Tamie Ross

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Plug-In: Five newsworthy faith facts about the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II

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Plug-In: Five newsworthy faith facts about the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II

When news broke Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II’s death at age 96, I immediately consulted with the leading expert of her 70 years on the throne I know: my wife, Tamie. Seriously, I texted my bride of 32 years.

“Yes, I’ve been watching,” she replied. “The news and social, that is.”

A few years ago, Tamie, a fellow writer, sent the queen a letter and received one back in an enveloped stamped “Royal Mail” from Buckingham Palace.

“She never sat for an interview, so a few documentaries are the closest thing to hearing her asked/answering questions,” Tamie told me. “I thought it was worth writing to tell her how much I enjoyed it, and this response came a few weeks later on her behalf.”

“The Queen wishes me to write and thank you for your card and very kind message,” the reply said.

Did Elizabeth actually see my wife’s letter? Tamie has no way of knowing. I’m a skeptical journalist, so I’m guessing not. But it’s cool to imagine that she did.

In the meantime, here are five facts about religion in the life of Elizabeth, who wrote the foreword to a 2016 British Bible Society book titled “The Servant Queen and the King She Serves” (that king being Jesus):

(1) She was the official head of the Church of England.

The Associated Press obituary by Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui explains:

In Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state but has little direct power; in her official actions she does what the government orders. However, she was not without influence. The queen, officially the head of the Church of England, once reportedly commented that there was nothing she could do legally to block the appointment of a bishop, “but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss.”

(2) She spoke openly about her Christian faith.

Writing for Religion News Service, Catherine Pepinster notes:


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Plug-In flashbacks: Several religion-news questions and answers with Bobby Ross, Jr.

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Plug-In flashbacks: Several religion-news questions and answers with Bobby Ross, Jr.

GetReligion readers really don’t need an introduction to religion-beat veteran Bobby Ross, Jr.

After all, he has been a contributor here since 2010 — which is longer than anyone other than the founders of the blog. There’s about 15 million words in our files, at this point, and Ross has to have written about 25% of them. And don’t forget that his wife, religion-beat veteran Tamie Ross, was a contributor here for several years, as well.

Bobby, of course, covered religion and all kinds of other topics for The Oklahoman and also spent several years with the Associated Press, working with religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling, which is as good a credential as you can get. These days, readers around the world know him as editor-in-chief at The Christian Chronicle. He continues to write his weekly Plug-In feature for Religion Unplugged, which still runs here at GetReligion.

As a re-introduction to Ross, Religion Unplugged recently ran this short Q&A with him (and offered a short list of some of his top recent Plug-in pieces). I thought GetReligion readers who have followed him for a decade or more would like to see them.

You've covered religion since 1999. How did you first get onto the beat, and what's a favorite story you reported in your early days?

I had covered a religion story or two in my career up to then, including writing a 1994 piece about the Christian conversion of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. But in 1999, the editors at The Oklahoman assigned me to cover Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis. That was an important and challenging assignment, and my favorite story probably was the one I wrote about a big youth rally where dc Talk sang "Jesus Freak" to an "arm-waving, hip-shaking, foot-stomping" crowd before John Paul appeared on stage, and the decibel level got even louder.

As the news industry has changed since you began your career, the religion beat has certainly changed too. What's been the biggest challenge you've faced as a religion reporter because of these changes?


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Another shot of controversy: New Catholic questions about Johnson & Johnson vaccine

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Another shot of controversy: New Catholic questions about Johnson & Johnson vaccine

My wife has lupus and autoimmune diseases that make her high-risk if infected with COVID-19. Because of that, we’ve adhered strictly to masking, distancing and other safety precautions. For nearly a year, we’ve not attended an in-person worship assembly or eaten inside a restaurant.

After reporting from all 50 states and 15 nations in my career, I’ve done all my work from home since flying to Tennessee to cover deadly tornadoes last March. That was right before the coronavirus lockdown hit America in the middle of that month.

