Rob Eshman, the paper’s editor-in-chief, writing on Bloggish, gave a brief bio for a rabbi who would marry a Jew to a non- Jew and sorted out the Seven … Read More »
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Flying while Jewish
One of the passengers, a Jewish teenager, was doing his morning prayers and it alarmed the flight attendant. Read More »
The universal problem of religious freedom
We’ve looked at a bit of the coverage of the Swiss ban on the construction of minarets — the spires on mosques that are sometimes used for the call to prayer. Earlier this month, I noted a single story that looked at how religious freedom is handled in some Muslim countries. Read More »
Brooks on Obama the theologian
There is so much to like about New York Times columnist David Brooks. Here’s a short list: (1) He is thoughtful and analytical. (2) He doesn’t let his conservative views blind him to non-conforming realities. (3) He’s great at coining new terms (remember “Bobos,” his famous word for the bourgeois bohemian descendants of the yuppies?). Read More »
The long arm of Sayyid Qutb
A few days ago we looked at some of the coverage of the American men arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of ties to terrorism. I thought one of the most interesting angles — one I hoped we’d see more coverage of — was that the Council on American-Islamic Relations said they’d put the families of the men in touch with the FBI. Read More »
The missing motivation
When the House of Representatives passed the Stupak amendment preventing federal tax dollars from being used to fund or subsidize abortions, it was hard to find a story that didn’t mention the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Read More »
Tony Dungy the moral scold
Every now and then, a star in the National Football League gets into trouble and, during his ritual of repentance, decides to play the God card. In some cases this even involves Jesus language, which is always risky in today’s media marketplace. Read More »
Crouching Tiger, hidden ghosts
If I may indulge in an awful pun, Tiger ain’t out of the woods yet. Aside from our unhealthy interest in the cover pictures of the New York Post’s latest documented bimbo eruption, I’ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon surrounding the Tiger Woods scandal. Read More »
Catching a gimel on the river
I’m pretty sure that my favorite story of this Hanukkah season was this one from Good Morning America: For centuries, the Dreidel game has been a Hanukkah tradition. The simple gambling game remains a fixture at Hanukkah parties, but today it’s often more decoration than entertainment – a party favor and not a party favorite. Read More »
Bullying Rick Warren
The roles of Newsweek and its religion reporter Lisa Miller’s as reporter (conveyor of information) and pundit (advocacy) have been blurred for a while now. One minute, Miller is reporting on a story, the next, she’s offering her personal opinion on it. Read More »
Shopping for religion: Pew view
A Christian friend who knows I am a journalist but tries to love me anyway subscribes to USA Today. After he read Cathy Lynn Grossman’s print and online articles on that latest Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, he asked if I could Read More »
I am Mark Hemingway!
The other day I received this letter asking, quite simply, “Who is this ‘Mark’ person who keeps writing posts for GetReligion?” Now, I realize that if you happened to have missed this notice the other day, you would not realize that Mark is, in fact, Mark Hemingway, the husband of the Divine Ms. Mollie Ziegler Hemingway. Read More »
Beer and Muslim terror
What is it about Muslim terrorism and northern Virginia? Five men — ranging in age from late teens to mid-20s — from the suburbs near here were arrested in Pakistan and authorities are questioning them about links to terrorism. Read More »
High horse at Ground Zero
Given that 30 Rock has cemented its place as a critical darling*, I imagine this joke from last week’s episode was rather cutting: Jenna: You’ve got to lie to her, coddle her, protect her from the real world. Jack: I get it. Treat her like the New York Times treats its readers. I didn’t expect to revisit the Islam vs. Read More »
Let Hanukkah be Hanukkah
Here we go again. Wise and faithful GetReligion readers! Is it a mainstream news story that the beleaguered social-events staff at the White House sent out an invitation card for the First Family’s second Hanakkah party (not the first, the second Read More »
Birds of a doctrinal feather
The church-state junkie in me really does not know where to begin when it comes to evaluating the mainstream media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case pitting the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco against the campus chapter of the Christian Legal Society. Read More »
The NYT’s Jewspotting
I wish Brad Greenberg would rise from the depths of law school finals because I would love to read his take on a recent New York Times piece “Yes, Miky, There Are Rabbis in Montana.” The author tells a story about how a Hasidic rabbi is helping the Montana cop speak Hebrew to his dog. Read More »
It’s the most horrible time of the year
The Associated Press’ Patrick Condon has a story with a great headline — “Atheists at Christmas: Eat, drink and be wary.” It’s all about how uncomfortable the Christmas season is for some avid non-believers and is a good follow-up to Eric Gorski’s recent piece on atheist groups on college campuses. Read More »
The soul in Dave Brubeck’s jazz
Back in my teen years, I was a bit of a classical music nerd. Then someone gave me a copy of the second Blood, Sweat & Tears record and, before you knew it, I was into jazz and forms of rock that required the musicians to know more than three chords. Read More »
