In the early 2000s, in my time as religion editor of The Oklahoman, Oklahoma’s then-Gov. Frank Keating always made for an interesting interview.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E in the boonies
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Go for hajj ... immediately
The Washington Post has a provocative story about the Justice Department suing a Chicago school district for outright religious discrimination. The reporter does a great job of writing the piece in a thorough and impartial manner. The facts are stated, multiple viewpoints are offered, and the result is a very interesting piece. Here’s how it begins:
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Christians who pole dance
One of the most tired religion angles can be found in stories with the following formula: Lots of people are [doing x], Christians put their own spin by [creating y], and people are responding by [saying z]. We see this with stories like using Twitter in church or a Christian twist on Yoga.
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This Westboro voice sounds strangely familiar
The Westboro Baptist Church saga has always intrigued and appalled me, in large part because of my background in church-state studies and First Amendment rights. I am also intrigued with people who are so radical that they defy easy description. As the old saying goes, sometimes people go so far to the right that they end up on the left (and vice versa).
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Mean Girls take on Chuck Colson
Ever since the movie Mean Girls came out, I can’t help but think of the Washington Post “Style” section as the “Mean Girls” section. I sort of imagine its copy editors in the same way Lindsay Lohan’s character describes the animal world (see the movie clip). Now, we live in an era where such snark is almost certainly popular, but it really doesn’t set well with me — especially when applied to serious news topics.
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What hath the LAT wrought
We mentioned last week that people were trying to make sense of the tragedy in Japan. I noted that a few celebrities did a very bad job blaming the Japanese for angering God; the specific ESPN story I discussed broached but did not address the theodicy question.
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(Blankety blank) Catholics and Rome -- again
The Catholic Cuomos of New York are constantly in the news, which means that journalists are continuously having to wrestle with adjectives.
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Understanding Japan's great wave
One of my many seatmates during my nearly 24 hours of travel this weekend (remind me to tell you about the married woman sitting next to me who spent hours hitting on her 19-year-old colleague sitting next to her) had a copy of the Wall Street Journal. In it was a beautiful essay by Ian Buruma, the Henry R. Luce Professor at Bard College.
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To toast or not to toast during Lent?
There’s an old joke that Jews don’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Protestants don’t recognize the pope as the leader of the Christian faith and Baptists don’t recognize each other at the liquor store.
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