If you have ever lived in, or near, Washington, D.C., you know that there are only two things that our nation’s capital talks about in the fall and early winter.
Jim Zorn, we hardly knew thee
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Race in God’s Kingdom
Grading religion writers involves evaluating their work on stories both simple and complex. I always offer extra credit to those enterprising and creative journalists who seek out important stories that transcend today’s headlines. That’s why TIME’s David Van Biema gets a gold star for his 2,400-word piece, “The Color of Faith.”
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Can I get a (Ugandan) witness?
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.
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Hume can't say that!
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.
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Deborah Howell: She got religion
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.
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Blind spot in 20-20 'Blind Side' story?
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?”
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Remembering Deborah Howell
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.
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The apple of Tebow's eyeblack
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.
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Dobson's family squabble
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.
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