Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is up to his old tricks and has angered the European Council of Rabbis with his remarks about the Jews’ role in the crucifixion of Jesus. The bishop believes Jews are Christ-killers — and his latest words on the subject come as Pope Benedict XVI begins an inter-faith summit in Assisi. Among his many attributes, I must say Bishop Williamson has great timing.
During the past decade of so, pollsters have begun paying attention to an interesting phenomenon. A growing percentage of young Protestants who would ordinarily be called “evangelicals” have started running away from that word.
For this week’s Crossroads podcast, host Todd Wilken and I discussed media coverage of the spirituality of Wall Street protestors. We’ve frequently noted the hostile posture that many news outlets have toward those religious activists who have conservative positions but in many ways the treatment received by religious activists who have liberal positions is even worse. That’s because they’re largely ignored. This was definitely a problem with early coverage, although it has improved, as we discussed in a recent post.
In its most prime real estate â Column One â the Los Angeles Times recently carried the story of an inmate finding forgiveness on death row.
Anyone who is familiar with the Catechism of the Catholic Church knows that this volume takes the words “Thou shalt not kill” very, very seriously. Thus, it is also crystal clear in its affirmation of the early church’s rejection of abortion.
Last night, I was reading a couple of stories that suffered from the same problem. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Since day one, a major theme here at GetReligion has been the need to portray the specific beliefs of specific believers whenever possible, instead of taking the easy road and settling for simplistic labels.
Back when the Occupy Wall street protests began, I complained about the lack of coverage in general and the lack of coverage of religion angles in particular. When the coverage improved, I made sure to note that as well. It’s my observation that the best reporting comes from ideological outfits, particularly (as you might suspect) on the more progressive side of things. ReligionDispatches is a great resource, for instance.
