Yes, I wore the tacky “I (heart) New York” sweatshirt on purpose.
Note that it’s green, as well. Just to crank up the tacky factor, I bought this stereotypical sweatshirt for half price after St. Patrick’s Day — at a shop located deep in the dark, dismal, Dante’s Inferno-like lower floors of New York City’s Penn Station. If you’ve been there, you know what I am talking about.
So I wore it as an ironic nod to the fact that my old friend Eric Metaxas is — like all New York City writer-commentators — doing what he calls “bunker” broadcasts from his apartment somewhere in the 4, 5, 6 subway zone on the city’s East Side. He pops out from time to time for runs in Central Park (especially if there are Samaritan’s Purse field hospitals there).
I have known Metaxas for nearly a quarter century now, dating back to early Internet contacts in the days when he was a freelancer and VeggieTales scribe (see his interview with Phil “Bob the Tomato” Vischer).
Note that means that our friendship dates way, way back before we needed to avoid talking about Citizen Donald Trump. I also do not understand his obsession with late 1970s radio classics, but that’s another issue altogether. I mean, Trump plus “Bennie and the Jets”? Come on.
But I thought GetReligion readers might enjoy this video on this weekend, in particular, since it focuses on news coverage of this very unique Easter season — both in the churches of the East and West. Metaxas grew up in Greek Orthodoxy and has traveled into evangelicalism, while I grew up Southern Baptist and have converted into Eastern Orthodoxy. We are both bilingual, in a way.
This is not — to say the least — a year when newspaper editors will be able to get away with a glowing picture of Easter lilies at sunrise and that’s that.
Yes, this is true — even if the photograph is of Easter lilies on a computer screen as part of an online Easter service.
Also, it won’t be enough to run a wire-service story about whatever Pope Francis says in his Easter sermon that can be considered a comment on global warming, or some other semi-political topic. His remarks about the coronavirus will be news, but I predict that he will discuss that topic in theological terms. Will journalists translate that into news stories?
Finally, I hope that there will be more to news about Easter 2020 (and Orthodox Pascha, the following week) than coverage of rebellious preachers who ignore “shelter in place” orders — even though that story is valid and important.
What are some of the other angles and images to cover?
Enjoy this visit to the Metaxas “bunker” show.