Items of interest

with contributions from Gerald L. Zelizer, Eve Bender

". . . RELIGION [IS] BURSTING big-time into the media on both sides of the faith ledger. But too often, we clergy don't know how to handle this phenomenon. We either treat the media suspiciously, as when the Pope said recently that the media should be 'regulated,' or we regard it, as with Madonna's love fest with Kabbalah, as 'religion lite.' Much of what's happening is serious and pervasive. The religious community had better figure out why it's occurring and what to do about it, or we may be left behind. . . .

"Much of the religious energy that used to focus on mainline religious institutions has been redirected to more fluid, less institutionally constrained forums, such as the media. When The Passion of the Christ premiered, I decided not to discuss it from the pulpit because it was essentially a film for Christian believers, and I am a Jew. But when so many in my congregation asked for my reaction, I reversed course. I preached about it, and in the fall, I will teach a course, 'Jesus in the Talmud and Judaism.'

"More religious leaders should take this approach—engaging in their sermons and classes these media expressions of religion. Absenting ourselves from this important frontier that both affirms and denies religion's deepest beliefs is a disservice to our parishioners. After all, they get as much information about their faith from the media as from their churches."

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