We’re more intrigued by Chuck Currie’s post on a new “Religion Blog” created by The Oregonian, Oregon’s biggest paper. Currie concedes that the blog’s author, Jim Slagle, is a lively writer, but he challenges Slagle’s qualifications to act as general religion blogger for a major paper. Slagle, he writes, is a conservative Christian. And while conservative Christians certainly ought to have a voice in such an endeavor, they shouldn’t provide the only voice.

We agree. But the fact remains that Slagle is a good, knowledgable writer, and he seems determined to be fair to beliefs other than his own. And The Oregonian has done something unusual by having a religion blog at all.

In the entrenched world of American newspaper journalism, putting time and resources into religion reporting is a liberalish project, so perhaps it’s just fine that The Oregonian has given the task to a conservatish Christian.

We’re more intrigued by Chuck Currie’s post on a new “Religion Blog” created by The Oregonian, Oregon’s biggest paper. Currie concedes that the blog’s author, Jim Slagle, is a lively writer, but he challenges Slagle’s qualifications to act as general religion blogger for a major paper. Slagle, he writes, is a conservative Christian. And while conservative Christians certainly ought to have a voice in such an endeavor, they shouldn’t provide the only voice.

We agree. But the fact remains that Slagle is a good, knowledgable writer, and he seems determined to be fair to beliefs other than his own. And The Oregonian has done something unusual by having a religion blog at all.

In the entrenched world of American newspaper journalism, putting time and resources into religion reporting is a liberalish project, so perhaps it’s just fine that The Oregonian has given the task to a conservatish Christian.