Latter-day Saints

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Story of 2022 finalists (hello Julia Duin) to speak at Religion News Association awards

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Story of 2022 finalists (hello Julia Duin) to speak at Religion News Association awards

The Religion News Association will present its 2022 Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence in a ceremony next week at Columbia Journalism School in New York.

Finalists, for work produced in 2021, were announced in August. See the full list.

Wednesday night’s hybrid in-person and online event will feature a panel discussion by finalists for Religion Story of the Year, including:

• GetReligion’s own Julia Duin, for “The Christian prophets who say Trump is coming again,” for Politico. And click here for a post noting Duin’s work on this topic over the years.

• Deepti Hajela (representing a team that included Luis Andres Henao and Mariam Fam), for “Two decades after 9/11, Muslim Americans still fighting bias,” for The Associated Press.

• Emily Kaplan, for “The rise of the liberal Latter-day Saints,” for The Washington Post.

• Marie-Rose Sheinerman, “‘Second class citizens’: LGBTQ students allege culture of alienation and fear at Yeshiva University,” for The Forward.

I plan to watch the ceremony and report on the winners in next week’s Plug-in. In case you missed it, ReligionUnplugged.com’s own Paul Glader and Michael Ray Smith earned third place for Religion Story of the Year last year for “God and guns: Why American churchgoers are packing heat.”

In other contest news, the American Academy of Religion has announced the recipients of its 2022 journalism awards: Peter Manseau, Dawn Araujo-Hawkins and Ken Chitwood for best in-depth newswriting and Mike Cosper, Monique Parsons and Kylie McGivern for best in-depth multimedia journalism. Read about all the winners.


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Season 2 of 'The Chosen' arrives on TV screens on Easter. Where was the news coverage?

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Season 2 of 'The Chosen' arrives on TV screens on Easter. Where was the news coverage?

Back in the day when I was covering religion fulltime, I always knew I could score a front page story if I prepared a large feature for Easter Sunday. That was always the day that my editors were looking for “something religious” to please the church-attending readers. Other reporters did this as well, as it was one of the few days in the year that our work could shine.

Lots has changed, obviously, judging from the front pages of some of the newspapers I perused this past Easter Sunday. My former employer, the Houston Chronicle, had nothing local. Ditto for the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Oregonian and even the Salt Lake Tribune –- usually reliable to at least run something Latter-day Saint related — came up short.

One bright light: Up river from the Oregonian, the Vancouver Columbian ran a huge spread Easter Day on St. Luke Productions, a Catholic theater company (that I’ve written about here and here) that’s based in southwest Washington and travels the country doing amazing portrayals of Catholic saints. See, it can be done.

A few outlets ran a pope-observes-Easter wire story from the Associated Press, but that was it. I looked at the Washington Post, which had a bit more, including a story about a local church opening up for the first time since COVID-19 started plus a piece on how pandemic-ravaged Italy is observing Easter.

The New York Times ran a mishmash of opinion pieces, including one from an English prof who wasn’t sure if Jesus had resurrected or not and one from a prof from Wheaton College urging readers to remember Easter is more than a spring celebration. There was a jewel of a piece on Jesus’ wounds and — in the Times wedding section — a beautifully photographed story about a Nigerian-American couple whose first kiss was on their wedding day. The story was snark free; a true Easter miracle.

I know it’s a challenge to come up with original Easter (and Passover) story ideas year after year, but it can be done and many of us did it.

Most of the religion content I saw yesterday was relegated to the opinion pages and kept away from news content, which is a troubling shift from religion-as-news to religion-in-the-realm-of-feelings. There’s plenty of the former available, but where’s the will to dig out those stories, especially the biggest one that happened yesterday that no one reported on?

That was the premiere of Season 2 of filmmaker Dallas Jenkins’ very successful “The Chosen” TV series. It’s the first multi-season TV series about the life of Christ, and 74,346 people raised $10 million for Season 1, which came out last year. That amount made “The Chosen” the largest crowdfunded media project –- ever.


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Hotter than inauguration! Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey burns religion-beat pro

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Hotter than inauguration! Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey burns religion-beat pro

Joe Biden’s inauguration as America’s 46th president produced a ton of religion news. We’ll get to all that in a moment.

First, though, the most jaw-dropping Godbeat story of the week comes not from the Beltway but from the Bible Belt, courtesy of Religion News Service national writer (and gainfully employed) Bob Smietana.

Last Friday, RNS published Smietana’s 4,150-word investigative piece on the “cultlike environment” inside Christian financial guru Dave Ramsey’s $42 million headquarters in Franklin, Tenn., south of Nashville. That piece followed a December story by Smietana on Ramsey’s for-profit enterprise defying COVID-19 precautions such as wearing masks.

Ramsey Solutions didn’t take kindly to Smietana’s latest questions, responding with a sarcastic email that said, “Who would have guessed that an unemployed guy, oh I am sorry, a ‘freelance reporter’ would be the one to show us how horrible we are so we can change and to let the world know of our evil intent, secrets, and complete disregard for decency…..but YOU did it, you with all your top notch investigative skills have been able to weave together a series of half-truths to expose our evil ways. You are truly amazing.”

