We live in an age of unprecedented communications technology. With access to cell phones, Skype, email, Twitter, etc., it is has never been easier for people to communicate with one another. So why then is it so hard for reporters and headline writers to talk to each other? Headlines that mislead or that do not fairly represent a writer’s article are a perennial problem. A recent, especially egregious example can be found in the U.K.’s The Telegraph. Here is the... Read more
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Let’s face it, folks, Luke 12:48 is not an uncommon verse. President Barack Obama himself has cited it as inspirational. But it is, apparently, unknown to some folks who... Read more
We joke about having guilt files here at GetReligion — folders full of stories that we’d like to look at and analyze but don’t get around to for one reason or another. I have one from May of last year headlined “Mormons struggling with doubt turn to online support groups.” I thought it such an intriguing topic and one handled well by focusing on a particular expression of doubt in a single religious community. Doubt is a topic explored much... Read more
A poor outing from Religion News Service this week in its article about the passage of the British government’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. While it is a wire service story and cannot be held to the same standards of depth of reporting as a story prepared in house by a newspaper, it nonetheless should strive for accuracy and provide context — and refrain from cheer leading in support of one side of the story. The version that appeared in... Read more
Every now and then, reseachers/activists in a think tank somewhere pull out a major study from the past, compare its data with that in similar studies and then announce a few specific conclusions in a press conference. Most of the time they are fishing for headlines and sound bites. All kinds of groups do this, both on the cultural left and the right. Frankly, this kind of meta-analysis often calls attention to research claims that are made over and over... Read more
Does your pastor wear v-neck shirts, have tattoos on both forearms, and ride a fixed-gear bike? Is the building where you go to church on Sunday morning a tavern/microbrewery on Saturday night? Are the communion wafer at your church gluten-free? Probably not, because you (i.e., the typical GetReligion reader) are old and no longer cool. But if you hang around with young evangelicals long enough, you’ll recognize the tropes associated with “hipster Christianity.” Although hipster churches have been around a... Read more
For several days now, I have been very curious about an item related to mainstream journalism work on the religion-news beat. The following appeared in the online column by Dr. Debra Mason of the world-famous University of Missouri School of Journalism, who is also the executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association of America. The state of the religion beat in mainstream newsrooms is a subject of great concern at GetReligion.org, for obvious reasons. Since day one, one of the... Read more
You may have read stories about the Vatican announcing that Roman Catholics may earn time off purgatory by following Pope Francis on social media during World Youth Day. Many of the stories had serious problems. The main problem was getting the theology all wrong. For a sample of how the media messed up this story, let’s look at the Telegraph: Catholics to seek forgiveness for their sins via social media Catholics will be able to seek forgiveness for their sins... Read more
I really liked Tennessean Godbeat pro Bob Smietana’s profile last year of Richard Land, then the embattled president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. But what did I think of this week’s sequel? Hey, good news: I really liked it, too. I’m referring, of course, to Smietana’s story on Russell Moore, Land’s successor. The opening sentence is fantastic: Russell Moore, the new chief ethicist for the Southern Baptist Convention, has Jesus in his heart, Wendell Berry on his... Read more
On one level, the recent Reuters “special report” on the financial issues haunting the 10,600-acre Summit Bechtel Family National Reserve in West Virginia breaks quite a bit of new and important ground about the current challenges faced by the Boy Scouts of America. It’s a must read and it’s clear that this expensive project is — to one degree or another — in trouble. But on another level, it’s just plain haunted. Period. The larger context for this hot-button story... Read more
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