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Ramadan began yesterday, and with it came a stream of related stories. Holiday stories. You’ve heard me bemoan holiday stories before, and I’m certain I could cherry-pick plenty here. But like with the Jewish High Holidays last year, I’d rather highlight a story that bucked the trend of holiday boredom.
It’s always interesting to see what stories reporters jump on and which are ignored. This has actually been a good year for coverage of changes in religious affiliation, thanks to some major studies on the matter. Here’s a CNN piece headlined “Study: Young Americans less religious than their parents,” for instance.
Long ago, when I was the religion-beat reporter and columnist for the Rocky Mountain News (please pause for a moment of silence), I thought that one of the most interesting stories in town was the growth of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church.
It’s a tough category, to be sure, but Lona O’Connor wins the prize for the worst story I’ve ever seen about female, non-Roman Catholic priests. It ran in the Palm Beach Post and it’s just absolutely embarrassing from top to bottom.
Few would disagree that the debate over same-sex marriage is more charged than usual. Charges of bad faith and bigotry abound. Honest reporting can help cooler heads prevail. Many of the arguments in this debate have been badly mangled, and that’s why I was so pleased to see this Religion News Service piece by Daniel Burke on “Why Prop 8 ruling scares religious conservatives.”
One of the big questions that specialty-beat reporters always have to ask themselves is this: “How much background information can I assume that my readers know about the subject of this complex story?”
Readers of The Columbus Dispatch woke up Monday to strippers — above the fold on Page A1, no less. Not to worry, though. The strippers spent Sunday at church, so there was actual news value to the story.
Readers here at GetReligion aren’t surprised to hear about the troubles that some religious groups have when attempting to build new or expanded worship sites. In recent years, we’ve seen stories about attempts to thwart construction or religious practice for Hindus, Orthodox Jews, Pagans, Mormons, Muslims and even charismatic Anglicans.
