Do religion reporters face issues of balance and fairness that are different from other beats? By Kim Sue Lia Perkes Freelance Writer For religion reporters, the issue of balance is often more complicated than other beats because stories that deal with theology are about beliefs and not proven facts. So how does one discern what […]

What are some helpful hints on covering highly charged religious services, especially ones that seem to defy rational explanation? By Sandi Dolbee The San Diego Union-Tribune* You walk into the room and the first things you hear are the sounds. People mumbling and wailing, speaking in languages you simply don’t recognize. Others are falling down, […]

With attendance down in mainline Protestant churches and older ministers delaying retirement, many recent seminary graduates are finding that pastoral jobs are scarce, according to a Religion News Service story published Sept. 30, 2006, by The Washington Post.

Read a March 17, 2006, New York Times story about how fewer seminary students are interested in leading churches. It’s posted by Netscape.

Read a 2008 Christian Chronicle article about the decline in attendance of New England pulpits and the struggle of working with small communities for clergy members.

Read a Jan. 31, 2013 Catholic News Service story discussing woman priesthood and responses that have been evoked by the debate.

Read a May 13, 2013 National Catholic Register article about the clergy sex abuse scandals and its effects on the community of clergy men and women.

Read a May 22, 2013 Huffington Post article about the Vatican’s order to change parts of the traditional prayers and rubrics of Mass. A survey showed that 60 percent of priests were dissatisfied with the change.

Leon J. Podles, who lives in Baltimore and in Naples, Fla., wrote The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence, 1999).