Hilarious, holy hugs
Christians can do funny, goofy things. That’s why reaction to a Christian rap group’s video seemingly advocating the sexually chaste “Christian side hug” was so interesting. Apparently, the group was kidding. But that didn’t stop critics and bloggers for missing the joke and getting snarky about it. Read More »
Executions in Uganda
A bill being debated in the Uganda legislature would execute homosexuals who are infected with HIV. Here’s a bit from an Associated Press story on the sad matter: The Ugandan legislation in its current form would mandate a death sentence for active homosexuals living with HIV or in cases of same-sex rape. Read More »
Some exclude better than others
Back in 2004, a Christian student group was denied recognition at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law because it required its officers and voting members to uphold certain Christian teachings. The school said that the group couldn’t discriminate on the basis of religious belief. Read More »
Obama dodges a ‘Christmas wars’ bullet
Unless you have been on another planet for several decades, you have heard the phrase “War on Christmas” tossed about in the mainstream press and Fox News, too (cue: rim shot and cymbal). Read More »
With God on Obama’s side (maybe)
You would think that if the Los Angeles Times put two reporters on a story, they would make a little effort to pick up the phone. Unfortunately, this was not the case on a recent piece titled “Obama administration has religion on its side. Read More »
A little less equivocation
I’m generally a bit frustrated with how the Western media covers Islam. Just this weekend I caught a bit of venerable PBS travel writer Rick Steeve’s special on Iran. Say what you want about that nation’s terrible government, Iran is a large and beautiful country. Read More »
Pray the flu away
When I became a parent, I was introduced to a world with a lot of fighting. Not between my husband and me — we get along great. But there can be some pretty serious fights in the Mommy Wars. These range from whether mothers should work outside the home to whether they should breastfeed exclusively. Read More »
“Bah Humbug” on charities!
December is crunch time for charitable giving, with many nonprofit organizations taking in a third or more of their yearly income during the last month of the year. Perhaps that’s why Sunday’s New York Times featured not one but two A1 stories on charities? “Aid Gives Alternative to African Orphanages” by Celia W. Read More »
Are Episcopalians now a ‘sect’?
A long, long time ago, while doing my first round of graduate studies, I took a class that focused on contemporary cults, sects and religious movements and their impact on church-state law. Read More »
Cross, not crucifix
I don’t know what the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals does other than create salacious advertising campaigns but the group’s latest combines their trademark nudity with puppies and religion! It features the incredibly good looking Read More »
Life and Death in the D
One of the most dazzling high-wire acts in American journalism is Charlie LeDuff. Once upon a time, LeDuff was a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter. LeDuff was poised to breathe the rarefied air of the upper echelons for some time to come. Read More »
Chicagoland Christians try to be hip
Some of my favorite headlines from The Onion are ones about your average Joe as if it’s a big deal, like “Area Man Consults Internet Whenever Possible” or “Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff.” Those headlines came to mind when I started reading a story from the Chicago Tribune about a new church plant in Chicago. Read More »
Fundies upset about the Lambert kiss?
Time for a short quiz for our readers. Based on what you know about religion, news and religion in the news, do you think that, when meditating on Adam Lambert’s performance on the American Music Awards, cultural conservatives in this great nation Read More »
WPost: We reward success
The religion reporters at the Washington Post used to run a great blog called God in Government. A few weeks ago they merged that blog with Under God, the fantastic news blog written by On Faith editor David Waters. Read More »
To Bill Keller (c/o The New York Times)
Dear Mr. Bill Keller: Each semester, in the very first class session at the Washington Journalism Center, I have my students read the New York Times self-study document from 2005 entitled “Preserving Our Readers’ Trust (.pdf).” Then I require them to carefully read your response, “Assuring Our Credibility (.pdf). Read More »
Embryos on the line
Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health announced 13 new embryonic stem cell lines would be added to the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry. President Barack Obama received a lot of coverage for his decision to change President George W. Bush’s policy limiting federal funding for embryonic-destroying stem cell research. Read More »
Stalking evangelicals in the urban jungle
In looking around for a story to cover for GR, I saw a lot of exciting and dynamic stories out there involving the intersection of politics and religion or science and religion — really meaty, provocative stuff. Read More »
Bob Casey: Like father like son?
Bob Casey Jr. must be really irritated with father-son comparisons by now. In 1992, the Democratic Party denied a speaking slot to his father, then-Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey Sr., at the national convention. Casey Jr. Read More »
Pastors and gays in D.C.
