Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
In what I think was my first GetReligion post, I mentioned coverage of the solstice get-downs at Stonehenge. Lacking from that AP article was much of a connection between the ancient circle of massive stones and the religious meaning given to it.
It’s fair to say that nine-term Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak is not a poster boy for conservatives, even for conservative Democrats. An opponent of the Iraq war, active on environmental issues, watch him being skewered above by radio host Rush Limbaugh for his criticism of advertising by the pharmaceutical industry.
Anyone out there in GetReligion reader land who wants to read a truly depressing A1 feature story? That’s what the Baltimore Sun gave us the other day and, truth be told, I have a sense that there is much more to this story than made it into the newspaper — but I don’t think there is much that reporter Nick Madigan could have done about that (with one or two exceptions).
This past June, I commented on the popular use of the word “icon” to describe Michael Jackson. In a way, the story below is a fitting follow-up to the summer stories of the deaths of other icons, such as Farrah Fawcett and Ted Kennedy. (Don’t forget this Wall Street Journal piece that made fun of how low the “icon” bar had been set.)
When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chartered Tufts College in 1852, the original act of incorporation said the college should promote “virtue and piety and learning in such of the languages and liberal and useful arts as shall be recommended.” The college began when Boston businessman helped the Universalist Church open a college there by donating 20 acres of land to it. Hosea Ballou, a Universalist clergyman was the college’s first president.
For die-hard NFL fans, the whole Bret Favre story has been kind of like a car crash in slow motion during an exciting race. It’s very hard to look away and, besides, this particular car may land wheels down and make it to the finish line ahead of, uh, the Pack.
Don’t we Americans love studies, surveys and polls? Some are particularly vulnerable to reports that claim to bring statistical precision to messy topics like religion and spirituality.
Let me own up to being on the losing side of the great American dialogue about guns. Linked to my pro-life beliefs is a deep skepticism that the answer to violence on American streets is owning guns to use in self-defense. Thus I find it unsettling when pollsters, as Pew did last spring, track a rise in anti-abortion sentiment — and a call for less regulation of guns. Is there a connection?
Here’s a story pretty much pre-packaged for broadcast and cable news. Fortunately, it’s found its way onto the AP wire and a few religion blogs, too.
