It helps to know a little about religion when making such judgments. The moderates and liberals often do have one advantage over the religious right. They know how to approach controversial subjects in ways that journalists consider newsworthy. The religion beat is not he only field where it is hard to spot and define trends before they become obvious. But there are at least two reasons why it's especially hard for religion writers to sell their hunches to editors.
Religious ideas bother many editors.
People getting emotional about such ideas is even worse. Well, yes, I said, after calming down. The second problem with religious trends is that they usually start with small groups of people in churches and synagogues and mosques. This is logical, if you stop to think about it. On the religion beat this problem becomes a true Catch-22.