Patricia Neal and her angels

Terry Mattingly August 25th, 2010

After her destructive affairs with married men, after the death of her first child, after an accident left her infant son brain-damaged, after the near-fatal strokes that struck months after her 1964 Oscar win for "Hud," actress Patricia Neal faced yet another personal crisis that left her on the verge of collapse.

While her marriage to British writer Roald Dahl, the author of children's classics such as "James and Giant Peach," had long been troubled, Neal was shattered … (Read More)

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Faith and the ‘One and Done’ Tradition

Terry Mattingly July 21st, 2010

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why so many mainstream journalists do not want to write about the practical implications of the choices made by liberal religious believers and even those of skeptics. While coverage of religious conservatives (much of it inaccurate or simply simplistic) consumes oceans of ink, the fine details of the lives of liberal believers are rarely examined.

Consider, for example, that recent Time magazine cover story that ran with the headline, "The Only Child … (Read More)

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Rush Limbaugh (hearts) Elton John

Terry Mattingly June 14th, 2010

If you have read GetReligion for more than a week or two, you probably have noticed that we live in the age of the simplistic label. If you noticed that fact, then you also must have noticed that your GetReligionistas are not fond of labels - especially in religion coverage.

It's just too easy to divide the world into left and right, moderates and fundamentalists and assume that news consumers have some idea what those words mean. Isn't that right, Bill Keller? This is particularly tru … (Read More)

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Beyond the L-word? Ask questions

Terry Mattingly May 18th, 2010

As you would expect, the Baltimore Sun is in full celebration mode when it comes to the consecration of the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool of Annapolis as a new assistant bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. This makes sense for all kinds of reasons, in terms of the newspaper’s views of the changes that must be made to help build a better and more enlightened world.

The story, as you would expect, openly admits that this local story about the rise of the Episcopal Church’s firs … (Read More)

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Probing the apocalypse in rural Michigan

Terry Mattingly April 6th, 2010

The headline on the MSNBC version of an Associated Press report out of Michigan was blunt:

Christian militia target of FBI raids?

As you would expect, the top of the story backed that up.

ADRIAN, Mich. — The FBI said … that agents conducted weekend raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one of the raids was a Christian militia group. …

Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volun … (Read More)

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Haitian voices: God and the quake

Terry Mattingly January 27th, 2010

So far, nothing I have seen coming out of Haiti has changed my mind about how journalists should approach the basic “theodicy” story.

I’ve said it several times already (click here and then here), I am really not that interested in what American religious broadcasters or even articulate American academics have to say about the role that God or the spirits did or didn’t play in causing the hellish earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.

What matters to me are the v … (Read More)

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