Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman: Whose God is whose?

As if the Internet needs more things to explode over, George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, brought religion into the mix in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity last night. Here’s how the LA Times describes the turn of events:


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Good TV: WFAA on the Episcopal Wars

While GetReligion is on the topic of local television news religion reporting, let me draw your attention to a thoughtful, intelligent broadcast from Dallas/Fort Worth station WFAA. Quality local TV news reporting on religion? And on the convoluted Episcopal wars too? Is such a thing possible?


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French Evangelicals through an American lens

A mixed review is the best I can give to an article in the Christian Science Monitor on the rise of Evangelical Christianity in France. The 1400-word article entitled “In a France suspicious of religion, evangelicalism’s message strikes a chord” tells a fascinating story about the changing religious landscape in France, but for every two steps forward it makes in its narrative, it takes a step back with its assumptions. It’s a “yes, but …” article. A stronger editorial pencil would have made it great.


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A Mormon thumbsucker

A while back, one of my colleagues — who, as it happens, has written some pretty terrific things on the subject of religion — asked me if I was familiar with the writer Walter Kirn. Knowing that we were both ex-Mormons and Kirn often wrote about religious themes, he wondered what I thought of Kirn’s work. I spent a lot of time in the creative writing department as an undergrad in the mid-late 90s just as Kirn’s career as a novelist was taking off, and he’d been recommended to me several times though I’d never gotten around to exploring any of his books. (More recently, you might be aware that his book Up in the Air had been made into the eponymous and rather acclaimed movie.)


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So, is Jeremy Lin a good fit in New York City?

It’s pretty clear, at this point, that New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow has become, in the words of The New York Daily News, an “evangelical Christian icon.” It is hard to discuss his fanatical popularity in the heartland of America — think NFL jersey sales — without taking into account this aspect of his life and personality.


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