2013-02-26T21:51:54-05:00

Last updated on: February 26, 2013 at 9:51 pm   By

Stop me if I sound like a broken record. Once or twice or maybe even three times, I’ve complained about major media reporting that the nation’s evangelicals — all acting in lockstep — have jumped on an immigration reform bandwagon. My concern about these stories has been purely journalistic: a lack of adequate reporting and sourcing to back up broad generalizations about a vaguely defined group of Christians. For a twist, how about we consider a story from the Deseret News, a Salt Lake... Read more

2013-02-26T16:49:05-05:00

Last updated on: February 26, 2013 at 4:49 pm   By

I need some help, folks. My goal is to find that classic Washington Post piece — on A1 or the Style front — about the whole Beltway-women cult that surrounded the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer. The key to this feature was that it focused on how guilty these feminists and hard-charging professionals felt about their desire to read these books. They were hiding them from friends and family. Women could not believe that they were falling for these novels.... Read more

2013-02-26T11:28:08-05:00

Last updated on: February 26, 2013 at 11:28 am   By

A religion writer passed along this piece from the Wall Street Journal with the instruction to pay attention to the 4th paragraph. So let’s do that: Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he was praying a lot as he prepared to travel to Rome to participate in the selection of a new pope, but he also has made time to exchange travel tips with his colleague Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago. “Cardinal George told me to make sure to... Read more

2013-02-25T19:34:42-05:00

Last updated on: February 25, 2013 at 7:34 pm   By

As the debates rage on about you know what — Washington. Post. Ombudsman. Bias. Column. — I would like to jump in remind faithful GetReligion readers of an earlier episode in this post-journalism drama. I’ll also share another link or two pointing toward pieces in which journalists are discussing some of the prickly issues in the Patrick Pexton piece. But first, let’s back up to the earlier event (video here) in Austin, Texas, that still has me depressed, the one... Read more

2013-02-25T21:12:27-05:00

Last updated on: February 25, 2013 at 9:12 pm   By

This weekend, we looked at the Washington Post ombudsman column that revealed that the newspaper has an extremely serious problem with doing basic journalism when it comes to the thorny issue of whether marriage should be redefined to include same-sex couples. The ombudsman column is something that could be discussed for many reasons, but I want to narrow it to just one point of discussion: anonymity. Should the ombudsman have granted anonymity to the reporter who was revealing his or... Read more

2013-02-25T21:13:01-05:00

Last updated on: February 25, 2013 at 9:13 pm   By

Anti-Catholic bias is alive and well in Britain — however the animus to the “Italian mission to the Irish” comes not from the Church of England. Nor does it stem from the 1701 Act of Settlement (barring Catholics from the Royal Family), Guy Fawkes Night, xenophobia or other collective memories of the Britain’s past. The anti-Catholic bias one sees in England today is that of the political and media elites — those members of the chattering classes who detest the... Read more

2013-02-24T16:56:45-05:00

Last updated on: February 24, 2013 at 4:56 pm   By

On one level, that New York Times feature story on the fall of Msgr. Kevn Wallin of Connecticut has everything one would want in a religion scandal. I mean, it’s got sex, crystal meth, Broadway show tunes and a hazy link to a future cardinal. Consider this summary material: At a time when priests from California to Delaware have been accused of loathsome deeds, the allegations against Monsignor Wallin, the former pastor of the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Bridgeport,... Read more

2013-02-23T21:36:42-05:00

Last updated on: February 23, 2013 at 9:36 pm   By

On Feb. 15, Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton made a startling statement: It is possible that I’ll be The Washington Post’s last independent ombudsman and that this chair will empty at the conclusion of my two-year term Feb. 28. If so, that will end nearly 43 years of this publication having enough courage and confidence to employ a full-time reader representative and critic. His column today may give some insight into why. Or, as reporter Byron York wrote: WaPo ombudsman... Read more

2013-02-22T16:18:51-05:00

Last updated on: February 22, 2013 at 4:18 pm   By

Yesterday a reader tweeted that The Guardian was clearly trying to insinuate that Pope Benedict XVI is compromised in some way, resigning in disgrace. The headline: Papal resignation linked to inquiry into ‘Vatican gay officials’, says paper  Pope’s staff decline to confirm or deny La Repubblica claims linking ‘Vatileaks’ affair and discovery of ‘blackmailed gay clergy’ Sounds deliciously scandalous! The long and the short of it is that some claim there’s a shadowy “gay lobby” in the Vatican, blackmail was... Read more

2013-02-22T13:40:25-05:00

Last updated on: February 22, 2013 at 1:40 pm   By

So it’s a Friday in Lent (only in Western churches, at this point), so what did you have for lunch? As a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, I have always been interested in how other ancient churches — think Rome and, to some degree, Canterbury — handle the great fasting seasons. When you add them all up, including our normal fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, practicing Orthodox Christians live as vegans or, at the very least, vegetarians more than half the... Read more

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