, , ,

Nun wars: For Pete's sake, quote the Vatican

, , ,

At the heart of the whole U.S. nuns vs. the Vatican media storm is the April 18th “doctrinal assessment” in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed its concerns about the theological orientation expressed by the leadership of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The report mentions a host of concerns about a decade or two of LCWR educational events, speeches, national conferences, etc.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

Girls State conflicts with Catholic Mass

, , ,

The last few months have seen a few stories about children managing conflicts with their religious beliefs. There was the story about the Orthodox Jewish day school in Houston that won its regional championship to advance to the boys basketball state semifinals but couldn’t play because the game was scheduled during their Sabbath. There was the story about a school run by the Society of Saint Pius X that forfeited a baseball game rather than compete against a girl, in violation of their beliefs about treating women with respect.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , ,

When worlds collide: Scientology and the Nation of Islam

, , , ,

The Tampa Bay Times reports the Pinellas County Florida Board of Education has revoked the license of a charter school that uses a religion-based curriculum after its students tested poorly in the state-wide FCAT exams (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test).


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , ,

Shocker! Solid effort on a Catholic sex story

, , , ,

It would be hard to find a subject that would be rank much higher than natural family planning on the religion-news beat’s “high degree of difficulty” list. As if that were not enough, I would assume that editors at The Denver Post assigned the following story because of the current tsunami of coverage about You. Know. What.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, ,

The media's next move on same-sex marriage

, ,

Last week we looked at NPR’s self-analysis of its bias in favor of same-sex marriage. Even before I wrote that, I wanted to look at this earlier piece by Brian Stelter at the New York Times headlined “Did the News Media Drive the Gay Marriage Debate?” So we’re finally getting around to it.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , ,

Pod people: Framing the Georgetown wars

, , , , , ,

OK, readers, it’s time for a quiz about Catholic higher education. I don’t think that any readers will remember this column I once wrote for the Scripps Howard News Service (that would be a bit scary if anyone did), but I will provide enough of the content to help readers answer this question: Can you guess within five years when the following was written?


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, ,

Why don't we know more about Abdo's motivation?

, ,

When I came across this Associated Press story about the trial of a Muslim U.S. soldier accused of planning to bomb Fort Hood troops, I had to go back and check out our analysis of stories from when then the news first broke last year. It’s instructive. In the breaking news, we looked at how the soldier, Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, was identified as well as how his religion was put in context with other aspects. For instance, he’d recently had his efforts to be given conscientious objector status held up because he’d been caught with child pornography.


Please respect our Commenting Policy