Having spent part of the 1990s covering Colorado’s controversial gay rights limitation measure Amendment 2 (which was passed by voters but declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court), I know there are always more than two sides to these debates. That’s part of what makes a recent Washington Post story so intriguing. Read More »
Minarets and steeples
Steve already looked at some of the media coverage of the story about Switzerland banning the construction of minarets on mosques. For those of us accustomed to First Amendment-protected religious freedom, the vote probably comes as a shock and disappointment. Read More »
Hey, ‘The Blind Side’ may lift off
The little movie that could, otherwise known at “The Blind Side,” is starting to cause some tremors out on the left coast. Read More »
Facts are our friends (amen)
Gaurdian reporter Chris McGreal writes a subtle and finely nuanced piece headlined “Religious right launches fresh assault on US abortion rights.” OK, maybe it’s not so subtle. Read More »
Facts are our friends (amen)
Gaurdian reporter Chris McGreal has written a subtle and finely nuanced piece headlined “Religious right launches fresh assault on US abortion rights.” OK, maybe it’s not so subtle. Read More »
No minarets, we’re Swiss!
I haven’t been following Swiss politics, so the headline on top of page A6 of Monday’s New York Times, “Swiss Ban Building of Minarets on Mosques,” was surprising, as was the lengthy (800+ words) article: In a vote that displayed a Read More »
Got news? Stark religious numbers
If you backed up a few years, or even a decade or two, one of the subjects that religion writers in the mainstream press used to debate could be summed up in this question: “Are religion columns a good thing?” You see, when most journalists hear the phrase “religion column,” they still think of two things. Read More »
Blind Sided, yet again
Every now and then, the box-office prophets in Hollywood are shocked, shocked to discover that large numbers of Americans like to buy tickets to movies that are funny, clean, well-crafted and capable of tugging at a heart-string or two. Read More »
Black Fridays and purple Sundays
Every year we read about the War on Christmas. The mainstream media love to cover stories about those Scrooges who ban the use of any specific greetings related to Christmas and the old curmudgeons who complain about the same. But I like to cover the war on all the other seasons of the liturgical calendar. Read More »
Don’t hate the player, hate the fans
I suppose if there’s a dark underside to being a sports fan it’s that it allows us to indulge our capacity for irrational hatred. It’s a really disconcerting thing when you stop to think about it. I’m a pretty easygoing guy and I dislike very few people. But I loathe Magic Johnson. Read More »
The Other M. Hemingway…
Yes, I’m the guy married to the Divine Mrs. Z. (Yes, that’s a picture from our wedding day.) I’ll be helping out around these parts for a few weeks while Brad is doing his best to ace a series of brutal law school exams. We’re pulling for you Brad! I’ll I can say is, thankfully I’ll only be doing this for a short while. Read More »
Christian survivalists?
The Washington Post has a feature headlined “A muscular, die-hard spirituality: Self-sufficient Christians prepare for Second Coming or for life after global disaster.” So you can imagine that I expected the story to be about that. It begins promisingly enough, with an anecdote of a 74-year-old computer professional Ken Uptegrove. Read More »
Flawed tribute in South Bend
We received a note the other day from a priest asking us to call attention to a South Bend Tribune editorial marking the retirement of Bishop John D’Arcy from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Read More »
Some questions have answers
Those of you who have missed the posts of our Elizabeth Evans should head on over to Reuters FaithWorld where she has written about clergy sexual misconduct. She digs a bit deeper and wider on the topic than most treatments of the issue. While I was over there, I came across this other item about the ongoing drama between Rep. Read More »
In praise of beauty
Caught up in the holiday weekend’s spirit of thankfulness, I want to reach back to last weekend and Pope Benedict’s meeting with artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel, which was covered by The New York Times’ Rachel Donadio: Read More »
This reporter gives thanks that ….
It’s Thanksgiving, of course. So I would like to give thanks that I was not in Laurie Goodstein’s shoes the other day when she heard about the upcoming “Manhattan Declaration” announcement — click here for details — and then got the news that she could only write 570 words about this very complex ecumenical statement. Read More »
Those spooky evangelical churches
Halloween is over, folks, but we’re still seeing some “scary” descriptions popping up. Take a look at this piece titled “Highlands Church takes all-inclusive approach to homosexuality” by Electa Draper for The Denver Post. An evangelical church can be a scary place for gay people, yet the Rev. Read More »
Dig through the Rolodex
We’ve previously looked at media coverage of the rather public dispute between Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Bishop Thomas Tobin. Last week I suggested that reporters at least explain the Catholic understanding of scandal as it relates to the case. Read More »
More vague, worthless Catholic labels
Want to see how worthless vague religious labels can be when used in the mainstream press? Here’s a classic example from an ongoing story in Jackson, Mich., where a priest who backs church traditions — which ones, we are never really told — is clashing with many leaders in a “progressive” Catholic parish. Read More »
Three in one
It’s not every day you read a story where the reporter describes the same person as a Jehovah’s Witness, a fundamentalist and an evangelical. Read through these first few paragraphs the short Lexington Herald-Leader story and see if you can help me sort this out. Read More »
Substantiate, please
Last week I wrote a news story about the recent passage of the amendment restricting abortion funding and subsidies in the House health care legislation. Read More »
Does health care reform have a prayer?
That’s not a rhetorical question, but a literal one explored in a Washington Post story by William Wan entitled, “Christian Scientists seek reimbursement for prayers. Read More »
