Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
As you would imagine, the media culture here in Washington, D.C., remains in full virtual-state-funeral mode following the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, the final prince of the television-driven Camelot era.
Journalists can be sometimes sloppy about how they use terms like “evangelical” or “born-again.” But they also face a real problem — how to convey the basics of a situation accurately in very limited space. And when covering a doctrinal dispute, or a controversial denominational figure, it’s very tricky to give your readers all the information they need without getting into dangerous territory.
Frankly, I do not quite know where to start, in terms of focusing on the role of religion in the mainstream media coverage of the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. For starters, his Catholic faith is a given. At the same time, so is his standing as a deeply troubled leader, husband, father, uncle and patriarch of the always controversial Kennedy clan.
You might remember the unbelievable story of Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton. He’s the guy who had the unbelievable performance at last year’s Home Run Derby. It wasn’t just that he had a first-round record — crushing 28 home runs in the first round and at one point hitting 13 home runs in 13 swings. But what was particularly noteworthy about the whole thing is that he’s a recovering addict. And what puts this into GetReligion territory is his incessant discussion of his faith and how God saved him from a rather miserable life.
While the health-care wars are dominating the mainstream press at the moment, I think it’s interesting that the Vatican inquiry into the doctrinal standards of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is continuing to get quite a bit of ink. In fact, there’s too much coverage — click here for a sample — to take it on all at once.
The Westboro Baptist Church must be the most objectionable Christian community in the United States. You know them from their “God Hates Fags” and “God Loves Dead Soldiers” posters and from their inability to find communion with pretty much any other Christians. They are a fringe organization, not simply “fundamentalists,” with less followers than countless minority religious groups spread across the country.
So last week, President Obama pitched his health care reform plan to religious leaders. Elizabeth looked at some of the coverage last Thursday of the “false witness” remarks. One angle that received surprisingly little mainstream coverage was Obama’s statement that “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.”
Let’s talk demographics for a moment. Hispanics are the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States. Around a third of American Catholics are Hispanic. And, according to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) website, Hispanic evangelicals are a booming demographic: “Hispanic born-again Christians make up 37 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population and 88% of all U.S. Hispanic Protestants, 43% of all U.S. Hispanic Mainline Protestants, and 26% of all U.S. Hispanic Roman Catholics.”
