In the News: Pundits, Prophets, Politics, and more!
A round-up of the week’s religion news. Continue Reading →
Tag: religion reporting
JFK Loved LDS, You Should Too!
Kelly Smurthwaite at ksl.com writes that while prominent news outlets are citing the Mormon faith of two GOP hopefuls, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr., as a potential “weakness,” “prominent politicians and presidents of the United States have spoken in favor of members of the LDS faith, stating the good that members of the church have done in the world, their country, their communities and their homes.” Take John F. Kennedy for instance (who famously received criticism for being Catholic and disavowed any desire to govern like one).
Smurthwaite’s article is quite accurate, of course, if not a bit earnest in it’s effort to give a good account of the unnecessarily persecuted Mormons as upright, good Americans. I would speculate that a majority of Americans would agree, when you get down to it. Funny undergarments, maybe. But hell, they’re pioneers. Just like the rest of us — or perhaps better, if you watch the LDS ad campaign from last year. Continue Reading →
Oversimplification 3, 2, 1
From Andrew Khouri’s “Getting the Story Right in Egypt,” a recent post at The Scoop, Diane Winston’s website at USC’s Annenberg School for Journalism:
But on Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood—Egypt’s largest opposition group and a perennial Mubarak foe—announced it would join the large demonstrations that were planned after prayers on Friday. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman called it “the day of the intifada.”
That is how an article appearing in Friday’s New York Times set the stage for what was no doubt a pivotal moment in Egypt, with thousands taking to the street, where they would face tear gas and baton-wielding security forces. The piece examined how religious factions, which have played little role so far, would affect the protest movement.
Cue oversimplification of religion in 3, 2, 1…
Daily Links 28 August 2005
49,999 Girls Gone Wild “Swazi females drop chastity tassels,” reported CNN on August 22, describing a warm-up event to a ritual dance of 50,000 virgins who perform bare-breasted for Swaziland’s King Mswati, who Continue Reading →