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The week before last there were 45 articles and opinion pieces on religion and politics. This past week, there were 101. The Los Angeles Times (18), the Washington Post (16) led the way, with the New York Times (9) and USA Today (8) distant seconds.
Two kinds of stories drove this minor explosion in coverage, contestation and violence in the Islamic world, and the role of Christianity in the US presidential campaign. There were also more opinion pieces and letters to the editor, a number of them arguing for and against stem cell research and others commenting favorably or not on the attention paid to the religious side of presidential candidates.
The political violence in Palestine between Hamas and Fatah received attention all over the country (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Newsday, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Baltimore Sun). Hamas has ousted Fatah from Gaza and now Palestine is not only two geographic parts, its governed by two different parties. The Washington Post gave it the most coverage, with stories from the 14th through 17th, reporting on Hamas’ opening moves, Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas’ response, and then the split between his party, Fatah, and Hamas, then the Post’s analysis of what they called a “civil war.”
This analysis gives useful thumbnail histories of Hamas and Fatah and provides some reading suggestions. There’s not much explanation of this current battle between the two factions except to echo the US and Israeli position that given its terrorist past, and the seeming commitment to jihad against Israel, the rise of Hamas in Palestinian politics is bad news.
A Newsday analysis notes the conflict in part lies in Fatah (the successor to the PLO) has lost legitimacy due to rampant corruption and apparent inability to govern his own forces.
Many of the other stories on Islam (11) were about the government crackdowns on Islamist parties in Pakistan and Egypt, two countries trying to maintain the façade of democracy draped over authoritarian regimes. Perhaps the irony encouraged all the attention. While the US touts democratization efforts in Iraq, it can only mutter about the political oppression these two US allies routinely practice. For Egypt, see this Washington Post article, and see USA Today’s coverage of Pakistan.
The bulk of news on religion and politics addresses Christianity, and all of that in the US. I’m not all that surprised, but I would have thought that at least a couple of stories would pop up about Christianity and politics in other countries, like the Pope’s visit to Brazil. I guess we Americans are just awfully parochial.
Anyway, like the prior week, most of the stories were about the presidential campaign, with belated reactions to the matter of some Republican candidates disbelieving evolution (Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo), and the Democrats’ public chat about their faiths. Romney’s Mormon faith also got some attention. The Boston Herald and LA Times (free registration required) tell us about Romney’s successful fundraising, and according to the USA Today’s recent polling data, his Mormonism is causing little stir among most voters. Go here or here for analyses of all the candidates.
Written by Ayschlay
~J~ Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:35 pmVisit ~J~
I’m not so sure that what is happening in Hamas and Fatah is a religious problem as much as a political problem and it needs to be fixed yesterday! Unfortunately, the Palestinians know how to fight and kill whomever their perceived enemy is. They are sworn to destroy Israel and are now fighting for the “honor” of doing it.
If a presidential candidate or president happens to believe God created everything what’s the problem with that? Is it going to cause that person to be less of a president for it?
I’m one of those bothered by Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and I have my reasons, but I doubt anyone needs to hear it from me on this site.
The Democrats want to proclaim their faith because they want the religious vote. This does not mean they don’t have faith, but they know there are a lot of religious votes out here and they want their share.
Ayschlay Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:41 pmVisit Ayschlay
Political or religious? I agree that it’s more the former than the latter. But a lot of folks blame this sort of conflict on Islamic fundamentalism vs. modernizing Muslims, and for whatever reason, the Lexis Nexis search engine pops up this story with the search term religion (I’m going to look into how the L-N search operates).
Guss Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:44 pmVisit Guss
Ayschlay,
Thank you for the very informative post.
~J~ Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:48 pmVisit ~J~
I’m not arguing your research. I just think the Palestinians fighting each other is more political than religious.
You have done a great post and I appreciate it.
Ayschlay Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:48 pmVisit Ayschlay
“If a presidential candidate or president happens to believe God created everything what’s the problem with that?”
One can still believe in evolution and at same time believe that God created the universe. Lots of Christians have settled on this accommodation since Darwin’s theory became an issue in the latter 1800s.
Ayschlay Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:49 pmVisit Ayschlay
I didn’t think you were arguing with my post, J. I was agreeing with your point.
I have to work on my tone, or something. Maybe I can learn to use these little faces. . .
~J~ Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:51 pmVisit ~J~
You’re right again, A. To God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. In other words, He is not bound by time or physics.
There could have been some evolution during the days of creation, but I don’t believe man evolved from an animal. The Bible plainly states God reached down and grabbed some dirt and made man out of the clay. I believe that.
~J~ Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pmVisit ~J~
A,
You just choose the face you want when you want to insert one and click on it, but some of them aren’t working for some reason.
Big Mo Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 2:07 pmVisit Big Mo
Ayschlay - thanks again for the research. And your findings about Rmney’s Mormonism will actually help me with a discussion I’m having with someone else, who is wondering if Romney will or will not get traction because of his faith.
Question - do you pay for using Lexus-Nexus? (It’s been such a long time since I’ve actually used it.)
Ayschlay Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 3:40 pmVisit Ayschlay
Big Mo,
See my latest posting on Romney. As for Lexis Nexis–I get free access via my college library. I think a lot of public libraries also provide access.