Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

GetReligion

Home
Religion News
God purged from … major story in Washington Post

God purged from … major story in Washington Post

Last updated on: September 7, 2012 at 6:30 pm by tmatt

God purged from … major story in Washington Post 2012-09-07T17:17:18-04:00 tmatt

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Obviously, the Divine Mrs. M.Z. Hemingway was all over the political conventions this week. I must confess that I focused on events in a different religion in American life. Well, duh. I live in Baltimore.

So even though MZ went deep on the whole “God” and “Jerusalem” story, as a pro-life Democrat I was still fascinated by this train wreck in the Democratic Party platform. Also, I work and read news on Capitol Hill, so it’s hard to avoid waves of political coverage — even when you’re just walking down the brick sidewalks and riding mass transit.

I realize that the whole “booing God” story has obvious talk-TV implications. I know all about the timing of the “boos” and the questions about whether GOP insiders were shopping for video (click here) to use with nasty political advertisements about the Democrats going totally secular and insulting the Almighty. Trust me, I know all that.

Thus, you had two sets of talking points from the usual political suspects.

On one side, the right, people were all but saying that the “purging God” story was the most important story in the history of the universe.

On the other side, the left (for the most part), people were saying, “Editing God story? What editing God story? There’s no story. Move along.”

The truth was somewhere in between, of course. Surely no one would just follow the talking points from one side. Right? I mean, left?

So the journalistic goal in this case was to (a) get the facts down on what actually happened when and (b) talk to people on both sides about the conflicting explanations for what this all meant. Right? The story blew up and, at some point, people had to step back and offer balanced, accurate, intelligent coverage of it.

Now, what I want you to do is click here and read the main Washington Post story about this donnybrook. You have a clue where this is going in the headline: “Democrats restore to party platform language on Jerusalem.”

And where, you ask, is God in this story? The answer is absolutely nowhere. The Post may have referred to the booing God story in web coverage, including some wire-service copy, but it certainly appears that the voice of the Beltway establishment swallowed the left’s talking points on this one, at least in this major story that was produced by Post professionals.

I mean, did I miss something? Instead we get:

CHARLOTTE — Democratic delegates restored to their party platform Wednesday the position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, reversing a controversial omission that had angered some Jewish organizations and drew criticism from Republicans that President Obama was distancing the United States from its closest ally in the Middle East.

The amendment to the platform, which essentially reinstates the language on Jerusalem from the 2008 version, was introduced by former Ohio governor Ted Strickland. It was put to a voice vote by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, the convention chairman, who asked three times for “aye” votes before determining that the amendment had a two-thirds majority.

The vote was far from decisive, however, and angered many delegates who opposed the reinstatement of the language. Some stood up from their seats inside the Time Warner Arena, shaking their fingers at Villaraigosa.

At the same time, the change did not go as far as some delegates or Jewish organizations wanted, and it underscored yet again how complicated and perilous Obama’s relationship is with the American politics over Israel. An Obama campaign official said the president intervened Wednesday to strengthen the platform language on Jerusalem.

So where is God in all of this? Where are the people who were booing, as well as silently shaking their fingers?

Was there another story on the editing-God angle? Did I miss it? What is the journalistic logic for totally ignoring that particular story, other than heeding the talking points from the left?

Contrast this missing-in-action Post report with the following story — “God is back in the party platform, but religion remains a divisive issue for Democrats” — from the Godbeat veterans at Religion News Service. Here is the top of the report, to show you the tone and content. Note that even President Barack Obama recognized that this was a story with two elements:

God was out and now God is in. And Jerusalem wasn’t the capital of Israel and now it is.

The accusations Wednesday morning (Sept. 5) that God had been “purged” from the Democrats’ national platform seemed too much for the party to bear. That afternoon, its national convention restored the divine to the document, as well as a statement affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

It was a crisis the party didn’t seem to see coming, and provided one of the few unscripted scenes this convention season, a chaotic day that highlighted the debate among the Democrats about religion and politics. President Obama himself on Wednesday pushed for the “God” and “Jerusalem” references, according to an anonymous Democratic official. One platform amendment added a sentence about Americans’ “God-given” potential and the other affirmed Jerusalem’s “capital” status.

Looks like a story, to me. Not the most important story in the history of the universe, but a story worthy of professional coverage.

As opposed to the rattling of talking points, then silence.

Previous Post

September 7, 2012

Cardinal Dolan's benediction makes news

Next Post

September 8, 2012 Key 'moderate' Catholic, hailed by choir on left

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 5Q+1 Academia Anglicanism Announcements Atheists & Agnostics Baptists Books Business & Economy Catholicism Creeping Fundamentalism Education Ethics Evangelicals Film First Person gays Godbeat Got news? Humor Interviews Islam Journalism Judaism Lutherans Mainline Marriage & family Middle East Mormons Music Nones Orthodoxy Pagans Pentecostalism People Podcasts Politics Pop Culture Race Radio & TV Religion religious liberty Same-sex marriage Science Sex Social Issues Sports Uncategorized Vatican Web/Tech What is this? World World Religions Worship

Select a Month August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 May 2010 July 2009 February 2009 October 2008 July 2008 January 2007 August 2006 July 2006 October 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Jude, what did the Lord do to the people he saved from Egypt who did not believe?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Punished them Cast them into the wilderness Destroyed them Let them wander forty years