Another hack piece by CNN … maybe (Updated)

March 30, 2013 By 4 Comments

Screenshot from CNN.com home page

What’s good for the goose is good for, um, Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

Right?

Sarah, former online editor for Christianity Today and now managing editor for Odyssey Networks, spent three years as a GetReligion contributor before leaving us this past October.

To be honest, I still haven’t forgiven Sarah for giving up her high-paying gig as a GetReligionista. How dare she abandon our close-knit team of blogging professionals?

But anyway, this tweet by Sarah caught my attention today:

I tweeted back:

So here we are, with me about to treat Sarah to a big ole helping of the no-holds-barred media criticism that she doled out so often herself. (After typing that, why do I feel a sudden urge to take a break and watch some professional wrestling?)

Actually, in case you couldn’t tell, I’m delaying the inevitable part of the post where I have to say what a great journalist Sarah is and how much I enjoyed her 2,800-word story because, well, you know how much GetReligion readers hate posts that actually praise mainstream media coverage of religion.

Right?

Here’s the top of Sarah’s story:

Wheaton, Illinois (CNN)– Combing through prayer requests in a Wheaton College chapel in 2010, then-junior Benjamin Matthews decided to do something “absurdly unsafe.”

He posted a letter on a public forum bulletin board near students’ post office boxes. In the letter, he came out as gay and encouraged fellow gay Christian students — some of whom had anonymously expressed suicidal plans in a pile of the prayer requests — to contact him if they needed help.

In a student body of 2,400 undergraduates in the suburbs of Chicago, at what is sometimes called the Harvard of evangelical schools, Matthews said that 15 male students came out to him. Other students seemed somewhat ambivalent about his coming out, he said.

No one told him he was wrong or needed to change, Matthews said some students were obviously uncomfortable with someone who would come out as gay and remain a Christian.

“I don’t think most Wheaton students knew what to do because they’ve been given ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ rhetoric, but they don’t know how that plays out in real life,” said Matthews, who graduated in 2011. “They would mostly just listen, nod and say, ‘Yeah man, that’s hard.’”

Sarah packs the report with diverse voices, relevant context and history, strong survey data and important nuance that recognizes the complex nature of the issues at play. All in all, it’s an extraordinary story, worthy of the lead spot that it occupies on CNN’s home page at the moment I type this.

If I have any criticism, it’s that the story takes too long — in my humble opinion — to quote any Wheaton officials. We’re nearly 900 words into the piece before we get to this:

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Filed Under: Academia, Evangelicals, First Person, Godbeat, Journalism, Religion, Same-sex marriage, Sex, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments

Religion ghost in school voucher story?

March 28, 2013 By

School vouchers aren’t exactly a new concept.

In my education reporting days — before I ascended to Godbeat heaven — I covered the Oklahoma City school system for The Oklahoman.

In a front-page Sunday story in 1999, I highlighted the opposing viewpoints in Oklahoma at that time:

In a nation that cherishes separation of church and state, talk of publicly funded religious schools stirs emotional debate.

“School vouchers are just another way that the religious right wing is attempting to destroy our school system,” said Everett Ernst, 54, a Democrat who lives in Oklahoma City.

Indeed, the 35,000-member Oklahoma Christian Coalition is pushing for vouchers.

But Kenneth Wood, the coalition’s executive director, said the only motive is fairness.

The way Wood sees it, every child already has a full-paid scholarship to receive an education.

“Right now, they can only use the scholarship at one designated school,” Wood said.

Later in that piece, I boiled down the debate this way:

When the legislative session starts Feb. 1, Oklahoma lawmakers will debate school-choice issues ranging from parent-run charter schools to open transfers between public school districts.

No school-choice issue, though, inflames the public — or the politicians — like vouchers do.

Savior for the poor or welfare for the rich? Needed competition for a government monopoly or a move to destroy public education?

God-given choice for all taxpayers or an unconstitutional mingling of public dollars and religious entities? So goes the debate.

Vouchers made a cameo appearance in a 2004 episode of “The West Wing,” when the White House lobbied the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., to reject a voucher pilot program approved by Congress. But instead, the mayor insisted that he wanted the money, to the chagrin of President Bartlet:

BARTLET
You start handing out tuition vouchers for private school, you’re sending the message that it’s time to give up on public schools.

