Friday Five: Southern Baptists and Catholic bishops and White House Bible verses, oh my! What a week!
Looking for religion news? It's "Everywhere" this week.
Southern Baptists in Dallas? Yep.
Roman Catholic bishops in Florida? Yep.
Bible references at the White House? Of course.
"This week has been a religion writer's dream," said Bob Smietana, veteran Godbeat pro.
"When 'Bible' is trending in one of the most secular regions of America [San Francisco], you know you need to hire more religion writers," said Kaya Oakes, who writes for a variety of publications.
Preach it!
But enough of that. For now.
Let's go ahead and dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: Obviously, there's no shortage of possibilities this week. But given our half-dozen posts on the Southern Baptist Convention (just since the last Friday Five), it's hard to argue with the annual meeting in Dallas as the week's top story.
To catch up here are those posts (with Terry Mattingly's podcast post still to come):
• Click that URL: 'Acts of Faith' newsletter pauses to reflect on Southern Baptists and journalism
• Preparing for real #SBC2018 debates – It's not 'moderates' vs. 'fundies,' these days
• Will Southern Baptists do more than pass a resolution on #SBCToo sins and crimes?
• Hey, when reporting on Southern Baptist women, it helps to talk to ... Southern Baptist women
• Whoa! You mean Southern Baptist 'messengers' are not of one mind on Trump-era life?
• Wrapping up Southern Baptist annual meeting: Did we witness the return of the so-called 'moderates?'
2. Most popular GetReligion post: We have a repeat winner, as Julia Duin's recent post headlined "Should Amazon tribes be allowed to kill their young? Foreign Policy editors aren't sure" remains in the No. 1 spot for the second straight week.
A close second: Duin's post titled "Lakewood Church as family empire: Houston Chronicle business reporter gets it right," an analysis of business writer Katherine Blunt's recent three-part investigative series on Joel Osteen.
3. Guilt folder fodder (and more): Here's even more religion news from this week: a Justice Department initiative related to religious land use and zoning.
The Atlantic's awesome religion writer, Emma Green, noted on Twitter that she wrote a big piece on this last fall. I missed it then, but it's worth a read.
4. Shameless plug: This week's plug is for the outstanding religion writers out there recognized as finalists in the Religion News Association's annual contest.
Check out the full list of finalists.
GetReligion readers will recognize many of the honorees.
5. Final thought: LOL indeed!
The St. Louis Review, the newspaper of that city's Roman Catholic archdiocese, got a few words transposed this week.
The result was rather hilarious, as "Not to be served, but to serve" became "Not to serve, but to be served."