Showing posts with label religion in the press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion in the press. Show all posts

Selling God on the Net: Beliefnet's Affinity Group

Saturday, July 3, 2010 7:11 PM History's World
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Paul Harvey


Ever wondered about the philosophy and business model of the spirituality catch-all website Belief.net. And who exactly owned it anyway?

Yeah, neither did I. Whatever, dude.

But actually, the story is quite fascinating, as it turns out, and Mark Oppenheimer explains it in today's NY Times religion column. You won't be surprised to hear that Rupert Murdoch makes an appearance, if only (this time) to sell; apparently keeping Fox News fair and balanced (paleo-, neo-, and tea-party-o conservatism are all represented in all their glorious diversity!) and covering the deficits wracked up by the expensive purchase of the Wall Street Journal (which I actually do read and enjoy, thanks to their selling subscriptions for a relative pittance of frequent flyer miles), is taking his time. Anyway, a brief taste of this very interesting article:

Rupert Murdoch sells topless Page 3 girls to England, and he sells “fair and balanced” television commentary to America. But until last week, his most eccentric product was Beliefnet.com.

On June 25, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation sold the pioneering religion Web site to the owners of Affinity4, a company run by evangelical Christians and, according to its Web site, is dedicated to “the sanctity of the family.” It is another owner and another incarnation for Beliefnet, an online magazine that has survived since 1999 by nurturing every aspect of our conflicted spirituality. It has united angels and yoga, monotheism and meditation. Beliefnet has become America.

Today, the story continues, 15 million subscribers receive one or more of Beliefnet's 23 newletters. I probably ought to subscribe to this one: "Weight Loss With Norris" (would that be Chuck, or J. Frank? Hell, what's the difference?). Hey, whatever works.

Beliefnet's current director plans to continue "leading folks in every one of the multifaith categories." Sounds like it's time for me to re-read my good ol' classic text R. Laurence Moore, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture. If that's not a good way to spend a 4th of July, what is?

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Rise of the Socially Conservative Religious Left

10:39 AM History's World
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Paul Harvey


This won't be shocking news to a lot of readers of this blog, but an interesting column nonetheless: Charles Blow, "Rise of the Religious Left," in yesterday's NY Times. He begins:

Which political party’s members are most likely to believe that Jesus will definitely return to earth before midcentury? The Republicans, right? Wrong. The Democrats. This was revealed by a report issued last week by the Pew Center for the People and the Press. . . . According to a Gallup report issued last Friday, church attendance among blacks is exactly the same as among conservatives and among Republicans. Hispanics closely follow. Furthermore, a February Gallup report found that blacks and Hispanics, respectively, were the most likely to say that religion was an important part of their daily lives. In fact, on the Jesus question, nonwhite Democrats were roughly twice as likely as white Democrats to believe that He would return to earth by 2050.

If this analysis was broken down regionally and geographically, a lot, or at least some portion, of that apparent racial disparity would disappear, I would surmise, based on the findings of the Religion by Region project, which we've blogged about here before. Time to go find my classic CD of John Prine, Jesus, The Missing Years.

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Religion Reporting as Therapy? MIchael Altman's Religion Roundup

Sunday, June 20, 2010 4:21 PM History's World
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Paul Harvey


A quick followup to our new contributor Michael Altman's post yesterday on discussions about the religion of Nikki Haley in South Carolina:

Michael has started a new "religion in the news" roundup for Religion Dispatches; the first entry, "Religion Reporting as Therapy?", can be found here, and Michael approaches the task with wit and a capacious taking in of religion the press and in public life. It should be fun to follow this in the upcoming months.

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