Actor asked to comment on relationship of dead birds and Armageddon

CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Left Behind series actor Kirk Cameron on the significance of large-scale bird kills as a predictor of the end of the world.

Cameron suggested Cooper would have been better off calling a veterinarian.

Mosque gets approval at Ground Zero

I saw a commentary/wrap up on Good Morning America this morning about the decision to allow the building of a mosque at the Ground Zero site in New York City. It was interesting to watch ABC's George Stephanopoulos talking about this issue with a Fox News contributer (announced as such) who focused in the story on the fairness of the brand new mosque being approved when a Greek Orthodox congregation that was destroyed in 2001 has not been allowed to rebuild.

The story has gotten a lot attraction in the blogosphere, both from neutral and less neutral sources, but I thought it was interesting to compare both networks' coverage.

ABC here.


Fox here.

Interesting view on "leaving Christianity"

The most popular story on CNN's website is one about Interview With the Vampire author Anne Rice stating that she is leaving Christianity.

The article quotes Rice's blog from two posts in which she both states that she has "quit being a Christian" and that "following Christ does not mean following His [sic] followers."

The Baltimore Sun's religion blog has a more extensive set of quotations, but in neither is there any context from the writer to explain the apparent contradiction between Rice's statement that she follows Christ, but does not consider herself a Christian, essentially because Christians are too narrow-minded.

Huffington Post offers slice of life piece on Christianity

Huffington Post correspondent Mark Osler offers this personal reflection on an experience with a shipping clerk who offered to pray for him after he sent a package.

I know Mark from my time in Waco, but his piece inspired me to look at bit at the site's religion coverage, which is a mix of news an opinion typical of an online source. I also found this piece on online proselytizing for Mormons interesting.

Pundit's swipe at social justice raises a variety of hackles

Fox New's Glenn Beck created quite a stir with his statements about the low value of social justice.

Some reaction can be found from

Liberal Bloggers
Southern Baptists
A Mormon on Beliefnet
A wrap-up from Christianity Today

At least he has people talking.

Pre-emptive backlash at Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, who has more than once blamed sins of residents for natural disasters, has been mocked in several stories about the Chile earthquake.

He's blamed a pact with the chupacabra

He can't blame the Devil or the French

He's said God is punishing the Chileans for persecuting a stand-up guy like Augusto Pinochet.

Which are true? None of them.

Jesus Rifles gain attention

Stephen Colbert calls them "an armor-piercing Sunday School," while other media outlets have more serious stories.

Fox News
ABC news
American Public Radio

For discussion: How do the different media approach the story?

Article on prayer illustrates non-believing reporter technique

This article on prayer from the Sunday New York Times Magazine, written by Zev Chafets, features the following:

Cymbala instructed us to form prayer groups of two or three, stand facing one another and read the prayers out loud. I formed a threesome with the man on my left, a middle-aged political consultant from Washington, and a tall fellow on my right who had recently moved to New York from Gary, Ind. “Would you mind reading mine too?” I asked the tall man, handing him my card. “I don’t actually pray, and I don’t want Pete and Angela to get shortchanged.” He nodded with nonjudgmental solemnity, read the request and asked God to bless the couple with prosperity and health.

This transaction made me feel like a jerk. All Pete and Angela wanted was a simple prayer, and I couldn’t bring myself to offer one. I took the card back and said, “I’m having a good thought for Pete and Angela.” I wished them happiness and wealth, in Hebrew. The two words sound alike in Hebrew and are a commonly used secular benediction. My prayer partners said, “Amen,” and we all sat down.

I thought this was an interesting example of reporting from something you believe in and of participant observation.

Radio story uses sound to carry religious elements

I stumbled on this NPR story about a chaplain at the Atlanta airport and the variety of jobs that he has.

Although the story does not expressly mention religion much at all, I thought the use of ambient sounds in the story did a good job of illustrating the chaos of the airport vs. the still, calmness of the chapel and the chaplain. It's worth a listen.

"Apostate killing" threatened in U.S.

CNN has this piece about a teenager who says her father threatened to kill her for converting to Christianity.

The article, which quotes the teen, her attorney and her family's attorney, quotes her father indirectly as saying the local mosque encouraged him to "deal with the problem," which readers would interpret as eliminate the youth.

There was little context in the story about the fate of Muslims who convert to Christianity, which has certainly been an issue in the past year in other countries. Even some links to those stories would have help provide some much-needed background beyond the he-said, she-said of this article.

A marketing theme for Super Bowl Sunday

As churches across the U.S. deal with their response to Superbowl Sunday (host a Superbowl party at the church? Host a non-related event? Cancel regular events?), those of us in the media business turn an eye to the advertisements that traditionally debut today.

