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I realize that, at this point, the word “meditation” has evolved into a term that is used to describe cool things that cool people do instead of doing uncool things that journalists might think of as prayer. Perhaps we need an entry in the Associated Press Stylebook that states this clearly.
It’s been almost a month since a reader sent in a discussion of the use of scare quotes in the San Diego Jewish World by Dan Bloom. He says that his correspondents call them other things, such as “sneer quotes,” “horror quotes,” “air quotes” and “quote-unquote quotes.” And Jon Stewart calls them something that is not family friendly at all.
I think we have pretty much established, at this point, that the folks who run The Baltimore Sun may be interested in some (but not all) Catholic events and trends in their historically significant city. However, it is also true that they appear to have zero interest, or thereabouts, in asking WHY certain events and trends are so common in Catholic life.
Last week, I wrote about the Washington Post‘s horror that a local Roman Catholic diocese was asking its Sunday School teachers to affirm their Catholicism.
People here in Capital Beltway land love, love, love to talk about the unique creatures who live in the happy land of Georgetown.
We got complaints from a couple of readers about this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, headlined “Improvising Illinois priest barred from pulpit.” It’s written by Tim Townsend, someone we frequently praise here at GetReligion:
I have reached three basic conclusions after reading the same front-page Washington Post story that Mollie responded to earlier today.
Last night I read a Washington Post story that gave me reason to revisit my Lutheran confirmation rite. After a reading from the Gospel of Matthew, the catechumen is then directed to answer some very serious questions about what he or she believes. The structure of the rite is that as the pastor asks the questions “Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty” and “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord?” and so and so forth, the response is to quote from the Apostles’ Creed, one of the earliest confessions of Christian faith. The final five questions are:
I know, I know. I know that it’s absolutely crazy to look for hard, factual material in stories about celebrities — especially when it has anything to do with politics and religion. And in this case, we are talking about the brightest of all possible gossip stars.
