I was able to absorb it and understand it better than if I hadn't been out in those communities and had that experience. I have the feeling that ideas brew for a long time under the surface of the culture. Eventually they percolate up to the surface and come to the attention of the national media, the congress, or the entire nation. I think that religion is a place where you are really talking to people at a very basic level. You're talking to people about their basic beliefs, their basic values, and their emotions.
Religion is a place where things are brewing.
People's values and ideas are being shaped in relationship to religion in many ways either because they are religious or because they don't like religion. I think we have seen that burst through to the surface of our national life in the intersection of religion and politics that is going on right now. So when I cover religion as a beat, I feel I am getting a pulse on something that perhaps only the people in one church, congregation, or denomination would know, but I think we all need to be aware of as it rises up to the surface of a culture. I have to say that wading into the waters of reporting on religion is a very tricky thing. First of all you have to deal with your colleagues, other journalists, who are the most cynical people in the whole entire world.