Get Religion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business and sports.
Religion and public education have never been completely divorced in the United States. Considering religion’s historic involvement in education in Western societies, I doubt religion will ever be completely removed from public education systems in the United States. In fact, religion may be finding new ways to be involved in American public education.
When Josh Hamilton talks about the impact of “God’s grace” on his life, reporters and commentators cannot ignore it. Back in January, there was a flurry of coverage of the Major League Baseball slugger’s amazing life turnaround, much of which focused on the role of faith. Those watching the ESPN broadcast of Hamilton’s ridiculously amazing performance in last night’s All-Star Home Run Derby would have had trouble missing the fact that God played a rather significant role in the mere fact that Hamilton is still swinging a bat today.
Reading about presumed Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s outreach to so-called evangelical voters and “leaders” is like reading the 2004 presidential coverage only in reverse. Reporters should take whatever efforts McCain’s campaign makes to “outreach” to evangelical leaders with a large grain of salt.
In the many news articles on the death of former North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms, little is said outright of the social conservative politician’s religious faith. There are certainly hints of it, but even in the Baptist senator‘s home state newspapers, most reporters failed to mention anything of note regarding religion.
Sports reporters are often some of the most closely read journalists in the local newspaper. They are also often the most knowledgeable journalists about the subject they cover. To some people’s surprise, sports journalists must also have an adequate grasp on just about everything else in life, including religion.
Somehow I missed the odd reference to some guy named “Bill Graham” in The New York Times article on Obama’s desire to expand the role of religious groups in combating the nation’s social problems. Thankfully, the blog Between Two Worlds picked up the reference:
To the surprise of few, presumed 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama announced that he plans to out-do Bush in integrating faith-based programs on the federal level. What surprised some, at least initially, was an inaccurate report from the Associated Press that said that Obama’s plan would support religious organizations’ ability to hire and fire based on faith.
The growth of Christianity in non-Western cultures and societies is widely acknowledged to be one of the biggest religion stories these days. A significant subset of that story is the rapid growth of Christianity in China to a point where it is the country’s second largest religion (behind only Buddhists and ahead of Islam).
