For two decades, religion has been cutting a high profile in politics at home and around the world. And, while the sociological data are not yet in, there is a feeling that some kind of a religious revival is going on out there. Even on the American left, heartland of secularism, there are voices calling for more attention to, and even appreciation of, religion as a force in people's lives and the affairs of state. Last fall, the muckraking magazine Mother Jones devoted a special issue to celebrating the importance of religion. In turn, not a few Nation readers took Kazin to task for saying so.
Religion has, in short, become a major topic of discussion in the American public square.
The purpose of Religion in the News is to track the discussion through the news media. As this first issue makes clear, our interest is not confined to the coverage of religion per se. It was that and more. Promise Keepers seemed to have a political significance that, for a while, all but drove religion out of the story. The McCaughey septuplets started out as pure human interest, but the reporters who trekked out to Iowa to cover them found the religious dimension of the story unavoidable.