Last week, I mentioned my excitement to roll up my sleeve for the first of two Moderna shots. And on Thursday, our family got an extra dose of hope: Tamie received a Johnson & Johnson single shot, the coronavirus vaccine recommended by her rheumatologist because of her life-threatening reactions to medications last year.

Ironically, my wife was able to schedule her last-minute appointment on the same day that Religion Unplugged managing editor Meagan Clark and I moderated an online panel on the COVID-19 vaccines and religion.

A key focus of the panel: conflicting and sometimes confusing statements issued by U.S. Catholic bishops on the morality of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson shot.

“Leaders at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are discouraging Catholics from using the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine if given a choice, citing the use of cells with a distant link to abortion in the development of the vaccine,” reported Religion News Service national reporter Jack Jenkins, one of the panelists.

Jenkins offered excellent insight on the diversity of Catholic responses to the vaccine debate, from individual bishops to the Vatican.

Panelist Clemente Lisi, who analyzes Catholic news for Religion Unplugged, noted: “Unless you’re a scientist, this is a very difficult thing to understand. … I think most people are getting this (news) through headlines, through Twitter, and I think it may cause some misunderstanding.”

Many Americans have no choice which COVID-19 vaccine to receive, Lisi stressed. Stopping the virus’ spread, he added, could itself be construed as a pro-life act.


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Friday Five: Rachel Zoll, Heidi Cruz, 'The Exorcist,' Tennessee politicos, Christ at the Checkpoint

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Last month, we congratulated Rachel Zoll, national religion writer for The Associated Press, when she received a special recognition award from the Religion News Association.

A tweet embedded with that post hinted at another big honor for Zoll, and now, there is official news of that prize.

AP announced this week that Zoll is one of the winners of the 2018 Oliver S. Gramling Awards, the global news service’s highest internal honor.

From the AP press release:

The pre-eminent voice on religion for more than a decade, Zoll has led AP’s reporting on the subject, cultivating relationships with sources across all faiths, writing remarkable stories and mentoring fellow journalists to better understand the importance of covering religion. Her reporting spans from a series on Christian missionaries in Africa to a 2016 election-year piece on how conservative Christians felt under siege to a story about two churches in Georgia -- one black, one white -- trying to bridge the divide. Zoll’s sourcing led to AP being first to confirm on-the-record the death of Rev. Billy Graham.

Zoll, who has terminal brain cancer, is on medical leave. Big congrats to her on the Gramling Award!

Now, let’s dive into the Friday Five:

1. Religion story of the week: The Atlantic’s profile of Heidi Cruz, wife of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, is interesting and revealing, with various religion-related details. It’s worth a read.


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Delving into CNN's 'dirty little secret' about religious conversions and Ben Carson

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My Christian Chronicle colleague Erik Tryggestad wrote a column from New Zealand recently in which he lamented his somewhat pedestrian decision to give his life to Jesus:

I’ve always found my own story to be lacking in drama, I told the group. I grew up in the church with great, godly parents. When I was 14 I was baptized. My salvation was an assumption — an expected journey, hardly worth sharing.

Tryggestad's not-so-boring reporting adventures have taken him to 60 countries. ("Plus, y'know ... Canada," he told me. And yes, I'm including that comment just to agitate my friends north of the border.)

Apparently, my Chronicle colleague is not alone in wishing he had a better conversion story.

Enter CNN Religion Editor Daniel Burke with the "Religion News Clickbait Headline of the Week":

The dirty little secret about religious conversion stories

(Here at GetReligion, we're much too sophisticated to ever resort to such a headline. Obviously, we'd never put "dirty little secret" in a title just hoping to gain a few extra clicks. But anyway ... )

Like the CNN headline, Burke's lede takes ample creative liberty (as opposed to an inverted-pyramid approach):


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A more graceful Ross joins GetReligion crew

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Some folks get annoyed when they read a news story with holes, a piece with errors, prose with pockmarks. Me? I see it as an opportunity to learn and to teach. And when there’s nothing to fix, when all angles are covered and no questions remain by the ending, I rejoice and join in the celebration of good journalism. Everyone wins!


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