From God Blogging I came, and to God Blogging I shall return.
Actually, I never left The God Blog, but when I joined GetReligion just over two years ago, I had to learn a new trade. I had been a reporter, then a religion reporter and then a religion reporter who blogged about religion.
But blogging about religion reporting, well, that was a different animal.
The emphasis became not only what did the reporter do right, but what did he or she do wrong; not just the details that were included but those that were omitted. The process of identifying these holes seriously challenged me to think about how I, as a religion reporter, approached similar stories.
Sometimes my advice back to the reporter through this forum would be couched with the disclaimer: Do as I say, not as I now realize I wrongly did in the past.
I think I picked it up (though some of you might disagree), and I hope that a few of the posts I wrote meant something. (There was at least one drum I hopelessly kept banging.)
These five likely were my favorites in chronological order:
"It takes a columnist" "Helen Thomas undone" "The gospel of easy money" "'Journalists can play with quotes'" "Northwestern prof: Sorry you're stupid"
Religion reporting was, is and will remain something I care deeply about. As I wrote on The God Blog before joining the GetReligionistas:
Once considered a backwater of journalism, the God beat feels to me quite chosen, home to immensely important and interesting news. Religion, after all, is the rubric through which each person uniquely sees the world. Science, education, politics, entertainment—it regularly serves as an undercurrent in these fields. (That was, in fact, part of my pitch at The Sun three years ago when they were looking for a reporter for the newly created position and I was eager to get out of Rialto.) The religion angle also is occasionally relevant when trying to understand peoples’ beliefs in God, their perspectives on the life hereafter and that which gives every day meaning.
Think of the God beat as the Jerusalem of journalism. Seriously.
So, 210 posts later, this will be my last for GetReligion. I fought this reality for a while, not wanting to give up something I truly enjoy nor to walk away from a mission I strongly support. But the day has finally come when I can no longer give GetReligion the attention it deserves.
I begin my third year of law school in a month, and with that comes classes, revising two articles for the UCLA Law Review (one of which I'm hoping will save some news reporters' jobs), yada yada yada, and then studying for the Bar and, you know, working those ridiculous lawyer hours.
I will, of course, keep reading GetReligion, and will continue to root my former colleagues on as they strive to help the media get religion. They're certainly needed.
See you in the comment threads.