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So former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was received into the Roman Catholic Church this past weekend. He had been Baptist. For most people, conversion isn’t exactly a political event. But when you’re a prominent Republican whose name is being mentioned as a possible future candidate for President, well, everything is political.
As much of an innovator as he was, the 16th-century Scottish reformer John Knox might still be shocked.
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution that calls on nation states to limit criticism of religions in general and Islam in particular. Proposed by Pakistan on behalf of other Islamic countries, the resolution passed with the votes of 23 countries on the 47-member council. According to Freedom House, many of the sponsors and supporters of the measure have some of the poorest records of respecting freedom of speech and religion in the world.
We’ve been tough on Sally Quinn here at GetReligion, and there’s no need to revisit those disputes today. Instead, I want to enjoy a tribute to Quinn by her only son as he describes what it’s like to live with Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome.
Not to bury the lede or anything, by when it comes to religion writing, Prof. Ari L. Goldman of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has been there and done that. During his two decades at the New York Times, he was one of the nation’s most trusted bylines on the religion beat and I have heard that judgment voiced by a stunningly broad range of clergy and Godbeat critics.
Houston Chronicle readers were introduced last week to the fact that a first generation Pakistani Muslim woman has values and preferences for a life mate that look an awful lot like a lot of Christian American women. She also faces a lot of the challenges all Americans face in general in finding a suitable life partner.
The furor over the nine-year-old who had twins aborted after allegations that her stepfather raped her has focused media attention what appears to be a tragedy of broader scope–the numbers of children sexually abused in Brazil.
Journalistically speaking, this might not be the best story you read today. It’s a bit choppy and seems to weld two different stories together. But they’re both important stories and one is about how churches are responding to the flooding in Fargo.
