Is this Bible legislation legal? Quick, call and ask my pastor!

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

No fooling, the following lede comes not from the satire publication The Onion but from a real newspaper — the New Orleans Times-Picayune: Legislation that would make the Holy Bible the official state book of Louisiana cleared the House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs with a vote of 8-5 Thursday afternoon. It will now head to the full House of Representatives for consideration. Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, originally filed a bill to declare a specific copy of the Bible, found in... Read more

Francis links abortion with abuse, yet press doesn’t follow

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By geoconger

The Italian press has placed an interesting interpretation on Pope Francis’ Friday comments on the clergy abuse. It reports that in the pope’s mind clergy abuse of children is tied to the “abomination” of abortion. Look for this theme in the Anglo-American press and tell me if you can find it? I can’t. Francis’ comments to the International Catholic Child Bureau meeting at the Vatican on April 11 received wide spread coverage. CNN reported: Pope Francis made his strongest condemnation yet... Read more

What he said! Yes, Hollywood wants more Christian $$$$

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By tmatt

In this morning’s email newsletter from the folks at Religion News Service, editor Kevin Eckstrom raised his eyebrow high (no, honest, you can sense it in the copy) and quipped: Pretty sure we’ve seen about 5,429 versions of this story already. Right. We get it. Hollywood is trying to lure Christian audiences to the cineplex. Again. Meanwhile, it other news … Well, “this story” was the new feature in The Los Angeles Times that ran under an oh-so-predictable double-decker headline... Read more

Politics, sin and serious reporting in La. bayou country

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By Bobby Ross Jr.

As I’ve shared before, I spent a few years of my early childhood in West Monroe, La., where my dad attended the White’s Ferry Road School of Preaching. That now-defunct school was operated by the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ, now known nationally as the home congregation of the Robertson family of “Duck Dynasty” fame. Through my work with The Christian Chronicle, I remain in touch with a number of White’s Ferry Road church leaders and members. Given my... Read more

That ‘mysterious’ NYTimes stance on Boko Haram

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By tmatt

Here we go again. There has been another horrific act of violence in Nigeria with militants bombing a bus station in Abuja, which is the capital of this painfully divided country. At this point, officials are reporting 71 deaths and scores wounded. Here is a key piece of the New York Times report on this massacre: Top Nigerian officials, whose offices are a short distance away, immediately attributed the bombing to the Islamist group they have been battling for years,... Read more

Bizarre AP wording in update on Overland Park shootings

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By tmatt

If you are of a certain age, as I am, and you grew up deep in the heavily Protestant Bible Belt, like I did, you can probably remember running into some people way back when who — to be blunt about it — used to draw a verbal line of distinction between people who were “Christians” and those who were “Catholics.” It’s hard to imagine that now, isn’t it? This is especially true after the admiration that so many evangelicals... Read more

Did Jesus only become God at Easter?

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By Richard Ostling

ARTHUR ASKS: Christians observe that the Son of God died to atone for human sins. But St. Paul says (Romans 1:4) that Jesus was “declared … to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.” So apparently Jesus wasn’t divine when he died (or before). How then does atonement work? THE RELIGION GUY ANSWERS: A timely inquiry as Christians reflect on Jesus’ death and resurrection, and also due to the clash between two new scholarly books, “How... Read more

For the Times, Ayaan Hirsi Ali controversy has only one side

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By Jim Davis

Brandeis University offered an honorary degree to a controversial speaker, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, then withdrew it under pressure from Muslim students. Controversies always have at least two sides, right? Not when the New York Times reports it. In its story on the dispute, the Times cites three sources who opposed Hirsi Ali’s appearance. How many voices speaking on Hirsi Ali’s side? None. There’s an attack by Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, calling her “one of the worst... Read more

Pod people: So what could reporters cover during Lent?

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By tmatt

Long, long ago, back at the beginning of Lent, I put up a post that asked a simple question: In all of those stories about more and more Americans deciding to “do Lent,” what did it actually mean to say that one was going to “do Lent”? The answer, of course, was that whole “give up one thing for Lent” deal, the whole do-it-yourself plan in which an individual creates his or her own personal Lenten challenge. The problem, as... Read more

WPost: Confessions of a (liberal) Christian film critic

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm By tmatt

The following observations have little to do with the normal work that we do here at GetReligion, since our goal is to dissect the mainstream press coverage of religion news, seeking the good, the bad and the ugly. Nevertheless, I think faithful readers of this blog will be interested in a new essay by Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, which ran under this provocative headline: “Confessions of a Christian film critic.” Right. And this very interesting essay opens with... Read more