Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Billy Graham turned 90 at the end of this past week, a landmark event that received very little press, all things considered. There were other things going on in the nation, of course.
Whatever would the world of religious journalism do without noted British evolutionary biologist — and even more famous atheist — Richard Dawkins?
It’s a good thing I have been following the Proposition 8 battle because if I hadn’t, there is no way I would have understood this Los Angeles Times story at all. It’s about a protest organized by opponents of the Proposition 8, the initiative that passed Tuesday amending the California Constitution to define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman. While a non-constitutional ballot initiative saying the same thing passed with an even greater margin 8 years ago, the state supreme court had ruled that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Anyway, this initiative — already in the works before the June ruling — passed and there have been various protests around the state.
It is no surprise that Newsweek has joined the chorus declaring evangelicals as big losers in this year’s election. What surprises me more is the exaggerated tone of both the headline on Newsweek‘s Web Exclusive by Lisa Miller — “Post-Evangelical America” — and of her first three sentences:
Democrats were more successful in attracting religious voters across the board this year than in the previous election — that much seems indisputable.
So, what’s the story about religious voters in the 2008 election? Well, it depends on who you’re talking to.
As any regular reader knows, your GetReligionistas are rather picky when it comes to how journalists use the imperfect words that describe various religious groups in American and around the world. There’s that “fundamentalist” clause in the Associated Press Stylebook, for starters. We are not postmodern journalists. Maybe it’s the religious history major in me.
Another chapter in the story of President-elect Barack Obama was written last night, and snippets are emerging about that section regarding the role faith played in that chapter. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has already updated their “Religious Biography” of Obama.
