One of the best quirks about journalists, at least on the print side of things, is our general obsession with words.
A cliche is a terrible thing to waste
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All kinds of Godbeat top 10s
All kinds of people do all kinds of Top 10 lists at the end of the year. Some people like ‘em, some people don’t.
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Obama, Person of the Year, isn't religious?
Time magazine’s Person of the Year feature rightly focused on President-elect Barack Obama. Unfortunately, while the magazine managed to slip in an unremarkable (but first-person) look at Obama’s basketball skills and its influence on his life, none of the magazine’s four articles on the Person of the Year Obama touched on the influence of religion on the campaign of the influence faith has had on Obama’s life.
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Apples to apples to oranges
It’s always interesting to see which data analysis or surveys get covered by mainstream media outlets and which don’t. A bunch of media outlets chose to highlight a study this week comparing 289 teens (average age of 17 in 1996) who took abstinence pledges at that time with 645 teens who were otherwise similar but didn’t take abstinence pledges. That is, the two groups shared, among other things, similar religious, sexual and political views. The study did not in any way compare either of these groups with the 11,000 or so teens from the same data set who didn’t take pledges and weren’t similar in their political views or religious views.
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A pew more 2009 religion predictions
Following in the footsteps of Brother LeBlanc (or at a respectful distance behind him), here are a few semi-serious, and semi-safe, predictions for the New Year.
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Religion plus politics equals 2008
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Fearless predictions
Inspired by David Gibson on his Pontifications blog, I will float these predictions for the Godbeat in 2009. I lack the courage to commit myself to any one answer, or the insight to write every item with serious intent.
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In Jesus' name
Unlike all other Americans (give or take a few) I’m not a big fan of civil religion. I dislike the way it forces a syncretism and watering down of sacred beliefs in service to political goals. But there is a long-standing tradition of civil religion in America — invocations at political events, mentions of religious texts in inaugural speeches, veneration of Lincoln and other great politicians, interfaith events for political causes, etc. And so we will be witnessing a tremendous amount of civil religion in a few weeks when President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office to lead our country.
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GetReligion gets a pope gift
Back when I was a full-time religion-beat reporter, I was involved in covering several papal visits to the United States. There was a game that I used to take part in with several other mainstream reporters when we covered papal speeches, a game that I called “Spot the soundbite.”
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