It’s not religion news per se, but for those interested in the future of American journalism: Poynter.org reported this week on signs pointing to USA Today phasing out its print edition.
Amazing.
But come to think of it, I don’t open those free copies that I receive at hotels as often as I once did.
Anything that affects the health of major American newspapers will, ultimately, affect their ability to cover tricky, complicated subjects like religion. So would changes at USA Today affect Gannett newspapers everywhere, including funding for religion news coverage? This is worth watching.
Anyway, let’s dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: In case you missed my post Thursday, faith was a major part of the life of powerful Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who died this week from complications from longstanding health challenges. He was 68.
Some major news organizations — including Cummings’ hometown Baltimore Sun — nailed the religion angle.
However, at least one major national news organization failed to do so.
2. Most popular GetReligion post: The New York Times’ Elizabeth Dias recently reported on some of the nation’s most ardent evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump calling him out on Syria.
In our No. 1 post of the week, Julia Duin noted:
Anyway, there is one huge point that reporters are missing when it comes to explaining why evangelical Christians care so deeply about northern Iraq. It goes way beyond the historic Assyrian Christian communities being allowed to function there.
Which is: The Kurds are the most open people group in the Middle East to Christianity and a number of these now-former Muslims are newly minted evangelicals.
Duin offers more insight and explanation in her full post.
3. Guilt folder fodder (and more): The anniversary of the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is a little more than a week away.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Peter Smith remains on top of the story, producing an insightful feature this week on Tree of Life’s “minyanaires” maintaining a daily community.
4. Shameless plug: Earlier this month, I wrote here at GetReligion about the “Hug seen around the world: Botham Jean's brother forgives ex-officer who killed his brother.”
For a little more back story, I interviewed Brandt Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, and the minister of Botham Jean’s home congregation, the Dallas West Church of Christ.
Read my story from the front page of the latest Christian Chronicle, where I serve as editor-in-chief.
5. Final thought: What do you think, readers and religion reporters? Does anyone see a trend there?
Happy Friday, everybody! Enjoy the weekend!