Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
News Flash: The New York Times believes that a small group of powerful U.S. evangelicals are forcing Ugandan policy makers into something they didn’t already want to do. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the front page article from yesterday on the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. The dateline says Kampala, but the article appears to be strung together from blog posts and could have been written from Antarctica.
Fox News analyst Brit Hume has taken some major hits over his advice to Tiger Woods that he embrace Christianity if he wants redemption. I’ve embedded the clip here. In a society that is deeply uncomfortable with any substantive discussion of religious differences, that Hume favorably compared Christianity to Buddhism is downright shocking. Now, I’m sure that there are readers here who think Hume admirably showed concern for Woods’ soul and readers who think he’s an anti-Buddhist bigot (and many other views). But I think the whole brouhaha is most interesting for the media freak out over response to his words.
The tributes to the late Deborah Howell continue, while I keep working on a Scripps Howard News Service column for this coming weekend focusing on her contributions — often behind the scenes — to religion-news coverage in mainstream newsrooms.
When religion reporters get together we like to discuss the great mysteries of our field. You know, questions like, “Why can’t more journalists learn that ‘Episcopal’ is an adjective, while ‘Episcopalian’ is a noun, even though it sounds like an adjective?”
The news of Deborah Howell’s death hit the journalism community hard this weekend. Howell was loved by many in the business — known for being ruthless in pursuit of breaking and accurate news, but also for being a pioneer of female leadership and colorful cussing. She was a top editor in the Twin Cities — one of the first female editors of a major newspaper — before coming to Washington to head Newhouse Newspapers Washington Bureau.
If you watched the Allstate Sugar Bowl on New Year’s, you probably noticed two things: that Tim Tebow hardly could have been more brilliant in his final collegiate game and that his iconic biblical eyeblack referred to Ephesians 2:8-10.
It was a busy New Year’s weekend for Mark Barna, religion reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, who covered the growing split between James Dobson and Focus on the Family, the powerful and prominent evangelical parachurch organization he has led for decades.
I suppose all good things must come to an end eventually but, after 20 years, the final New York Times‘ Beliefs column was printed on New Year’s Day. Terry, as usual, had some vital things to say about this development on the Godbeat — so go read his post below already if you haven’t done so now. Still, a major development has room for more than one us here at GR to comment on, even if Tmatt is a tough act to follow.
In July of 1997, the U.S. State Department, after months of pressure from human-rights activists, released its first global report on the persecution of religious minorities. The report was six months overdue and, thus, had not been released during a tense campaign by the Clinton White House to obtain Most Favored Nation trade status for China.
