The Broussard brouhaha and why context matters
Context matters. Take the brouhaha that has brewed over comments ESPN NBA reporter Chris Broussard made concerning basketball player Jason Collins publicly coming out as gay. From USA Today to the Los...
View ArticleSo, does LA need a ‘conservative’ newspaper or not?
Time for a quick trip into tmatt’s infamous GetReligion file of guilt. You just know that plenty of GetReligion readers are going to send us emails about an essay — in this case, from The Week — that...
View Article‘Apparently,’ there’s a news story about Wisconsin church
The lead story on CNN’s “Belief Blog” at this moment concerns a former National Football League player who apparently lost a church speaking engagement after tweeting support for basketball player...
View ArticlePod people: Ghosts and crickets in Jason Collins coverage
I spent much of last week in Malibu, Calif., hanging out with the stars. Actually, I was speaking at an event at Pepperdine University, but I wore dark sunglasses and did my best to avoid the paparazzi...
View ArticleAsking the Boy Scout questions that matter the most
If you know anything about the politics of gay rights, you know that there is absolutely nothing that the Boy Scouts of American can do right now that will not lead to major divisions in their...
View ArticleReady! Set! Be bored by Illinois’ same-sex marriage debate!
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s “Religion News on the Web” page is one of the places I go to peruse religion news. A headline from Illinois caught my attention today: AP: Politics and the...
View ArticleBrittany Griner: ESPN gets close to key question
Truth be told, I still think that the question I asked a few weeks ago remains one of the most interesting questions one can ask about that big story that keeps unfolding down in Waco: “So, how did...
View ArticleChurches dumping Boy Scouts over gay policy … or not?
Godbeat pro Bob Smietana wrote a story this week exploring whether churches will keep sponsoring Boy Scout troops or drop their affiliation given the organization’s new gay-friendly membership policy....
View ArticleSeven questions about Boy Scout gay policy coverage
Headlines over the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to allow openly gay members are still flying fast and furious. There’s been so much recent coverage, actually, that it’s impossible to critique all...
View ArticlePod people: ‘Mass exodus’ from the Boy Scouts?
One of the wonderful things about writing is the ability to type something, decide it’s not precisely exactly what you wanted to say, delete it and start over. Alas, when you’re recording a podcast —...
View ArticleBBC attacks major same-sex marriage stereotype (updated)
Here inside the Beltway, a kind of nervous hush has settled over the church-state battlefield while everyone waits for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue its ruling on the status of gay marriage in the...
View Article‘Pray the gay away’ quote still lacks a named source
Nearly a year ago, GetReligion highlighted an Associated Press story reporting that Exodus International was no longer trying to “pray the gay away.” That story prompted our esteemed head...
View ArticleSame-sex marriage and a conscience clash, via CNN
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage, CNN’s “Belief Blog” features an excellent story by Godbeat pro Daniel Burke exploring the issue from the perspective of conservative...
View ArticleIn Kentucky, ‘Shiite Baptists’ and the crazy old uncle
Thou shalt not write an inflammatory newspaper column. Hell, it seems, hath no fury like a community — or a congregation — scorned in print. One of the favorite stories I wrote for The Associated Press...
View ArticleGay rights, street preachers, and narrative preferences
When I was 12-years-old I developed an unhealthy addiction to Choose Your Own Adventure novels. Perhaps due to my own lack of imagination, I became hooked on the books where an author would frame a...
View ArticleThe moral (and news) authority of Desmond Tutu
An article at BBC.com on the launch of a United Nations-backed campaign to promote gay rights in South Africa is a perfect example of the kinds of difficulties that mainstream journalists face when...
View ArticleGuess which sin makes church discipline newsworthy?
Every week, in churches around the world, Christians engage in a peculiar practice in which they confront and correct fellow believers on a range of issues, which are often lumped into a general...
View ArticleGhost in that NYTimes Justice Kennedy hagiography
It’s time for a quick dip into my unusually thick GetReligion folder of guilt, that place where I stash stories that I know deserve a bite of criticism, but more pressing matters (think Syria) keep...
View ArticleWhen religious liberty clashes with gay rights
This was the headline on a Wall Street Journal story this week: Some Businesses Balk at Gay Weddings And the subhead: Photographers, Bakers Face Legal Challenges After Rejecting Jobs on Religious...
View ArticleMormons softening opposition to homosexuality … or not
If you enjoy quality journalism, feel free to skip an Associated Press story out today on Mormons challenging their church’s stance on homosexuality. But if you’re in the mood for a puff piece, wow …...
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