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I have had a number of requests to go ahead and post my tribute to the late Doug Marlette. However, the column is already up at the Scripps Howard News Service home page, so click here if you want to see the full text.
Doug Marlette knew that religion was really, really important — especially in his beloved South. He knew that religion was very powerful and he respected that. He knew why people tend to get mad when you poke them in the soul.
You all remember that spat involving the Washington Nationals and religion in the fall of 2005 when the team’s chapel leader seemed to agree that Jewish people are headed to hell because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as their savior? The controversy ignited after comments from team Chaplain Jon Moeller were published in a rather excellent Washington Post feature on the Bible in baseball.
Kim Lawton is managing editor and correspondent for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly on PBS, where she has worked since 1997. She began her career as a religion writer by covering the fall of PTL’s Jim Bakker in the late 1980s. She has written for United Press International, Religion News Service, News Network International, Christianity Today and International Media Service.
As it turns out, Spirit has nothing to do with religion. That’s the name of the in-flight magazine for the no-frills entrepreneurs at Southwest Airlines. (Actually, there are several magazines called Spirit, but that’s another issue.)
After Christianity Today published a lengthy Q&A with Evan Almighty director Tom Shadyac, there was no excuse for those writing about the movie studio’s attempt to appeal to religious audiences to exclude the fact that Shadyac is in fact a self-described “Jesus freak.”
I tend to be rather harsh when it comes to judging the religion coverage in my local newspaper, which is the Baltimore Sun.