MAYOR
With all due respect, Mr. President, no one gets to talk to me about giving up on public schools. I assume I’m the only person in this room who actually went to public school.

BARTLET
And you couldn’t be a better advertisement for them.

MAYOR
Kids weren’t bringing guns to school in my day.

BARTLET
Republicans want to spend more on D.C. education, they should spend it on public schools.

MAYOR
We spend over $13,000 per student. That’s more than anywhere else in the country, and we don’t have a lot to show for it.

BARTLET
But if we start diverting money away from public schools, that’s the end of public education.

If you happened to catch that episode, some of the arguments in a front-page New York Times story today will sound familiar.

In fact, the lede reads almost as if the Times reporters and editors just landed on Earth from outer space and discovered this strange new phenomenon:

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Filed Under: First Person, Journalism, Politics, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

A stone, but no tablet, at the emergency room

March 25, 2013 By

It’s been a difficult few weeks for your friendly neighborhood GetReligionistas.

First, George endured major spinal surgery.

Then Mollie seriously injured her ankle.

I’ve got to tell you: I’ve been praying hard that tmatt — and not me — would be the next member of our team struck by a painful malady. But apparently, GR’s head honcho has deeper connections than I realized.

For me, that realization came just before midnight Friday when an excruciating pain struck my lower back. I immediately suspected the culprit: a kidney stone.

I had experienced the same ailment last summer and figured I knew how to treat it. I started chugging water and popping Tylenol and Lortab. I ran repeated hot baths and found a little relief in the tub. I repented of many sins and asked God to take away my punishment (I don’t claim perfect theology in the state I was in!).

Mainly, I lay on my bed and alternated between moaning and groaning.

I was home alone — with my wife and daughter visiting my in-laws in southeastern Oklahoma and my sons enjoying down time in San Antonio after a spring-break mission trip to Mexico. At some point, I decided I needed to go to the emergency room, but I didn’t want to call and wake up any of my local friends in the middle of the night.

By 7 a.m., I couldn’t take it anymore.

I grabbed the previous day’s pants out of the hamper and put on my Nikes (sans socks). And I drove to the hospital. Fortunately, we don’t live far from Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City.

Before I even got to the end of our street, I realized that I had left my cell phone on the kitchen table. For a split-second, I considered turning around and going to get it. I quickly decided against it. I did remember to bring my insurance card.

The kind folks at Mercy got me into a room quickly. The nurse gave me a gown to change into and a plastic bottle in which to provide a urine sample. I was a little slow providing the sample. So I was standing in my boxers — having not yet put on the gown — when the nurse returned. The good news: I was in no condition to be embarrassed.

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Evangelicals, First Person, Godbeat, Religion Tagged With: , , , , ,

Putting a human face on illegal immigration

March 21, 2013 By

Get Religion crickets, prepare to chirp.

You guessed it: I’m going to write about media coverage of evangelicals and immigration reform. Again

To read my previous posts, click here, here, here and here. My basic complaint in each of those posts: broad generalizations about a complicated issue.

More than once, I have voiced my desire to see a reporter interview ordinary Christians about the issue rather than rely on an advocacy group’s talking points.

Enter Bob Smietana, award-winning Godbeat scribe for The Tennessean.

A recent feature by Smietana focused on one family — and one Tennessee church — touched by the immigration issue:

NASHVILLE — The smiling faces of Heren and Ricardo Morales flashed on the screen just before the start of a recent Sunday morning service at MJLife Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn.

Below the photo, taken on their wedding day, was a simple, three-word prayer: “Bring Ricardo Home.”

In March 2012, Ricardo Morales, who’s 24, traveled to his home country of Mexico in the first step toward becoming a legal resident in the United States. He left behind his 26-year-old wife Heren, his stepson Ozman, 8, and daughter Miranda, 3.

A year and more than $7,000 in legal fees later, Ricardo is stuck in immigration limbo. His case may not be resolved for another year or more. As his wife and church family pray and write letters in his support, their pastor says Ricardo’s story has changed his own views on immigration reform. Church members say Ricardo’s plight shows just how broken the system is.

“They have done everything they are supposed to do,” said Richelle Tramel, a church friend. “They have paid every dime they are supposed to pay. He is still not home.”

