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Anyone who knows anything about religious communities — especially ethnic communities — knows that food plays a crucial role in both public and private life. Wednesday-night Lutheran church suppers (hello Garrison Keillor) in the Midwest, or in Baptist fellowship halls in Texas, have quite a bit in common with breaking-the-feast dinners during Ramadan.
Someone please tell me to stop reading articles about Michele Bachmann. Really, the Republican race is much bigger than her campaign and there are so many other candidates and issues to consider. But I cannot wrap my head around some of the strange coverage of her faith as these articles have become my recent guilty pleasure for some reason.
On this week’s Crossroads, host Todd Wilken and I talked about media coverage of Rick Perry’s appeal to evangelicals, the role of religion in the U.K. riots and World Youth Day.
Long-term GetReligion readers probably know that I am a conservative Democrat with Texas roots (so that makes me pro-life and willing to raise taxes, I guess). Tea parties? I like my tea iced, with lemon.
The Wall Street Journal tackles problems with religious freedom in China on both is news and editorial pages this week. In the opinion piece, the editors argue that China may have succeeded in using breakdowns to deter resistance in the past, but shows how recent actions by Buddhists, Muslims and Catholics show the crackdowns are now creating more resistance.
Once more, into the religion-beat word wars (with an emphasis on the often foggy meaning of the word “evangelical”)!
Now, as I may have mentioned a time or two, I’m a devoted fan of the Texas Rangers. As such, I don’t exactly root for Hunter, an All-Star outfielder for the rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (I did like the movie.)
The Roman Catholic Church is having its World Youth Day in Madrid, an event geared toward young people and held in celebration of the Catholic faith. These events are held locally every year and internationally every two to three years. They attract hundreds of thousands of youth from all over the globe and they’ve been credited with helping young people get more involved in the church. This marks the world’s largest gathering of young people. This year is no exception. As many as 1.5 million people are expected for Saturday’s vigil and Sunday’s Papal Mass outside the city.
The death and destruction caused by rioters in the U.K. has been difficult to watch. I’ve followed the stories and wondered about how well the religion angles have been covered. One tragic story sticks out for how well a victim’s family religion was highlighted. That story is about the death of Haroon Jahan, one of three Muslim men to die after being hit by a car during riots in Birmingham. Reuters reported how his father Tariq Jahan rushed to aid the men, only to find out that one of the victims was his own son:
