By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In advance of last week’s 68th annual conference of the Religion News Association, the Rev. Thomas J. Reese wrote an interesting column on the state of the Godbeat.

In case you hadn’t heard, this oft-quoted priest joined Religion News Service last month as a senior analyst and columnist focused on Catholicism, the Vatican and Pope Francis. His recent column featured a clever headline about “religion journalists singing country & blues in Nashville.”

Music City was, of course, the site of this year’s RNA conference. Reese wrote:

(RNS) — This week I am looking forward to the annual meeting of the Religion News Association (Sept. 7-9) in Nashville, where I hope to see old friends and make new ones. I enjoy the company of journalists, who are almost always bright, articulate and funny. Religion reporters are a special breed because of their interest in values, religion and the transcendent.

There is also some sadness as I get ready to travel because I know many old friends will not be there. It is not that they have died, although some have. Rather, there are simply fewer religion writers today. They have either been laid off or jumped ship before they got pushed out.

So, when we get to Nashville, I am not sure whether we will be singing country or the blues.

Actually, Godbeat pros sang a few church hymns, as part of a session on congregational singing (and beer):

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (September 2017):

Continue reading “#RNA2017: Five takeaways from Religion News Association”

By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

Shocking!

Absolutely shocking!

Perhaps you saw the news today — via a tweet by the New York Times to its nearly 39 million followers — about White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

In case you’re standing, I’ll hold on just a second so you can sit down.

OK, brace yourself. Here it is. Deep breath, everyone!

Without further weeping and gnashing of teeth, the tweet from the Times:

President Trump's new press secretary is an evangelical who reads a Christian devotional before news briefings https://t.co/3WTTwdMMG1

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 8, 2017

Did you catch that!?

To repeat, Sanders IS AN EVANGELICAL WHO READS A CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONAL BEFORE NEWS BRIEFINGS.

Stop the presses!

I kid. I kid. But more than a few folks on Twitter chuckled at the Times’ characterization of Sanders’ spiritual discipline:

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (August 2017):

Continue reading “Absolutely shocking news! Sarah Huckabee Sanders reads Christian devotionals”

By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

ABC News is under fire for a story in which it characterizes the Alliance Defending Freedom as “an alleged hate group.”

In some ways, it’s the same ole, same ole.

Click the above links, and you can read my GetReligion colleague Mark Kellner’s excellent recent commentary on the Southern Poverty Law Center labeling certain conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

Kellner rightly asked: “Here’s a proactive journalistic question: Does expressing one’s faith and beliefs always and without exception equal hate?”

Apparently, ABC didn’t get the memo.

So we end up with this headline today:

Jeff Sessions addresses ‘anti-LGBT hate group,’ but DOJ won’t release his remarks

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (July 2017):

Continue reading “Hate group or hateful reporting? This is why ABC News is under fire”