See how this title grabs you: "The Biblical Guide to Reporting."
Marshall Allen's commentary in the New York Times sparked quite a bit of discussion on social media this week.
Allen spent five years in Christian ministry before becoming a journalist. Now covering health care for ProPublica, he explains in his op-ed how he believes his faith makes him a better reporter.
"Some people might think that Christians are supposed to be soft and acquiescent rather than muckrakers who hold the powerful to account," Allen writes. "But what I do as an investigative reporter is consistent with what the Bible teaches."
The piece is definitely intriguing and worth a read.
Interestingly, the column grew out of a speech that Allen gave last year at The King's College in New York City. Read the full text (.pdf here).
Now, let's dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's Senate hearing was among the big political news this week, and yes, religion figured in the coverage. And rightly so.
One of the must-read stories: The Atlantic politics, policy and religion writer Emma Green's advance on why "Kavanaugh Has a Strong Chance of Confirmation—and of Becoming an Election Rallying Cry."
2. Most popular GetReligion post: Posts by Terry Mattingly and Julia Duin on the Catholic sex abuse crisis seem to have found a permanent spot in this space.
This week, our most-clicked post was tmatt's commentary titled "That Theodore McCarrick crisis: New York Times started this nasty poker game. Now what?"
3. Guilt folder fodder (and more): In the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, attorneys general across the U.S. "are taking a newly aggressive stance in investigating sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy," the New York Times reported on today's front page. That includes the New York attorney general issuing subpoenas to all eight of that state's dioceses, the Times said.
Here's a piece you might have missed: The Buffalo News asked the five candidates for New York AG how they would handle the issue, and the responses were revealing.
4. Shameless plug: I've been reporting for The Christian Chronicle today on a Church of Christ member from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia who was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer, who entered his apartment after mistaking it for hers.
Exactly how does that happen? That's everybody's question. The police chief said at a news conference this afternoon that there are more questions than answers.
5. Final thought: Confession: The above video doesn't have a religion angle.
But you know what? I'm not going to apologize for it. It's the best thing on the internet this week. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
Happy Friday, everybody!
Enjoy the weekend!