Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Got feedback or ideas for this column? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

(ANALYSIS) Two big, related stories dominated the week’s headlines: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and President Donald Trump’s plan to nominate a replacement before the election.

Beyond the politics, the question is this: Did journalists apply different standards to Ginsburg’s religion and that of 7th Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the liberal icon’s possible conservative successor?

Religion News Service extolled Ginsburg as “passionate about Judaism’s concern for justice” but characterized Barrett as a “controversial Catholic” — a designation questioned by Religion Unplugged’s own Clemente Lisi. (By the way, don’t miss Lisi’s fact check on Barrett’s faith.)

“Yes RBG’s religion shaped her approach,” RNS’ Bob Smietana said on Twitter. “And yes if (Barrett) is nominee it will be controversial. We can report both things.”

A Reuters story about “a self-described charismatic Christian community” to which Barrett purportedly belongs also drew scrutiny. At the conservative National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru pointed out a series of edits to the wire service’s original report.

“We all know what this means, in terms of press coverage,” GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly argued as he singled out praise for a story by New York Times religion writer Elizabeth Dias. “Many of the same reporters who are perfectly comfortable calling Joe Biden a ‘devout’ Catholic — while his actions clash with church doctrines on marriage and sex — are going to spill oceans of digital ink warning readers about the dangerous dogmas that dwell loudly in the heart and mind of Barrett.”

But Ira Rifkin, who has covered domestic and foreign religious issues since the 1980s, voiced concern over the focus on faith in the Supreme Court battle.

“It should not be about Amy Coney Barrett’s traditional Catholicism any more than Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s key attribute was that she was an ultra-liberal Jew. Or Martin Luther King Jr.’s liberal liberation Protestantism,” Rifkin said on Facebook.

“It should not be about ‘bad’ religion vs ‘good’ religion,” the former RNS national correspondent asserted. “This should only be about public policy and the politics of a pluralistic nation. Fighting over ‘religion’ plays into Trump’s right-wing rant that Biden wants to ‘hurt God.’ Moreover, it betrays a kind of unconscious liberal religious bigotry.”

• • •

Amid the barrage of stories on Ginsburg, Barrett and the vacancy’s potential impact on Roe v. Wade, don’t miss these standouts:

• ‘Blessed is God, the true judge’: Ginsburg memorialized in Hebrew in the halls of the Supreme Court (by Julie Zauzmer, Washington Post)

• 'May her memory be a revolution': Supporters say Rosh Hashanah brings special meaning to Ginsburg's death (Joel Shannon, USA Today)

• To conservatives, Barrett has ‘perfect combination’ of attributes for Supreme Court (by Elizabeth Dias and Adam Liptak, New York Times)

• Is this really the end for abortion? (by Emma Green, The Atlantic)

• A new conservative Supreme Court justice could boost religious rights at the cost of LGBTQ protections (by Samantha Schmidt and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post)

• Democrats weigh how to handle Trump's potential Supreme Court pick after past flap over Barrett's faith (by Manu Raju, CNN)

• ‘I’m saving her for Ginsburg’: Who is Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's likely Supreme Court pick? (by Soo Youn, The Guardian)

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. ‘Don’t let the devil steal your joy’: Dallas Morning News investigative reporters Miles Moffeit and Sue Ambrose dig deep into the case of a Texas pastor “who cast himself as a warrior battling Satan” but is accused of sexual or physical assault by five former congregants.

The reporters “reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including court testimony, and interviewed more than 50 people,” the newspaper notes. And it shows in the high quality of the journalism.

2. Holocaust knowledge limited, survey says. Some teachers aim to change that: This is an interesting and informative trend story by one of the nation’s best religion writers: Peter Smith of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Smith’s detailed, insightful feature explains how high school teachers plan to keep educating students about the Holocaust even as the last generation of survivors passes.

3. Candace Cameron Bure on her ‘Full House’ legacy, being religious in Hollywood and that ‘PDA’ photo: With so much hard news and political division in the U.S., this is the clickbait we all need.

Yes, there is a strong religion angle as Bure defends a social media picture of her husband touching her on her, um, chest area.

“If you read the Song of Solomon in the Bible, sex was made for marriage,” the evangelical Christian actress tells the Washington Post’s Bethonie Butler. “We are Christians and conservative with many points of view, and yet we’ve been married for 24 years. This is one of the blessings of marriage.”

