AP’s one-sided report on teaching Bible in public schools

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

Gotcha! That’s the distinct tone of an Associated Press story out this week (just three weeks behind Religion News Service) on a new Bible elective approved by an Oklahoma school district. But does this AP story, filled with much weeping and gnashing of teeth, deliver the actual journalistic goods? Why don’t you help me decide, inquiring-mind GetReligion readers? Let’s start at the top: OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Steve Green’s faith led him to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he’s argued the nation’s... Read more

Why it’s no surprise the LA Clippers have a Jewish owner

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By tmatt

A long, long time ago — pre-Internet for me — I wrote an “On Religion” column about Rabbi Robert Alper, who was billing himself in the early 1990s as the nation’s only rabbi who was “doing stand-up comedy — intentionally.” You can’t talk to a funny rabbi without digging into a question that, for some people, remains somewhat touchy: Why do Jews dominate the landscape of American humor? Some of the possible answers to that question are, in fact, fine... Read more

Putting a real face on Pew’s Latino religious identity survey

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

The Pew Research Center released a report Wednesday titled “The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States,” based on a nationwide survey of 5,000 Hispanics, and it’s making headlines. As always, it’s interesting to see the specific angles taken by major news organizations. From The New York Times: By all accounts, Hispanics are the future of Catholicism in America. Already, most young Roman Catholics in the United States are Hispanic, and soon that will be true of the overall... Read more

Yes, it’s crucial that Boko Haram kills and tortures Muslims

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By tmatt

Yes, we need to focus on Nigeria and Boko (“books”) Haram (“forbidden“). Again. Why? Why keep coming back to the mainstream coverage of this story? For starters, the scope of the story is only getting bigger with the planned — limited — intervention of the Obama White House in the efforts to find and rescue the 270-plus teen-aged girls who were abducted last month by this terrorist network. Reports about the precise number still being held as slaves and potential... Read more

NBA MVP Kevin Durant thanks God, but media fail to notice

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

I am not a big NBA fan, although I did attend Monday night’s Oklahoma City Thunder playoff game, thanks to my 16-year-old son Keaton, who bought me a ticket. I am becoming a big Kevin Durant fan. It’s hard to witness Durant’s rare combination of extreme talent and uncommon humility and not be impressed. The latest example came Tuesday when a teary-eyed Durant won his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award and — in a speech for the sports ages... Read more

Boko Haram leader’s profile: chilling but incomplete

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Jim Davis

“His name is Abubakar Shekau. He is the leader of Boko Haram. And he has your girls.” So begins a chilling profile in the Washington Post on the leader of Boko Haram, the Islamist gang that abducted more than 300 girls in mid-April. It’s a great start, but it isn’t sustained. Under Shekau, Boko Haram has bombed churches and massacred people by the hundreds — and it abducted eight more girls on Monday night. Victims include not only Christians but... Read more

Gasp! NYTimes covers the heart of Kennedy’s argument!

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By tmatt

Let’s hear it for The New York Times, a newspaper that can always be trusted to get key information on both sides of hot religious and cultural debates into print. Wait. Say what? Actually, in contrast with the CNN Belief Blog editorial that our own Jim Davis parsed this morning, the basic Times news report on the Supreme Court’s Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway, Et Al decision (.pdf) does a pretty good job of allowing readers to hear... Read more

SCOTUS prayer case: reporting, opinion in one story

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Jim Davis

Like many towns, prayer opens government meetings in Greece, N.Y. Unlike many towns, a couple of citizens voiced their offense to the practice — all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As we heard yesterday, the high court sided with the town. And of course, the other side is crying foul. Even including CNN, which was supposed to be doing straight reporting. Here’s how CNN’s Belief Blog item by Daniel Burke led off the report on the high court’s... Read more

Mystery solved? Has NYTimes seen light on Boko Haram?

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By tmatt

There may be some news for GetReligion readers who have been following the “mysterious” case of The New York Times foreign desk and the history and motives of the deadly Islamist network in Nigeria popularly known as Boko (“books”) Haram (“forbidden”). I am sorry to keep repeating some of this information, but in recent weeks it has been truly enlightening to contrast what has been published, for example, by the BBC and also The Washington Post with the “mysterious” wording... Read more

Pope Francis on economics: How innovative? How savvy?

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 1:32 pm By Richard Ostling

JIM ASKS: Conservative commentators ridiculed [Pope Francis’s decree Evangelii Gaudium] for its criticism of the free market system. But how different, really, is Francis’s thinking from his predecessors? THE RELIGION GUY ANSWERS: The Catholic Church is experiencing Hurricane Francis, the early phase of what may become the most liberal pontificate in a half-century. The new pope’s eyebrow-raisers including his words on economics. An April 28 Twitter feed from Francis (or his handlers) said “iniquitas radix malorum,” (“inequality is the root... Read more