It’s unclear why Ramsey Solutions thinks one of the nation’s top religion correspondents is unemployed. But the statement proceeded to dox Smietana, sharing his email address, phone number and hometown with pastors, business leaders and the entire Ramsey team.

In a Religion Unplugged online panel discussion, Smietana talked about his coverage of Ramsey and the company’s response to him.

Also offering their insight were Cheryl Mann Bacon, retired journalism chair at Abilene Christian University; Meagan Clark, managing editor of Religion Unplugged; Holly Meyer, religion writer for The Tennessean; and Warren Cole Smith, president of Ministry Watch.

“If I were teaching PR Principles this semester, we would start with that as an example of how to never, ever, ever do public relations,” Bacon said of the email. “It just violated all of the basic principles of ethical public relations.”


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Top 10 religion-news stories of 2020: Coronavirus pandemic touched almost everything

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Some years, picking the No. 1 religion story is a real challenge.

This year? Not so much.

Give the global pandemic credit for making at least one thing easy during 2020.

Let’s count down the Top 10 stories, as determined by Religion News Association members (including yours truly). I’ll sprinkle a few links to related stories into the RNA summaries:

10. “Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns amid controversies including a risqué photo and an alleged sex scandal. Claims of sexual misconduct also made against late evangelical apologist Ravi Zacharias and Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz.”

9. “Pandemic-related limits on worship gatherings spur protests and defiance by Hasidic Jewish groups and evangelicals led by pastor John MacArthur and musician Sean Feucht. Supreme Court backs Catholic and Jewish groups' challenge to New York's limits.”

8. “A Vatican investigation into defrocked ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick found that bishops, cardinals and popes failed to heed reports of his sexual misconduct. Debate ensues over the legacy of sainted Pope John Paul II, who promoted him to cardinal.”

7. “Dozens of nations decry what they term widespread human-rights abuses by China against predominately Muslim Uighurs and others in Xinjiang region, many in detention camps. New U.S. law authorizes sanctions against Chinese officials deemed complicit.”

6. “White evangelicals and other religious conservatives again vote overwhelmingly for President Trump, despite some vocal dissent. Protestants fuel his gains among Hispanic voters. Some religious supporters echo his denials of the election results.”

5. “Police, using tear gas, drive anti-racism protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, clearing way for President Trump to pose for a controversial photo with a Bible at historic St. John’s Church. Episcopal, other faith leaders express outrage.”


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Here we go again, 2020 version: Five revealing questions to ask on Election Night

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In Tuesday’s big vote, politics matter.

So, too, does religion.

On Election Night, here are five revealing questions that Godbeat pros will be asking:

1. Was President Donald Trump able to maintain his overwhelming level of support — roughly 80% in 2016 — among White evangelicals?

“If that number is significantly lower, I would think it has to do with younger evangelicals and maybe women evangelicals getting fed up,” said Kimberly Winston, an award-winning religion reporter based in California.

The pre-election outlook? Trump is “losing ground with some — but not all — White Christians,” reports FiveThirtyEight’s Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux.

On the flip side, Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt highlights evangelical voters who express “more faith in Trump” than they did four years ago.

2. What difference did Catholic voters make, particularly in all-important swing states?

NPR religion correspondent Tom Gjelten notes that in 2016 “it was not the evangelicals who carried Trump to victory but Catholics, a group he had rarely mentioned in his speeches.”

Gjelten explains:

Despite losing the popular vote, Trump reached the presidency in large part because he won traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all states in which Catholics outnumber evangelicals by significant margins.

Religion Unplugged’s Clemente Lisi, The Atlantic’s Emma Green and the Columbus Dispatch’s Danae King offer more insight on this key voting bloc. This is has also been a major topic in GetReligion coverage of American politics for more than a decade, especially in the work of Richard Ostling and Terry Mattingly.

3. How did various subgroups — Mormons, Muslims and even the Amish among them — influence the outcome?

Trump’s campaign has made a “concerted effort” to expand support among Arizona and Nevada members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Salt Lake Tribune’s Lee Davidson reports.


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Washington Post and ReligionUnplugged both land stories on Mormon $100 billion slush fund

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Well, it was a race to the finish as to who’d land the story Monday night about a secret –- and possibly illegal - -$100 billion fund made up of Mormon tithes

We think the Washington Post made it to the finish line first, but it was neck-in-neck with Paul Glader, the former Wall Street Journal reporter who now oversees Religion Unplugged. It should be noted that GetReligion and Religion UnPlugged do share some content, but I’m not privy to how Glader got the story other than his note atop his piece that says a source called him in November.

Glader was working solo for the past month or so; the Post had three people on this story plus another two helping out, not to mention the former IRS official they pulled in for advice. I am glad that the Post didn’t just rely on its business reporters but pulled Michelle Boorstein, its senior religion-beat writer, onto the story.

