A big “story” in the world of religion has been Kanye West.
Except — and here’s a sincere question — has anybody seen any actual reporting on the West/”Jesus is King” story in the mainstream press?
Every headline that I’ve come across falls into the category of reviews and opinions. For financial and other reasons (read: opinion is cheap; reporting is not), we live in an age where news organizations often will cover a story by having someone write a column about it.
Religion News Service, for example, has run op-eds headlined “Is Jesus king of Kanye’s bank account?” and “Why Trump — not Jesus — is at the heart of white Christian love for Kanye.” But has there been any actual news coverage at RNS or elsewhere?
Maybe I’ve missed the news stories. And if so, please share links in the comments section.
In the meantime, let’s dive into the Friday Five:
1. Religion story of the week: A story that did draw a lot of news coverage this week was a South Carolina Catholic priest denying Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden because of his political stance on abortion.
I wrote about that earlier in the week and highlighted some of the major coverage.
Some readers have commented and asked if the media went to the priest — or vice versa. I do not know the answer to that question. Anybody seen that question answered in any coverage?
2. Most popular GetReligion post: Terry Mattingly had our No. 1 post this week: “Were they Pachamama statues? Some journalists declined to quote Pope Francis on that point.”
A brief summary from the top of the post:
The question for today, after a whirlwind of Vatican news: When historians write about the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, will they call it the “Amazonian” synod or the “Pachamama” synod?
While the synod handled complex issues of Catholic tradition (ordaining married men) and the theology of holy orders (women entering the modern diaconate), it also veered into ancient questions about Christians being tempted to worship other deities. At this point, Catholic progressives and conservatives were arguing about the first item in the Ten Commandments, as in: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
But what about other gods that are, to use a progressive term, in “dialogue” with the Holy Trinity?
3. Guilt folder fodder (and more): The first anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre passed this week.
Peter Smith and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette marked the occasion in typical fine journalistic fashion.
4. Shameless plug: No journalist knows the Paula White story better than GetReligion’s own Julia Duin.
Make sure to read Duin’s post from earlier today on “Is anyone really surprised that the Rev. Paula White got this White House job?”
There’s some insight in there that you won’t want to miss.
5. Final thought: What she said!
Happy Friday, everybody! Enjoy the weekend!