Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Churches handle special needs children in different ways, some large enough to create dedicated ministries while others look at it on a case-by-case basis. As Bobby mentioned earlier, some churches can’t handle children with special needs and end up either subtly or explicitly rejecting them.
Maybe you’ve heard: Conservative Christian voters are going to be a big deal in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
I’m always yammering on about how much I wish the mainstream media would cover stories dealing with the day-to-day lives of religious adherents. The problem with these stories, of course, is that it can be difficult to find stories that are newsy or terribly exciting.
Back in March, we did a couple of posts — here and here — on news coverage of a Catholic high school in New Orleans embroiled in controversy over corporal punishment and deeper issues.
CNN.com features a story about popular phrases that are wrongly attributed to the Bible. At the time I’m writing this, it has 111 pages of comments. That’s like 6,200 comments. And to think that editors sometimes wonder if religion stories have enough appeal.
In a way, it just isn’t fair to criticize the reporters and editors who work in small and even midsized newspapers. They often are forced, by the facts on the ground, to be journalistic jacks of all trades to a degree that is often staggering. It is rare to have experienced people working on specialty beats (except, of course, for stories involving religion — oh, sorry, I meant to say sports).
We at GetReligion have had a few stories about the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of problems at the famed Crystal Cathedral since the church filed for bankruptcy.
I love all most of our reader submissions, but the other day we received one that sounded pretty surprising. It comes from Hasan Hakeem, a member of the Ahmadiyya Community and the Chaplain of the Kenosha County Jail in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I’ll go head and just quote it:
As spring turns to summer, it’s the time for shaved-ice snow cones, cool dips in the swimming pool, hot nights at the ballpark … and steamy legal battles over whether prayer is allowed at high school graduation ceremonies.
