Innocence of Muslims filmmaker finally sentenced

Last updated on: November 9, 2012 at 12:15 pm By mollie

Of the many curious coverage decisions the mainstream media made this year, I thought the relative lack of interest in the plight of Mark Bassely Youssef, who made “Innocence of Muslims,” was noteworthy. There’s no question the dude is shady and broke the law in matters unrelated to the YouTube phenomenon. But the Obama administration’s focus on him, the physical threats issued against him, and his incarceration over the last few months also merited some serious discussions about free speech... Read more

What is this “American Catholic Church,” anyway?

Last updated on: November 8, 2012 at 7:26 pm By tmatt

What we have here is kind of a Son of the WomenPriests story — with an interesting twist. When covering the WomenPriests, mainstream reporters have used some very awkward language suggesting, to be blunt about it, that the WomenPriests are valid Roman Catholic priests for the simple reason that they say that they are valid Roman Catholic priests. The implication is that the Catholic Church is not in charge of declaring who is and who is not a priest in... Read more

The ghost of Prince William County

Last updated on: November 8, 2012 at 6:27 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

It’s all about race. And age. Religion? Uh, surely that’s not a factor worth exploring. That’s my interpretation of a front-page New York Times story today that focuses on the changing demographics in Prince William County, Va., and their impact on Tuesday’s presidential election: A couple of decades ago, Prince William County was one of the mostly white, somewhat rural, far-flung suburbs where Republican candidates went to accumulate the votes to win elections in Virginia. Since then, Prince William has... Read more

Which religious group should be blamed for the election results?

Last updated on: November 8, 2012 at 12:46 am By mollie

Well, everyone, we made it through another presidential campaign year! Congratulations to the winners and condolences to the losers and all that. With the election over, we’re now in the stage of the airing of grievances and assigning of blame. It’s usually much easier to do this than this year, where the campaign wasn’t about big issues. Or as it was put in this fantastic Washington Post piece explaining how Obama won: The campaign bore almost no resemblance to the... Read more

The day after: The prophet John Green, revisited

Last updated on: November 7, 2012 at 12:10 pm By tmatt

It should be a quiet day on the religion-beat front, in the wake of yesterday’s nail-biters in the real world of politics. If the past repeats itself, as it often does, it will take a few days for the religion elements of the story to emerge, other than the usual “Obama won the Catholic vote (whatever that is)” headlines. We do know several things for sure, on the day after. The ultimate ties that bind are race and religion, even... Read more

Spies of the Balkans

Last updated on: November 7, 2012 at 5:42 pm By geoconger

The 98-year old leader of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has died. I guess you weren’t prepared for that bit of excitement from GetReligion the morning after the election. As many of our readers are going through news withdrawal at this moment, I thought I would help ween them from their addiction with something nice, safe and far away: a drawing room media mystery to settle their minds and hearts. Patriarch Maxim did have the good sense to die on 6... Read more

God, gang graffiti and gunfire in L.A.

Last updated on: November 7, 2012 at 12:17 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

A heartwrenching story appears on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times (see a television report here) on a worshiper killed outside a church: The congregation was singing and praying Sunday evening inside Iglesia Principe de Paz, a weathered storefront church on Beverly Boulevard, when a parishioner checking on the food being set up in the parking lot saw something suspicious. A young woman was spraying graffiti on a church wall. When he asked her to stop, she knocked him to... Read more

CNN attempts to bifurcate Jesus

Last updated on: November 6, 2012 at 12:31 pm By mollie

I was reflecting on the interesting election coverage we experienced over the last year(s) and how the religion angles were handled. After 2008, perhaps we can agree that religion angles were handled better in this cycle. Which is not saying much. The media have never quite figured out how to handle President Barack Obama’s religion, largely downplaying his religious rhetoric and ignoring his religious outreach. Some folks attempted to smear Mitt Romney for his Mormonism, but even that was restrained.... Read more

And for the Copts, the winner is … the winner is?

Last updated on: November 6, 2012 at 11:02 am By tmatt

First things first: I would like to stress that, while I am a member of an Orthodox Christian parish with historic ties to Arab Christianity, I do not speak Arabic. That said, I would think that this language deficit would make me a highly unlikely candidate to cover a major news event in which the climactic moment was going to hinge on an announcement in Arabic. At the very least, I would think that — if given this assignment anyway... Read more