The best journalists report what they know — and what they don’t. Given the flurry of positive press for Pope Francis in 2013, a journalist easily could produce a three-anecdotes-make-a-trend story on how the new pope with a sky-high approval rating has brought a numerical resurgence to the Roman Catholic Church. But Peter Smith of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — one of our favorite Godbeat pros — didn’t do that. He stuck to the facts (thank you, ma’am) in a recent story on... Read more
Do you remember Tom Lehrer, the composer/comedian/mathematician? I have long loved his music, which I discovered as a young boy when exploring my parent’s record collection. A recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz set spinning in my head one of Lehrer’s LPs this Christmas and to the embarrassment of my children I broke into song, serenading them with the refrain from Lehrer’s satiric gem National Brotherhood Week (1965). Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, And the Catholics hate the... Read more
It’s often like the force of gravity in American politics and it has been gaining power for about a quarter of a century. We’re talking about the “pew gap,” that mysterious X-factor that keeps showing up in surveys about the most controversial political and social issues in this land of ours. Simply stated, the more often a person sits in a pew inside a religious sanctuary, the more likely they are to vote for morally conservative candidates (in either party,... Read more
Christmas comes but once a year, the old saying goes. It’s a federal holiday as well as a religious observance, so it’s understandable that any president of the United States, regardless of faith, would take the day off. At the same time, most every POTUS has been a Christian of one stripe or another (questions exist about Jefferson and Lincoln, but that’s for another time). President Barack Obama professes Christian faith as well, something noted here just the other day.... Read more
This is what passes for news in Washington these days: an immensely famous politician is having a speech prepared and instructs their speechwriters to quote another immensely famous person, because immensely famous person No. 2 says some things immensely famous person No. 1 likes. Except, it turns out, when immensely famous person No. 1 actually disagrees with immensely famous person No. 2. What it is the kids say? Oh, yes: “I think I just threw up in my mouth a... Read more
I am sure that GetReligion readers will be shocked, shocked to know that the Godbeat professionals in the Religion Newswriters Association selected the election of Pope Francis Superstar as the top religion-news story of 2013. It goes without saying that Pope Francis was also named Religion Newsmaker of the Year. Click here to read the official RNA release about the Top 10 stories of the year. Faithful GetReligion readers will also be shocked, shocked to know that I understood the... Read more
The White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, La., is making headlines these days as the home congregation of the Robertson family of “Duck Dynasty” fame. For me, mention of the White’s Ferry Road church brings back fond memories totally unrelated to duck hunting or reality television. That’s because — for two years during my early childhood — the Ouachita River community of West Monroe was my hometown and the White’s Ferry Road church my home congregation, as... Read more
Basil Fawlty: Can’t we get you on Mastermind, Sybil? Next contestant: Mrs. Sybil Fawlty from Torquay. Specialist subject – the bleeding obvious. Fawlty Towers: Basil the Rat (#2.6)” (1979) The Washington Post reports some progressive Christians are unsatisfied with contemporary worship and are seeking more traditional ways to do church. The article “Americans turning to ancient music, practices to experience their faith” highlights the sense of incompleteness, of liturgical inadequacy felt by some Christians this Christmas. It begins: In our... Read more
Covering speeches is tricky, I tell the students in my reporting classes. A good public speaker says all kinds of interesting things before he or she gets to The Big Idea, the point to which they have been building all along. A good reporter, on the other hand, has to find a way to take The Big Idea — especially if it is truly newsworthy — and plant it right at the top of the story, while maintaining a sense... Read more
As you would expect, your GetReligionistas do our fair share of traveling and celebrating during the Christmas season — which often takes us into wintry territory in which wifi sources are few and far between. How am I going to download the Doctor Who Christmas episode? Anyway, we will be posting less often than formal during the 12-day Christmas season. This is our normal pattern over the past decade. We don’t completely close down, but we tend to post once... Read more
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