Here’s the beauty of a story such as this: It takes a gigantic issue — immigration reform — and puts a real human face on it.

Read on, and we learn that Ricardo and Heren, a U.S. citizen, met and fell in love and became a beloved part of the church family.

That leads to the drama at the heart of the story:

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Godbeat, Journalism, Politics, Religion, Social Issues Tagged With: , ,

This wedding cake tastes a bit too sugary

March 19, 2013 By

To promote the institution of marriage, a California megachurch staged a series of mass weddings and vow renewals over the weekend.

Sound newsworthy?

It does to me, so I was glad to see the Orange County Register cover the story:

ANAHEIM – Lisa Slaughter and Wayne Bergman got married Sunday. Just the two of them and 37 people onstage, and about 1,200 more watching in the auditorium inside the huge Eastside Christian Church.

To them, it couldn’t have felt cozier. “She was the only one I noticed,” Bergman said.

Eight couples got hitched, and 55 more renewed their marriage vows during three weekend ceremonies. They were the culmination of a weekslong series of events, seminars and positive messaging by the church, designed to emphasize marriage as a covenant – between its participants as well as between the couples and God.

“Of course, we live in a culture that’s tried to devalue the significance of this relationship. Often you’ll hear people say, ‘Well, marriage is nothing more than a piece of paper,’” pastor Gene Appel told the congregation … But marriage is much more than a piece of paper. … It is the preserver of true love; it is the foundation of the home. It is a stunning blend of law and love, with God at the center of it.”

Keep reading, and there’s more of the same: sugary sweet descriptions of the ceremonies and the happy couples.

But there’s not a whole lot of meat as far as what prompted this special emphasis. This is about as deep as the story delves:

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Filed Under: Evangelicals, Journalism, Marriage & family, People, Sex, Social Issues Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pope Francis on Page 1: Best and worst of local reax

March 14, 2013 By
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It’s another great day to be a newspaper junkie who enjoys checking out front pages across the nation after major breaking news.

When tmatt saw the number of local reaction stories I planned to mention, he made me promise to keep this post under 5,000 words. I told him I’d hit the high points (and the low ones, of course).

Without further ado, I want to present a few nominees for limited-edition GetReligion awards for coverage of Pope Francis’ selection.

Best use of “firsts” in a lede

— Seattle Times

It may take time before Seattle-area Catholics learn whether Pope Francis shares their views on specific issues. But many found things to like in the new pontiff Wednesday:

First pope from the Americas. First Jesuit. A man from a developing region and one who has chosen a humble lifestyle.

Their comments made it clear that the selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the 266th pope turned a page in church’s 2,000-year history.

“The whole school stopped for about an hour to watch this historic moment,” said Father William Heric, chaplain at Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish.

— Dallas Morning News

First pope from this hemisphere. First Hispanic pope. First pope taking the name “Francis.” North Texas Catholics grabbed on to facts Wednesday about the man who until that afternoon had been Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aries.

Josefina Flores of Arlington was in downtown Dallas with her daughter and heard the bells peal at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe. They ducked into the sanctuary to say a prayer for the new pontiff.

“He comes from a spiritual country and he seems so charismatic,” she said. “I have high hopes for him.”

— St. Louis Post-Dispatch

While Wednesday’s election of a new pope may not have included the “first” that many St. Louisans were hoping for — namely, the election of Ballwin native Timothy Dolan as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics — it did contain three others.

And that’s not an easy accomplishment for a 2,000-year-old institution.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, is the first pope in history to choose the name Francis, in honor of one of the most popular saints in history, Francis of Assisi.

“He selected for himself the name of Francis, which tells you a great deal about the new Holy Father,” said St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson. “As you know, St. Francis was a man of simplicity and peace as he lived out the gospel. We can assume that our new Holy Father will do just the same.”

Pope Francis is also the first Jesuit supreme pontiff in the church, and his chosen name could also be a nod to the great 16th-century Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier — familiar to generations of St. Louis University students as the namesake of College Church.

“We’re proud, as a Jesuit institution, that it was a Jesuit selected to be pope,” said David Laughlin, president of St. Louis University High.

And, of course, Francis, until Wednesday the archbishop of Buenos Aires, is the first pope from Latin America.

