When it comes to religious terms, you would be hard pressed to find a word more misapplied by the media than “fundamentalist.”
Fundamental misunderstandings of 'fundamentalism'
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Seven 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.
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Ohio State vs. Notre Dame's 'damn Catholics'
Earlier this week, I saw someone tweet something about how the Republican Party “should never write off any block of voters. Itâs horrible politics and it causes great damage.” I retweeted it with the note “Except Methodists.”
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After the Boy Scouts? For a few, camping with doctrine
When considering the forces pulling at the Boy Scouts of America, one thing journalists really needed to consider was a simple statistical chart that can be found (.pdf) on the organization’s homepage. Here are the crucial numbers found at the top of this file:
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Mormonism is a religion, not just a culture
For people serious about their faith, religious beliefs tend not only to influence other types of beliefs but they tend to be presuppositional. Believers adopt particular cultural and political beliefs because of their religious views. For example, an evangelical who believes that abortion is wrong tends to adopt cultural and political views that flow from their religious convictions. Not all evangelicals oppose abortion rights, of course, and even those that do may have developed their position on the issue apart from their religious views. But those who are pro-life tend to be so in a way that is different than those who developed a secular-minded opposition to abortion.
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Asking 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 organization. The key force that will cause a future split is, of course, the deep divide among mainstream religious groups on the moral status of homosexual behavior.
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Playing the same-sex marriage card
Over the weekend, the better half stirred up quite a hornet’s nest for a post noting that some in the media aren’t the slightest bit interested in covering the same-sex marriage debate with any degree of impartiality or nuance. The verdict she reached is damning, and that conclusion can be reached simply by accurately quoting journalists about why they don’t bother quoting gay marriage opponents.
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What, precisely, makes Stephenie Meyer so important? (updated)
My goal is to find that classic Washington Post piece — on A1 or the Style front — about the whole Beltway-women cult that surrounded the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer. The key to this feature was that it focused on how guilty these feminists and hard-charging professionals felt about their desire to read these books. They were hiding them from friends and family. Women could not believe that they were falling for these novels.
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Boy Scouts, Mormons and CNN's tabloid-style 'reporting'
Let’s face it: Most of the mainstream media coverage of the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to delay a vote on possibly accepting gay Scouts and adult leaders was pretty ho-hum.
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