By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

My hippie wannabe wife insists that she wants to be cremated when she dies.

“I think it’s environmentally friendly,” my bride tells me. “Countless acres are filled up with remains inside caskets.

“Plus, it will allow me to spare you guys a lot of expense and possibly trauma and heartache,” she adds.

Rather than be buried in a cemetery, Tamie says she wants to be “mixed in with the roots of a tree and planted in the mountains in the breathtakingly beautiful area where six generations of my family have made memories together. I think it would be nice to contribute to nature rather than be a burden on it.”

Well, alrighty.

As for me, I want to be dressed in my Sunday best and await the resurrection with what’s left of my skin and bones fully intact. I don’t like flames. So it sounds like my wife of 27 years and I will — at some point hopefully many years in the future — spend the first part of eternity apart.

In all seriousness, we are both people of strong Christian faith — but we come down on different sides of the cremation vs. burial question.

I bring up the topic because of a fascinating Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story this week that noted cremation is becoming the new norm in America.

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (June 2017):

Continue reading “In America, cremations now outnumber burials — what’s religion got to do with it?”

By Bobby Ross Jr. | GetReligion

The Twitterverse has spoken: Emma Green’s in-depth Atlantic piece detailing “How Two Mississippi College Students Fell in Love and Decided to Join a Terrorist Group” is “amazing journalism.”

It’s “complex & fascinating.” It’s “phenomenal reporting … highlighting the amazing work FBI does to fight online radicalization.” It’s a “must read.”

As Tony the Tiger might say, it’s grrrrreat!

What can I add to all of the above?

Not a whole lot, except for this: Amen!

The story hooks the reader from the beginning as it describes the couple’s plans to travel to Turkey and then Syria. At the end of the first section comes the kicker — the sudden twist around which the rest of this magnificent, heartbreaking story revolves.

The reporting is deep and nuanced — enhanced by crucial interviews with friends and relatives and close inspections of court records and federal investigators’ practices.

Green, a Godbeat specialist, blends a religion writer’s sensitivity to the complexities of faith with an investigative reporter’s dedication to pulling back every layer of the onion to uncover the truth.

Read the full column.

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All of my GetReligion columns (May 2017):

Continue reading “Choose your superlative, but The Atlantic’s deep dive on Islamic State radicalization is a must read”