I am curious why the two Salt Lake newpapers totally missed this story as did the Journal, which is usually on top of financial scandals but has continues to lag way behind on breaking religion news.

We will start with ReligionUnplugged:

NEW YORK — A whistleblower complaint filed at the Internal Revenue Service in November by a knowledgeable church member alleges that a non-profit supporting organization controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used member tithes to amass more than $100 billion in a set of investment funds and the Church misled members about uses of the money.

The complaint may be the most important look at LDS finances in decades, a window into one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the United States and the world. Details of the IRS filing reveal financial assets largely hidden from the church’s membership (often known as “Mormons”) and the public view.


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And yet another #ChurchToo scandal, this time from the Mormons

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In a week that’s been a continuous wave of #ChurchToo revelations –- including a massive investigation of Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church and yesterday’s news about Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page –- I wanted to draw your attention to a related debate and quasi-scandal occurring in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Long-time Salt Lake Tribune religion reporter Peggy Stack, along with education reporter Benjamin Wood, came out with a story Monday about a church decision to allow a second adult in the room while bishops question teenagers about their sexual sins.

Say what? This is a fascinating look at Latter-day Saints’ lives that one wouldn’t know unless you were in a culture where your bishop can ask you pointed questions about whether you’ve been chaste.

It's not easy writing about sexual matters in a PG-rated fashion fit for a daily newspaper, but these reporters did a pretty good job at it. The key: The reporters have provide enough background to help outsiders, but not overstate the obvious for regular readers in Mormon country.

For more, read here:

Amid a grass-roots outcry about sexually explicit interviews with children and sexual assault allegations leveled at a former Mormon mission leader, the LDS Church’s governing First Presidency unveiled revised guidelines Monday for one-on-one meetings between members and local lay leaders while emphasizing that most abuse allegations are “true and should be taken seriously.”
In a document titled “Preventing and Responding to Abuse,” congregational leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are encouraged to invite a parent or other adult to sit in an adjoining room when meeting with women and children.

The Deseret News also had a piece on the document here. 

Those of you who’ve been following the various accusations leveled at evangelical Protestant ministers in recent weeks may have missed a bombshell that broke last week in Utah.


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Does deductibility really influence church giving? Salt Lake Tribune skirts the question, sort of

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The fact that Americans who itemize their income tax deductions can also deduct their donations to the church, mosque, synagogue or (recognized) religious outpost of their choice is a cherished part of American taxation, something that's not true in all nations of the world.

Now, the latest tax reform proposal knocking around Congress may -- or may not -- put a dent in such deducting. If the "standard deduction" of $5,500 for individuals and $11,000 for married couples is doubled, as proponents want, the thinking goes, more folks will skip itemizing and just go with the higher number. No itemizing means less in the collection plate, they theorize.

But here's the journalistic question: Does a mere assertion mean something's a fact? Logic would say no, but sometimes a media outlet will seem to glide around logic for a compelling story. At the least, that's how it could look to a reader.

The Salt Lake Tribune, serving a state where returning tithe is mandatory for Mormons, dives right in to the charitable deduction issue, leading with a dramatic point:

A Republican tax plan being debated on Capitol Hill maintains the deduction for charitable giving but still may have an unintended consequence that could hurt donations to churches and nonprofit groups.
The impact of the tax bill — if passed and signed into law — could mean less revenue for the LDS Church and other denominations and faith-based organizations as well as groups like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and humanitarian operations.


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A Falwell in St. Martin? Religious charities' aid gets little coverage in post-hurricane news

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As everyone from President Donald Trump to politicians of all stripes try to make sense of the mess that is Puerto Rico, I’ve noticed little has been written about all the religious groups heading down to the U.S. territory to help.

Why is this? Information about these efforts is all over the place on Twitter and in social media.

So, along with the city of Chicago sending some two dozen firefighters, paramedics and engineers to Puerto Rico, there’s a group of Chicago Catholics sending down supplies as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which uses its storage centers in Atlanta as a staging ground for emergency relief, is also sending folks to Puerto Rico.

Seventh-day Adventist students and professors from the Adventist-affiliated Andrews University in Michigan are likewise showing up. The Catholic Diocese of Providence, R.I. is chipping in 10 grand. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams were finally given permission by FEMA to move in.

You may have heard about President Trump tossing towels at a Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, but here’s a story about a Calvary Chapel-affiliated church in California that’s trying to get supplies to their brethren some 3,500 miles away.

That story was from the NBC affiliate in San Luis Obispo, but most of the stories I’ve seen are from the religious press. Case in point is this Charisma News post about everyone ranging from Paula White Ministries to Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse racing to get thousands of pounds of supplies to the island.

It does seem ironic that while so many have problems with Graham’s style or politics, there’s much less coverage when Samaritan’s Purse pours relief supplies into a devastated area.

Christianity Today also did an overview of which religious charities are doing what.


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