If you know anything about world religions, then you know that Easter is a big deal in Christianity. In Eastern Orthodox churches, the Big Idea is stated this way, over and over, in rites for Pascha (Easter): “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life” (see this flash mob celebration in Lebanon).” I don’t bring this up as a matter of evangelism or some other #triggerwarning behavior. I am noted that this is an essential fact about Christianity, the world’s largest religious faith. Easter isn’t a “bunny” thing. This brings us to one ..read more

EDITOR’s NOTE: Best known for his years of work with The New Yorker, Peter J. Boyer has also worked with The New York Times, Fox News and elsewhere. He is currently executive vice present at the Government Accountability Institute in Tallahassee, Florida. ————— It was a piece of great luck for me that the “publish” button was clicked on the new GetReligion blog in 2004 just before I received the unlikeliest assignment of my career — the faith beat at The New Yorker. I had been writing for the magazine for more than a decade, following my fancy on subjects ranging from politics and war to horse ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: After years in hard-news journalism, Will Norton moved to higher education, serving as chair of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi before becoming dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska. He then returned to Oxford, Mississippi, as dean of the School of Journalism and new media. ————— During World War II, when I was a young boy in the Belgian Congo, Dad would turn on the large radio console and listen to BBC News. Years later, he explained to me that Charles DeGaulle, a French general, was in exile in Brazz ..read more

Richard N. Ostling was a longtime religion writer with The Associated Press and with Time magazine, where he produced 23 cover stories, as well as a Time senior correspondent providing field reportage for dozens of major articles. He has interviewed such personalities as Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama, the late Mother Teresa, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) ————— The Religion Guy wishes to underscore increasingly obvious aspects of 21st Century America:  One: Religion is in crisis. Two: The media are in crisis. Three: Media treatment of religion is in cr ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thomas A. Szyszkiewicz has worked in and around the Catholic press for nearly 40 years. He is currently senior producer for The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio. ————— Twenty years is a good run. Unfortunately, GetReligion should run for at least another 20 more years because the need is still there, and under the circumstances that Terry Mattingly has described of the current state of journalism, one could easily argue that the need is even greater now than it was when this weblog was born. But alas and alack, it seems that those with the charge of doing actual journalism h ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is the emeritus archbishop of Philadelphia. His books include “Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Living and “Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World.” Also recommended: This 2009 lecture and Q&A session with reporters at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, including his thoughts on mainstream media coverage of religion. ————— A free press is part of the American identity. It’s also one of our essential institutions. A responsible press and a faith shaped by the God of charity and ju ..read more

It’s been almost nine years since that day in February 2015 when Terry called me in Alaska to ask if I’d join the GetReligion team starting March 1. (We already had a reminder of the Mattingly family sitting in our home; an enormous lion gifted by Terry and Debra to my daughter Veeka when she was 6 1/2, about the time she stayed with them for several days while I was on a reporting trip. I’ve included a photo of the Aslan-like creature with her delighted face just after she received it. The lion still keeps vigil by her window). The GetReligion assignment, Terry told me, was that I’d concentr ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: Anna-Liza Kozma is currently a Visiting Fellow at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, while on leave from her work as a senior producer at CBC Radio. ————— “What do you mean by blog?” I asked my friend Terry Mattingly nearly a quarter of a century ago in Jerusalem as we attended a conference on religion in the news, which took place just before Pope John Paul II's millennial visit. “The style is informal and conversational,” tmatt explained. “And,” he promised, “It won't take you as long to write a blog post as it does a news story or a column.” Terry's vision ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: Matthew M. Casserly is an American who lives and works in Moscow as an editor and translator for an independent online-tech platform. He is also studying Orthodox theology. ————— To be honest, I still can’t remember how I found GetReligion. Thanks to Google, I was able to find what I’m guessing what my first GetReligion shout-out — it was a post by Julia Duin some seven years ago about the Southern Baptist megachurch leader Robert Jeffress claiming that God had given the once and potentially future President Donald Trump the authority to kill North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jon ..read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: Kenneth L. Woodward was the religion writer at Newsweek from 1964-2002. He is the author of various books on religion, politics, Catholicism and culture, including “Getting Religion — Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama.” ————— I never went to journalism school or took a journalism course. I learned on the job under a superb editor who never finished college.  Reading Terry Mattingly and his crew of smart contributors at GetReligion over the years was like that on-the-job training.  I especially relished the here’s-what’s-missing ..read more