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I drove into the mountains of Tennessee last night listening to stories of sin, suffering, grace and forgiveness. That’s what was playing on the country music stations, of course, but that was also what was playing for part of the time on the BBC World Service.
Scott and Jean Adam (pictured here) had their yacht Quest hijacked by Somali pirates last Friday. Also on board were Phyllis MacKay and Bob Riggle. (Recent reports say that all four were killed.) Piracy is a major problem in the unstable waters near Somalia and many people are following the story with interest. The U.S. Navy is even involved. Part of that may have to do with the recent sentencing of Somali pirate Abduwali Abukhadir Muse. When he received 34 years in prison last week, calls for retaliation were made.
As I may have mentioned once or twice here, I’m the world’s biggest St. Louis Cardinals fan. A high percentage of my free time in the last week has been spent thinking about the contract negotiations between the Cardinals and one of my very favorite players throughout history — Albert Pujols.
Two elements of a Washington Post story that ran over the weekend appeal to me: small-town folks and a battle over church and state.
GetReligion readers who are basketball fans — especially those who follow NBA hoops — know that this entire weekend is, semi-officially, a giant launch party for a young man named Blake Griffin. He is a rookie (sort of, but that’s part of the tale) who was selected to play in the All-Star Game and last night he literally jumped over an automobile (while a gospel choir sang, live, on the court) to win the slam-dunk media festival.
Sometimes I think back to August and September when most mainstream media outlets were obsessed about the construction of an Islamic Center near Ground Zero and/or the planned (but never realized) burning of a Koran by a leader of a small church in Florida. Everywhere the media looked, they saw Islamophobia and it became the overarching narrative adopted by many figures in the media.
A few weeks ago, I had what I call a “parenting failure.” I realized that my girls, ages 1 and 3, knew all the words to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” song.
As I have said many times here at GetReligion, I cannot think of a topic in my work for the Scripps Howard News Service that draws a higher rate of response from readers than columns I about changes in how believers worship — especially changes affecting the Church of Rome.
I’ve definitely read my share of interesting stories related to immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. This one, about a Muslim cleric who had been deported from Canada getting caught while unsuccessfully being smuggled back into the United States, comes to mind. But I don’t want to sell short a story from the Los Angeles Times about a surge of illegal immigrants coming from … India.
