This may sound like a rather religious or even doctrinal question, yet it is a question that I want to ask for totally journalistic purposes.
Listening to ancient voices of grief
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Sacred collanders and religious freedom
Many of my libertarian friends are part of the Pastafarian movement. And they really think it’s funny. And I have to admit that I’ve never quite gotten its appeal. It all sprang from some Oregonian dude’s attempt to mock intelligent design and became a huge worldwide sensation among atheists. The Flying Spaghetti Monster Church has a made-up deity and holy days and religious gear and silly formal beliefs and all that — all to show the stupidity of religious belief. Get it?
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Pod people: From clubhouse to courthouse
For this week’s Crossroads, host Todd Wilken and I talked about media coverage of tragedy involving baseball star Josh Hamilton and about news reports on the impact of Illinois’ new civil-unions law on faith-based adoption and foster care services.
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Who, what, when, where, why and Harry
First things first: I want to stress that I feel nothing but sincere pity for the world weary and stressed news editors who recently had to sit around conference tables and, perhaps in the presence of oracles who read focus-group tea leaves, discuss one of the big questions of this news cycle.
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Is Bachmann the media's anti-Christ?
Yesterday, California became the first state to require “gay history” in public school textbooks. But I’m thinking states might want to consider just focusing on basic history. Yesterday’s news cycle was full of stories showing some pretty striking ignorance of the events of the 16th century.
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Generic 'evangelical Christians,' deja vu
“Aspirations of a President” is the title of a new video by Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty.
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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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