?


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Grasping Demons

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Another controversial preacher is making news. His name is Thomas Muthee, a Kenyan pastor who has preached at Gov. Sarah Palin’s former Assembly of God church in Wasilla, AK and claims to have cast out demons. Both Newsweek‘s On Faith blog and The Christian Science Monitor ran stories about Muthee, and the two were entirely different in subject matter if not quality.


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Where does 007 kneel?

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Religion is not the first topic that comes to mind for James Bond, the MI6 agent portrayed in dozens of movies, numerous print productions, more than a handful of video games and who knows how many parodies. I know the next Bond film Quantum of Solace is scheduled for released in November, but this weekend isn’t too early to take a light-hearted look at the possible religious faith of this womanizing, fearless secret agent thanks in large part to The Times‘ http://timesonline.typepad.com/faith/2008/04/was-james-bond.html “>Faith Central blog.


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