Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
On Saturday, thousands of opponents of the current health care legislation showed up at the Capitol where they expressed concern with various parts of the bill. I was able to observe many hours of the protest and some of the proceedings inside. But I thought it interesting that the very first protester I saw getting off at the Metro stop nearest to the Capitol was a nun in habit.
There’s an Associated Press story today that is equal parts interesting and frustrating. The set-up for “Texas church bans child’s photograph of Passion,” is certainly intriguing:
So it appears that we are staggering to the finish line on this health-care reform bill — maybe. To no one’s surprise, or, at least, no one who has paid any attention to American politics for several decades, the key dividing line continues to be abortion.
The D.C. Three may disagree, but from my perch out west it appears that the only news coming out of the capitol these days — especially today — concerns healthcare reform. Almost all of the religion mentions I have seen in health care reform stories has concerned either whether religious leaders were on board or whether the latest version of the bill included federal funding for abortion. Sometimes it’s a combination of the both.
Pawel must have never imagined those words would mean something special to him. He was a Neo-Nazi skinhead, and The New York Times used his story to illustrate a most unique portion of the Jewish revival in post-Communist Poland:
We spend a lot of time here arguing for the importance of considering faith in reporting, and journalists on religion beat do this every day.
I have a friend who has been on the health care beat for her paper for years. I saw her last week at a party and she looked a bit weary. I gave her my own views on the matter and she replied, in all sincerity, “I just want it to be over.” It is very difficult to be a journalist covering this thing. It’s hardly the most transparent thing to have been debated in Congress, it has about a million moving parts, special interests are fighting for last-minute inclusions or exclusions, and the legislative machinations are confusing for all but the most nerdy of parliamentarians.
Once again, we enter the complex and confusing world of the people called “Baptists,” that diverse crew that ranges from the Rev. Bill Moyers to the Rev. Pat Robertson.
On the surface, a recent report by the San Antonio Express-News on an atheist student organization urging classmates to trade in religious texts for pornography seems harmless enough.
