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Gary Stern has covered religion for The Journal News for a decade. He’s reported on just about every major religious group in New York’s spiritual mix and covered many of the significant trends, stories and people of the day.
The world of religion, we don’t have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won’t interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist’s license to observe.
Stern was once leery of taking on the religion beat. It’s a sensitive subject, you know. But a wise editor told him “Just cover it like you would cover anything.�
Since then, he’s learned a lot about many hard-to-define elements of religious life, including the modern meaning of religious history, the myriad ways that people reconcile their faith with everyday life, and the unspoken cultural characteristics that help to define each faith and sect.
He’s won some awards along the way, including the two highest honors given by the Religion Newswriters Association: National Religion Writer of the Year (2001) and National Religion Reporter of the Year (2005).
E-mail Gary Stern at gstern@lohud.com
As the Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright story seems to be losing steam…
The venerable investigative magazine Mother Jones is trying to draw attention to John McCain’s “pastor problem.” No, they’re not talking about John Hagee, but another pastor, Rod Parsley.
Parsley (that’s him) is the pastor of a Pentecostal church in Columbus, Ohio, and a pretty prominent televangelist [...]
Normally, the deaths of at least 22 people who got in the way of tornadoes in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia would make for the major news story of the day.
But today is not that day.
Close to 8,000 people were killed by a major earthquake in central China (photo). We all woke up to reports that [...]
Is the American Jewish connection with Israel slowly weakening, particularly among the young?
This has been a common conclusion from academics and pollsters in recent years.
As Israel reaches its 60th birthday, The Washington Post looks at the “evolving” relationship between American Jews and Israel.
“My guess is we’re seeing a tightening of the core, the core being [...]
Rabbi Jamie Korngold, who graduated from Edgemont High School in 1983, is these days known as the…Adventure Rabbi.
Korngold, a Reform rabbi, now lives in Boulder, Colo., where she started the “Synagogue Without Walls” program in 2001. Among other things, she officiates at “wilderness weddings, backcountry b’nai mitzvah” and other life cycle events.
He new book is [...]
I returned to St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers the other day, where it was beyond quiet.
I was standing on the fields behind the seminary, where the papal youth rally took place on April 19. It was empty, just grass and dirt. I actually had trouble getting my bearings: Where had the stage been? Where [...]
I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like a new book, “The Sistine Secrets,” is aiming to be a Da Vinci Code II.
But the fact that it was co-written by an Orthodox rabbi is not going to go over well with a lot of people.
The book apparently contends that Michelangelo included secret Jewish codes in [...]
Introducing the new non-denominational chapel at the St. Christopher’s residential treatment center in Dobbs Ferry, which serves troubled youngsters…
That’s Robert Maher, executive director of St. Christopher’s, addressing guests at a dedication last week.
Maybe it’s me, but I was unaware that the Amish run a string of “salvage stores” that sell expired food and other items to the down-out-out.
Business is up as the economy goes south.
The picture, by the AP’s Jamie-Andrea Yanak, is of one such store in Mesopatmia, Ohio. (The lamp is gas-powered, as the Amish don’t [...]
Muslim advocacy groups are not that happy that an emergency preparedness drill in Irving, Ill., targeted a pretend mosque.
A community facility was renamed “Irving mosque” for the day.
According to the local paper, the pretend mosque was supposed to be “the home-base for a radical, heavily armed group with suspected terrorist ties.”
There were “explosions” and “casualties,” [...]
Not surprisingly, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit helped his image in the U.S.
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life did polls before and after the visit. Here are their results (from their website):
B16 got mixed reviews on how he addressed the sex-abuse crisis:
The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
Copyright ©2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.