More Top Reads

• The Falwells, the pool attendant and the double life that brought them all down (by Michael E. Miller and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post)

• How does Biden’s Catholicism play to a polarized electorate? (by John McCormick and Ken Thomas, Wall Street Journal)

• The Black church is Atlanta’s original community organizer (by Kathryn Freeman, Christianity Today)

• Young rabbis, engaged to be married, find their way to central Wisconsin and new jobs (by Keith Uhlig, Wausau Daily Herald)

• It’s September, and Christmas is already here — for the Salvation Army (by Robert Downen, Houston Chronicle)

• In Oregon, churches and anti-fascists unite to provide mutual aid to fire evacuees and others in need (by Alejandra Molina, Religion News Service)

• This election, evangelical supporters have more faith in Trump (by Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today)

• Can churches take sides in politics? Supreme Court opening will put that to the test (by Bud Kennedy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

• Banking on Black churches (by Erik Tryggestad, Christian Chronicle)

• What's behind the 'Cuties' outrage? (by Emily McFarlan Miller, RNS)

• Prominent evangelical church is the first to sue D.C. over COVID-19 worship limits (by Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

Ari Goldman received the 2020 William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award at the Religion News Association’s first-ever virtual convention Thursday night.

The RNA noted in a news release that the honor “is presented to individuals who demonstrate exceptional long-term commitment and service to RNA and its members, and to the field of religion reporting.”

Manya Brachear Pashman, a former Chicago Tribune religion writer and RNA’s president from 2015 to 2018, writes:

It’s rare for a reporter, even a religion reporter, to say he considers the Talmud as an important guide for his work. But Ari Goldman, a Modern Orthodox Jewish journalist and longtime professor of journalism at Columbia University, has used the Jewish text as his professional – and personal – compass for decades.

Just as the biblical tales of Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Moses are not simple, neither are a journalist’s subjects.  

“I never thought of storytelling as only telling positive stories. What makes it interesting is telling the complexities, the failures, the struggles, the sins and the recovery from sin,” Goldman, 70, said in a recent interview. “From the Talmud, I learned that there are many sides to an issue. The Talmud is the great discussion. I see journalism as that too.”

After two decades at The New York Times, Goldman has spent the last quarter century teaching the craft of covering religion to hundreds of aspiring religion reporters, taking nearly 20 classes on study tours of Israel, Jordan, Italy, Ireland, India, and Russia. In doing so, he has expanded and enriched the roster of the Religion News Association for decades and helped shape today’s membership.  

Look for more on all the RNA annual contest winners — including my Religion Unplugged colleagues Paul Glader and Liza Vandenboom — in next week’s column.

Charging Station: In Case You Missed It

Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from Religion Unplugged.

• Trump vs. Biden: How to keep politics from dividing friends, family and fellow believers (by Bobby Ross Jr.)

• Marilynne Robinson’s new novel 'Jack': An American Romeo and Juliet (by Dr. Robert Carle)

• Trump wants to allow churches to endorse political candidates: Why that’s a legal conundrum (by Claire Sadar)

• U.K. monument planned to 'preserve the Christian heritage of the nation' (by Timothy Nerozzi)

• Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal fund passes half a million, with some donors invoking biblical self-defense (by Mattie Townson)

• Christians in Belarus are jailed, children threatened amid protests (by Erik Tryggestad)

• California Catholics join fight against COVID-19 restrictions of worship (by Anne Stych)

• Would the United States be better off without religion? (by Richard Ostling)

• Americans who identify as 'spiritual' more likely to engage in politics (by Kimberly Winston)

• Most Catholic voters favor Biden, cite the economy as their biggest concern (by Clemente Lisi)

• Does 'Holy' mark a new era in Justin Bieber's music? (by Jillian Cheney)

The Final Plug

In 2004, I was the lead writer for The Associated Press’ coverage as thousands flocked to theaters to see Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” movie.

Sixteen years later, the New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski reports that “Jesus is about to rise again” — in the form of a sequel by Gibson.

Oleksinski explains:

“Passion” followed Jesus’ life through to his crucifixion. The new film, the actor said, would depict his biblical resurrection and the events that followed.

Will the sequel actually happen? Stay tuned.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for Religion Unplugged and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.