And Then There Was One

Jesus is second only to Hitler in terms of units sold when it comes to moving newsweeklies, but that hasn’t stopped U.S. News and World Report from firing religion writer Jeff Sheler. That leaves Time‘s David Van Biema as the only religion specialist at the big three newsmagazines. Maybe that’s because the magazines figured out that their “specialists” spent too much time retreading neato scholarship on Christ’s sandal size and not enough investigating religion as it’s actually lived. Two years after September 11th, loyal News Time & World Report readers still don’t know what’s wrong with Osama’s theology, and yet religion writers insist that only specialists like themselves can deliver the nuanced reporting and deep thinking the public demands. What, like Van Biema’s recent puzzler in Time, “Should Christians Convert Muslims?” The Revealer, meanwhile, riddles you this: “Should newsmagazines integrate religion into their general coverage?” The Religion Writers Association‘s Debra L. Mason explores the question.

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