Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Amidst this country’s discussion on race, the subject of religion appears more often than not, but not always in the appropriate context. The importance of churches, religious groups and faith in the civil rights movement cannot be overstated. A striking area that should not be forgotten is the effect race has played, particularly in the south, in scholastic athletics.
In this year of anniversaries and celebrations, dead scientists like Darwin and Galileo are getting their due. Live ones, like the atheist former Oxford don Richard Dawkins, attract media attention pretty much every time he opens his mouth or slings a godforsaken poster on a bus.
One part of Michael Kinsley’s legacy at Slate is an almost predictable fondness for contrarianism. This sometimes results in a bracing departure from pack journalism, such as Kinsley’s proposal that all parties in the debate about gay marriage would best be served by removing government from the discussion entirely.
As you would imagine, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the Rocky Mountain News the past week, especially once the final word came down on the shutdown of the newspaper where I worked during most of the 1980s. I still have lots of friends out there and, of course, that is also the paper that the Divine Ms. MZ Hemingway grew up reading, as well. Lots of memories.
Because my background is in economics and not religion or media, the media malpractice that gets me worked up the most usually involves numbers. No matter which newsroom I’ve worked in, the presence of numbers or numerical analysis seems to make journalists lose any brainpower. You should see what it’s like when reporters try to analyze polling data or governmental budgets. It’s just not pretty.
The last couple of weeks have seen a significant amount of coverage on the issue of big families. Much of this has been sparked by the single mother of six who gave birth to a set of octuplets in January in California. The story is full of issues relating to morality and what one believes about the significance of children, the family, procreation and life in general. Central to many individual’s beliefs on these issues is their faith, but that is not what is getting the attention in the news stories.
One of the things I wish we saw more were casual inclusions of religion in stories about general life. It seems that there’s a lot of compartmentalizing of religion — as if stories are completely secular or they’re pigeonholed as religion news.
Those rowdy Anglican conservatives out there are very upset that the mainstream press has not paid more attention to the election of Father Kevin Thew Forrester as the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. If you wish, click here to get a sense of just how upset they are.
Dan Gilgoff, who runs the God & Country blog over at U.S. News & World Report, picked up on a little noticed but terribly interesting development in civil religion. Apparently President Obama’s public events are now being launched with prayers from local leaders.
