The first thing is there can't be a "Religion" reporter who covers everybody from Pentecostals to Zoroastrians. Every news outlet makes that mistake, and it leads to inch-deep, mile-wide coverage that at its best parachutes into big stories and at its worst just produces a lot of gee-whiz features that can be boiled down to "Local people observe traditions."
Ideally, one reporter each would be assigned to cover the big denomination, grouping, megachurch. That way you can get to those daily-life stories. If this isn't possible for resource reasons, pick the most important church/denomination/whatever in your area and ignore the rest. Effectively this means you'll be covering evangelicals, Spanish-speaking Catholics, or Mormons, depending on where you live.
The next thing that lots of people constantly get wrong is that in religion, ideas matter. People don't go to church for daycare or grocery money; that stuff is a byproduct of the ideas, and would chafe people if it didn't spring from a sense of solidarity. What do religious people actually believe? That's a question most coverage never even asks.
I think the question that would intrigue your 30-year-old reader with money is the one that rarely enters religion coverage: How does this work? It's Wednesday night, so that means people in my hometown are speaking in tongues at a converted 1930s movie palace. Half a mile north on Main Street, other people are arriving for their overnight volunteer shifts at the ecumenical homeless shelter and soup kitchen. Something is going on in the lives of these people; what is it and how does it work?
one of my buds out here used to organize migrant workers in georgia. she said all those nice catholic boys joined the evangelical prot latino churches in the scraggy little mall storefronts because they invited them to thanksgiving dinner. authentic altruism, how does it work? yes yes yes.
The battle between Catholics and evangelicals for Latino souls is one of the great untold stories of the last 40 years. It takes in everything from the CIA and the attempted genocide of Mayans in Guatemala to all those Iglesias de Dios you see cropping up in suburban neighborhoods next to check-cashing places and nail salons.
Ideally, one reporter each would be assigned to cover the big denomination, grouping, megachurch. That way you can get to those daily-life stories. If this isn't possible for resource reasons, pick the most important church/denomination/whatever in your area and ignore the rest. Effectively this means you'll be covering evangelicals, Spanish-speaking Catholics, or Mormons, depending on where you live.
The next thing that lots of people constantly get wrong is that in religion, ideas matter. People don't go to church for daycare or grocery money; that stuff is a byproduct of the ideas, and would chafe people if it didn't spring from a sense of solidarity. What do religious people actually believe? That's a question most coverage never even asks.
I think the question that would intrigue your 30-year-old reader with money is the one that rarely enters religion coverage: How does this work? It's Wednesday night, so that means people in my hometown are speaking in tongues at a converted 1930s movie palace. Half a mile north on Main Street, other people are arriving for their overnight volunteer shifts at the ecumenical homeless shelter and soup kitchen. Something is going on in the lives of these people; what is it and how does it work?
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authentic altruism, how does it work? yes yes yes.
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the battle for their souls as they become the plurality voters here makes this a story with motherfuckin legs.
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