Day 2: Pope still extremely Catholic
I hope everyone is having a blast with Day 2 of Papalpalooza. I’ve actually enjoyed some of the media coverage I’ve come across but we all know what happens when I post on good stuff. <crickets>...
View ArticleUnnecessary words and the Vatican’s ‘gay lobby’
Yesterday a reader tweeted that The Guardian was clearly trying to insinuate that Pope Benedict XVI is compromised in some way, resigning in disgrace. The headline: Papal resignation linked to inquiry...
View ArticleWhere’s the faith content in these sex scandals?
On one level, that New York Times feature story on the fall of Msgr. Kevn Wallin of Connecticut has everything one would want in a religion scandal. I mean, it’s got sex, crystal meth, Broadway show...
View ArticleBishop enforces Catholic doctrine; press goes, ‘Wha …?’
A regular reader who is an active Catholic recently sent us a URL to an interesting mainstream news report about religion and, this is the unusual part, even suggested a headline that ALMOST nailed the...
View Article‘Take Out the Trash Day’ for Boy Scouts?
In a memorable episode of “The West Wing,” Press Secretary C.J. Cregg is advised to save a few embarrassing stories for release on Friday. Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and his assistant, Donna...
View ArticleThe big questions facing that out gay Catholic priest
It is my experience, through my decades on the religion beat, that liberal Catholics genuinely love talking to mainstream news reporters. That said, I have also observed — click here for a classic...
View ArticleChurches dumping Boy Scouts over gay policy … or not?
Godbeat pro Bob Smietana wrote a story this week exploring whether churches will keep sponsoring Boy Scout troops or drop their affiliation given the organization’s new gay-friendly membership policy....
View ArticleHoly Scouts! Southern Baptists didn’t do what we expected!
So, when push came to shove, what did the Southern Baptist Convention decide to do about the Boy Scouts of America? To the surprise of the national press, the debate in the national convention ended up...
View ArticlePut not your trust in Huffington Post headlines
I know a maiden fair to see, Take care! She can both false and friendly be, Beware! Beware! Trust her not, She is fooling thee! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s advice about women — especially blondes …...
View ArticlePod people: Vatican gay lobby or a gay Lobby?
Where should the stress be placed in Pope Francis’ phrase the “gay lobby”? Upon the first word “gay” or the second, “lobby”? This semantic game animated my discussion this week with Todd Wilken, the...
View ArticleA tune on gay evangelicals that evangelicals won’t recognize
While working on a recording together, Johnny Cash asked Bob Dylan if he knew “Ring of Fire.” Dylan said he did and began to play it on the piano, croaking it out in typical Dylanesque fashion. When he...
View ArticlePainful silences in CBS chat on same-sex marriage rulings
OK, follow me carefully here, because it is especially interesting who passed the following item news along. I read quite a few Catholic blogs, and follow the headlines at New Advent, but I had never...
View ArticleBoy Scouts: Hollywood vs. some vague army of Americans
On one level, the recent Reuters “special report” on the financial issues haunting the 10,600-acre Summit Bechtel Family National Reserve in West Virginia breaks quite a bit of new and important ground...
View ArticleMedia obsession dangers: Pope and gay priests edition
Ermagerd, everybody! The Pope has renounced all church teaching on everything! Stop the presses! Start them again! Freak out! That’s my impression of Twitter, online and broadcast and cable news today....
View ArticlePope Francis’ 1st miracle: media coverage of mercy
A day after Popocalypse 2013 happened, we have the actual transcript of the remarks that got journalists worldwide going. And it’s safe to say that a quick read of it gives a different impression than...
View ArticleAP badly flubs Catholic teaching
The media’s obsession with sexualityism is somehow getting even more pronounced. We have a backlog of stories to look at. But here’s a quick example of how shoddy the coverage is, this time from the...
View ArticleWPost listens to half of the great United Methodist debate
After years of covering the sexuality wars in America’s oldline denominations, I am well aware that different camps within these churches interpret the rites and vows of their traditions in different...
View ArticlePod people: LA Times cheers for United Methodist ‘reform’
If readers want to know where The Los Angeles Times stands on the issues the loomed over the United Methodist Church trial of the Rev. Frank Schaefer, all they have to do is read one summary passage in...
View Article‘Dozens of pastors’ not quoted in front-page story
Readers of The Oklahoman, my hometown newspaper and one-time employer, awoke today to a banner, front-page story on controversy over a play opening in Oklahoma City this week. Yes, there’s a...
View ArticleDid Father Donald Timone ever say, ‘Pray away the gay’?
Not that long ago, our own Mark Kellner took at look at the New York Times coverage of a rather prestigious Catholic school in the Bronx that did something very controversial, at least in the newsroom...
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