From the blog Beyond Relevance comes this video, which asks "What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church." The commentary on evangelical churches and their outreach is biting, but also funny.

NBC makes an interesting story request

This call for information from NBC is interesting on a few levels.

The network is attempting to bridge religion and the economic slowdown, which is a rather different idea.

The examples given for what people might have trouble paying for are interesting, though. Gas to get to services is one thing, but I think some readers/viewers might not classify Christmas trees or Hanukkah gifts as costs of religious observances.

I will be interested to see if they get responses from practitioners of other religions.

Pastor's call for week of "congregational copulation" draws coverage

Grapevine, Texas, pastor Ed Young called his married congregants to have sex each night for a week, in a story covered by The New York Times, England's The Daily Mail , Canada's Toronto Globe and Mail Australia's News.com.au and others.

The way the stories were covered is interesting - some chose an analytical approach, interviewing sex therapists about whether the challenge would make a lasting difference. Another chose to interview other pastors to see if it would fly in their congregations.

Apparently, singles who attend Young's Fellowship Church were encouraged to eat chocolate and to ask God to send them a spouse.

Editorial suggests Summum case is about establishment

I missed this editorial that ran inside yesterday's Times suggesting that the Supreme Court case of Summum vs. Pleasant Grove City is not an issue of free speech, but rather one of establishment of religion.

Arguments in this case should be interesting to watch.

Religious angle critical in court story

A story on page A1 of the New York Times today focuses on an interesting case being brought before the Supreme Court about whether a Utah town is required to afford a new religious movement the same right to display scriptures in a public park as it does Christianity.

This case is interesting because of the uncertainty of which part of the First Amendment is relevant - freedom of speech or establishment of religion. It was also an interesting challenge for the writer to, in a short news article, adequately summarize enough of the new religious movement's beliefs and behaviors to enable readers to understand the matters relevant to the case.

I read the web version linked to here, and this would have been a nice chance to have used the multimedia capabilities of the web to at least list all the aphorisms referenced in the article, or, better, to link to the group's web site.

Short story on monk fistfight lacks context

This CNN story details a fistfight between Christian monks of varying affiliation at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem today.

The story reads like a crime story and, because of its length, I think, does not answer an important set of questions including what the historic tensions mentioned in the article are, where they came from, and how this fits into the overall realm of Christian experience in a religion that, at least theologically, isn't expected to put a lot of emphasis on locations.

Comedy TV looks at God

Both the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report had interesting religion angles this week. On The Daily Show, host Job Stewart interviewed Bill Maher about his opinions and his new movie Religulous, which is scheduled for release at the end of this week. Maher, using his usual level of tact, says he takes a agnostic view, and that people who believe in things like Lord Xenu or Noah's Ark are stupid. One of the more interesting parts is a clip from the movie wherein Maher gathers a crowd in London by, as he puts it, ranting the tenets of Scientology.

Monday's Colbert Report featured The Word segment about how the financial markets are akin to God, both the Judeo-Christian God and otherwise.

See both here.

Hindu-Christian tension in India

A wire story about hard-line Hindus setting fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionsaries.

Teaching of evolution highlighted in story

The New York Times has a major article this weekend on the teaching of evolution in Florida school. The article is the account of Florida biology teacher David Campbell's actions and the students' reactions to a now state-mandated unit on evolution.

The article has a nice level of detail and seems almost like a novel in its use of first-person dialogue, highlighting Campbell's actions getting Florida laws changed to expressly include evolution and how he struggles to implement the laws in his classroom.

However, although the article traces some of the history of the recent controversies over how to teach the origins of life in public schools, Campbell's authority is put up against the authority of his students. The article cites organizations like Answers in Genesis, but doesn't use direct information from them, which leaves a feeling of editorializing.

On the other hand, the article is complete, and I'm not sure other points of view could have been elegantly incorporated.

Comments welcome.

Religion angle serves as setting in murder analysis

This story in today's New York Times has an interesting use of a bit of religion-related detail.

The story is about a particular gunfire death in Birmingham, and opens with a description of a night with a shooting. The story does a nice job of incorporating detail in a way that puts a human face on the 55th homicide in the city this year.

The role of faith in the neighborhood is presented in some of the details chosen, including the fact that a neighbor was reading the Bible, when she hit the floor after hearing gunshots (the story gives chapter and verse), friends and neighbors visiting the victim's family sit "under the gaze of small ceramic angels and choirboys in the living room" and the victim's father wears " loose-fitting shirt with a pattern of handprints, as though left by a laying on of hands."

I thought this was a good example of how religion as a part of life can be part of religious journalism, even when it is not the major topic of the story.