Back in March, I wrote a post about the ethics of undercover journalism. The hook was the NPR sting but the background was the vigorous debate among prolifers about stings of various Planned Parenthood offices. That debate centered around undercover reporters exposing employees willing to break rules and laws in order to help an underage sex ring. Some defended the morality of the undercover journalism while others said that lying can’t be defended, even if it does expose wrongdoing.
A wedding under the Church of England's watch
If you dare to wake up at 3 a.m. to watch the royal wedding on Friday, consider yourself a traitor. So argues Mark Oppenheimer at Slate, who encourages Americans to boycott the nuptials. This isn’t Mark’s usual religion column, but maybe you’ll enjoy the mini history lesson.
Father McGreevey? Not so fast.
Many readers have sent along the New York Post story that uses unnamed sources to report that former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey is not being allowed to join the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. It’s written with about as much nuance as you’ve come to expect from the Post, but at least they’ve corrected a few errors that were in the original version of the story. Now, for instance, they have the correct name of the bishop of the Newark Diocese.
Church and State ... and unions?
As the daughter of a public employee union member, I was inclined to look at this Associated Press story about religion and unions. Its headline in the USA Today version was “Churches wrestle with God’s stand on union rights.” I was hoping the story would discuss, well, churches wrestling with the issue — or with each other — but it was actually just a long, but shallow, look mostly at what a few mainline clergy have to say about collective bargaining battles:
Wedding threatens to overshadow beatification
Friday would be a good day for anyone to admit to some secret scandal because you can pretty much predict that a significant portion of the media will be focused on the royal wedding. And then recovering Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to watch her husband launch into space. Even if reporters break other news, it might be difficult to get people’s attentions.
'Doing church' at home
In my work with The Christian Chronicle, I have enjoyed following the growth of simple/house/organic churches — pick the term you prefer, please — over the last few years. This is the lede on a piece I wrote five years ago:
Confess your eco-sins!
A few weeks ago we looked at a public relations campaign — and how it was covered — by the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Miami. Now, private confession and absolution is a serious thing among certain religious adherents. My Lutheran pastor offered extra hours for confession during Lent and even more during Holy Week so we could avail ourselves of the opportunity. This is a regular part of worship life for many of us but is widely ignored by many mainstream media.
Easter Googling
I bet an embarrassing number of us would find our Google searches reflect what we think about, our cares and concerns and our future plans. For instance, you might find variations of “royal wedding” and “Kate Middleton wedding dress” shamelessly appearing in my web history this week.
Ancient marches in Damascus (updated)
Something very sobering and terrible is sinking in for Western journalists who are covering the uprising in the Middle East. They are beginning to wonder if the outcomes of these revolutions will automatically be good or, at least, “good” as defined in terms of civil liberties and human rights as they are promoted at, let’s say, the United Nations.