Worst overgeneralized, unattributed statement

— Arizona Republic

Bergoglio is seen as a leader who can bridge the divide between social liberals in the church and orthodox traditionalists; between the growing church south of the equator and the historical church of Europe; and between Jesuits, who are seen as more liberal, and conservative movements in the church.

— Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The new pope will find himself in a delicate balancing act, adhering to traditions on which the faith is based yet moving them forward to address critical issues such as transparency, trust, the role of women in the church and better handling of the sex abuse scandal. …

Few doubt that the church needs reform.

— Hartford Courant

Though most people in Connecticut knew little about him before Wednesday, the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new pope filled the state’s Roman Catholic community with hope for a different perspective in the Vatican.

Best use of a quotation in a lede

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Filed Under: Catholicism, Godbeat, Journalism, People, Religion, World Religions Tagged With: , , ,

Dudes with red hats deadlocked on pope winner

March 13, 2013 By
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The religion news world remains on pope watch, awaiting the selection of Benedict XVI’s successor.

Or, as a Twitter post by Religion News Service put it Tuesday afternoon:


Winner winner chicken dinner?

Even though I am no expert on the Roman Catholic Church or the papal selection process, the use of the term “winner” made me chuckle.

It’s as if the cardinals were picking lottery numbers rather than choosing a spiritual leader for a worldwide church. Alas, click the link to the RNS story now, and that wording no longer appears. Apparently, someone thought better of the original terminology.

Meanwhile, a GetReligion reader shared this headline from the BBC:

Cardinals deadlocked over next Pope

That reader noted:

Leave it to the Brits to give this dire headline. Everyone else is just reporting “black smoke.” How do they know it’s “deadlocked?” Do they have something that’s getting past the jamming devices?

At some point, the BBC changed “deadlocked” to “undecided.” Long live the Brits!

As a non-Catholic, my first recollection of the papal selection process dates back to 1978. That’s when smoke started billowing from the Vatican on all three major networks. Suddenly, the cartoons I enjoyed watching as a kid were replaced with somber-looking dudes with red hats (although I’m not entirely certain that my family owned a color television at that point).

Then Pope John Paul I died after just 33 days in office, and the process started all over again! What a traumatic experience for a 1o-year-old boy. Remember, we didn’t have 150 channels back then.

Surely I jest. A little.

Two decades later, I got my first major experience covering the Roman Catholic Church, as I shared in my introductory post for GetReligion three years ago:

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Filed Under: Catholicism, First Person, Godbeat, Journalism, Religion, World Religions Tagged With: , , , ,

The new evangelical Goliath? Online ed at Liberty U

March 7, 2013 By
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Back in November, The New York Times produced a downright nauseating account of Liberty University’s effort to become a big-time college football program.

This week, the Washington Post followed up with an in-depth report on Liberty’s transformation into an “evangelical mega-university.”

The front-page headline described the university’s progress this way:

Falwell’s university grows from David to Goliath size

Bottom line: The Post’s story made my stomach churn much less than the earlier Times report. Of course, the Post focused on Liberty’s burgeoning online enrollment figures, while the Times zeroed in on the gridiron. Even better, the Post story relied much more on actual facts and less on breathless pronouncements.

In the end, however, the Post story — like the Times report — left me with a number of unanswered questions.

Let’s start at the top:

LYNCHBURG, Va. — The small Baptist college that television preacher Jerry Falwell founded here in 1971 has capitalized on the online education boom to become an evangelical mega-university with global reach.

In the almost six years since Falwell’s death, Liberty University has doubled its student head count — twice.

Total enrollment now exceeds 74,000, with nearly 62,000 working toward degrees online in fields such as psychology, business, education, criminal justice and, of course, religion. That makes Liberty the largest university in Virginia — with more than double the number of students at No. 2 George Mason — and the largest private, nonprofit university in the country. With a slogan of “training champions for Christ,” Liberty also is the nation’s largest university with a religious affiliation.

For me, key questions include: Exactly how does Liberty “train champions for Christ” through its online programs? Can the evangelical culture of the university really be duplicated via the Internet? To what character and behavior standards, if any, must the online students adhere?

The Post hits — albeit vaguely — at some of the answers:

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Filed Under: Academia, Business & Economy, Evangelicals, Journalism, Politics, Religion Tagged With: , , ,