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When presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said during the Republican primaries that he was comfortable speaking the language of Zion, he clearly referred to the social and, to some degree, theological contexts of conservative evangelical Protestants. I’ve long sensed that Obama speaks in the cadence of Zion, one that seems familiar to any ears familiar with black churches.
Let people say whatever they wish about Rick Warren’s invocation. I loved CNN’s shot of church women shedding tears as Warren invoked Martin Luther King Jr., and others in the great cloud of witnesses, shouting with joy in heaven.
Home Box Office omitted Bishop Gene Robinson’s invocation in its coverage of the “We Are One” pre-Inauguration concert on Sunday. Assorted bloggers, including TV critic Aaron Barnhart of The Kansas City Star and nka of TPM Café, are speculating about whether this omission amounted to censorship, and who should be blamed for it. Barnhart proposes the odd theory, as one of three possibilities, that the Obama campaign “never intended for Robinson to be seen on national TV.”
Veteran journalist Charles Sennott appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today to promote GlobalPost, which strives to be a less expensive alternative source for global news coverage (compared to the more comprehensive Associated Press). Sennott mentioned that every correspondent for GlobalPost will carry a Flip camcorder. This video report by Greg Warner shows how well the concept can work.
The New York Times Magazine has wandered into the testosterone-heavy world of Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church and emerged with a feature story that mostly does justice to both Driscoll and his critics. The coverage is by Molly Worthen, who has also written a previous New York Times Magazine story on classical Christian education and a feature about L’Abri Fellowship for Christianity Today. She is no stranger to the subcultures of evangelical Protestantism.
Christopher Hitchens is most engaging when he’s showing indignation, but he’s most endearing when paying tribute to a courageous friend. His portrait of novelist Salman Rushdie, appearing in the February issue of Vanity Fair, opens with some of the warmest and most affectionate words I’ve seen from Hitchens in quite a while.
Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post wrote an exceptional front-page story on Tuesday about the uncertain future of the Church of the Saviour, which the Rev. Gordon and Mary Cosby founded 60 years ago. Cosby preached his final sermon — at age 91 — on December 28.
