When Cornell started out, religion specialists were rare in the working press. A mere dozen had formed the Religion Newswriters Association in 1949, compared with a current membership of 225. But expansion in media religion coverage is far overshadowed by the changes in religion itself. Little of what Cornell concluded after interviewing the leading clergy of 1951 would be framed the same way today. The pattern is writing an end to the old days of feuding and sharp rivalry among separate denominations.
Teamwork is the swelling tide.
The National Council of Churches had just been launched as a cooperative vehicle among the white mainline Protestant denominations, with Orthodox and black Protestant churches in a subsidiary role. There were exceptions to the rosy ecumenical scenario, of course. Evangelical Protestants remained outside the new council. U.S. Catholicism, under Vatican direction, was also standoffish. But those two groups did not set society's agenda.