Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Were you thinking that the Vatican Media Frenzy had gotten a bit stale? Well, you’re in luck. Roughly eleventy billion media outlets are running a story about something Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said at a Chilean press conference yesterday:
Trust me, I understand that for many religious leaders — some on the left, but armies on the doctrinal right — it feels good to unleash a holy flood of anger at the mainstream press from time to time. Frankly, I am amazed that newsrooms don’t get picketed every now and then by people with incense and holy water.
The big headline on the front page of Sunday’s Charlotte Observer made me want to bite into the story immediately. “Food for the Soul,” it declared in 72-point letters (I’m guessing on the type size). The deck head confirmed the apparently strong religion angle:
So yet another story in the Vatican Media Frenzy 2010 came out on Friday. And the Associated Press did its best to make it seem like the story to end all stories:
Back in my Colorado journalism days, I attended a national conference that drew a wide variety of people who backed the ordination of women. As I walked around the campground scribbling notes (often with a sharp journalist named Douglas LeBlanc), I became aware of just how much diversity was present in that body of believers.
In a different media environment, I suspect that the big Catholic news of the week would be the Opus Dei affiliation of Archbishop Jose Gomez, named to succeed the archbishop of Los Angeles.
Having a personal history with the Mormon church, I think I’m more aware than most that the church is controversial. There are certainly elements of the church’s theology and history that feed that perception, but the fact remains that much of the news coverage of the church has a whiff of sensationalism.
Whenever I get on my high horse about the ways in which mainstream journalists abuse the term “fundamentalist,” I always urge journalists to simply allow religious believers to describe their beliefs. It is also fair game, of course, to describe the people’s actions in the public square, then ask them to explain how their beliefs shape those actions.
As long-time readers will recall, one of the basic religion-news templates used in the mainstream press is closely linked to a theological term — “theodicy.” While many people will define this term in different ways, the discussions almost always spiral back to this question: Why does evil exist in a universe created by a loving God?
