“Aspirations of a President” is the title of a new video by Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty.
Generic 'evangelical Christians,' deja vu
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Blood, tears and theodicy in Brooklyn
One of the most important lessons that journalists learn as they gain experience is that accuracy is not a matter of knowing more and more things about more and more subjects. The first thing that reporters must know how much they don’t know. Humility then leads to the kinds of questions that produce accurate, insightful stories.
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Are you now or have you ever been a Lutheran?
I’ve frequently discussed my dislike of religiously ignorant reporters playing theological “gotcha” with political candidates. Sometimes I will be sitting in church and listening to a sermon and just imagining how completely and thoroughly a reporter might miss the point, the context, the tradition, the nuance, the proper distinction of the Law and the Gospel, etc.
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About that non-existent slippery slope
In a recent conversation discussing the New York Times‘ glowing hagiography of Dan Savage and his views in favor of adultery, we discussed how former Sen. Rick Santorum had said something years ago to infuriate Savage. The crime that resulted in naming the fecal slime that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex after Santorum? He argued that the legal reasoning being used in the Lawrence v. Texas (a huge gay rights case) could be used in favor of polygamy and various other private sexual acts.
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Catholics and foster kids in Illinois
I complained last week — surprise, surprise — about an NPR report on Illinois’ new civil unions law. Alas, this post is going to start in mid-sentence and not make a whole lot of sense if you missed that original post. So read it already.
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Betty Ford and the road out of hell
It’s amazing how much religion works its way into funeral services, especially into rites performed in churches that have ties that bind them to the language and the symbols of the early church. It’s really hard to edit the Godtalk out of these events.
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The Times grinds Its ax
We don’t typically spend too much time looking at mainstream movie or book reviews, but I thought the cover of the New York Times Sunday Book Review was worth looking at. For one, it’s written by Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. For another, the Review has this curious note from “the editors”:
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About that Times column on 'Open Embrace'
For almost a quarter of a century, I have written the weekly “On Religion” column for the Scripps Howard News Service.
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Those fundamentalist missionaries
You know those shoes with the little “TOMS” logo on the side that hip people tend to wear? They’re kind of loafer-like but for the cool kids. There was a mini-dust-up over the weekend when the founder of the shoe organization distanced himself from Focus on the Family, you know, that organization that James Dobson founded.
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