Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Here we go again. It’s time to chase another ghost. In this case there is a slim possibility that the following tragic story from Russia contains no real religion angle whatsoever.
It’s no surprise people seek some sort of higher power when overcoming an addiction, whether it looks like meditation, prayer or other rituals that help the process.
At a meeting of a few dozen female writers and editors yesterday, we got talking about civil society and the corrosive nature of politics. An editor I respect a great deal tried to calm things down by reminding us that the political climate isn’t necessarily more hostile than it was in the late 1960s (she told us that she saw targets for sale then wixth President Johnson’s face on them). But, she added, she was appalled by what she called the “deliberate misrepresentation” by the media. She was referring, of course, to the coverage of the HHS mandate requiring religious employers to provide insurance plans that cover abortifacients, sterilization and contraception, even if it violates the doctrines of their church.
Just last week, I praised a Washington Post story that â in a fair, respectful way â managed to personalize black ministers who (a) fought for racial equality and (b) oppose same-sex marriage.
But before we get into that, raise your cyber-hands if you think one of the most important stories in the year — think religious liberty, think higher education, think politics — is the growing evidence of deep, bitter rifts inside American Catholicism linked to (a) basic matters of doctrine and (b) the degree to which people practice the faith (the old reality of the “pew gap” statistics) in sacraments and worship?
One of my friends is an impressive campaign operative. He flies across the country each week advising campaigns, from congressional races to presidential ones. He’s smart and savvy and has energy to burn. And even though he’s much younger than I am, he’s been doing it for more than 15 years. He started as a young homeschooler.
A Los Angeles Times profile this week of a would-be Kansas abortion doctor follows a pretty straightforward path.
While much of the American media is obsessed over how to best exploit something a political opponent said on the radio last week, there are a few other religion stories out there. We looked at media coverage of the murderous riots in Afghanistan over inadvertent Quran-burning already but as the riots continue, so does the coverage.
