Diane Winston

CultureApril 17, 2013

The Myth of News Media as Secularist Conspiracy

By Diane Winston

The notion that the news media is a secularist cabal ignoring stories that challenge its shibboleths is wrongheaded. The media is not sentient and its decisions are not logical. It reacts more than acts, often driven by random factors (What did my husband say over breakfast? Who’s trending on Twitter? When was the last time I read a story about ____?). Equally mistaken is the premise that if there were more believers in the nation’s newsrooms things would be different.

(A)theologiesMarch 20, 2013

As Irish Flee the Church, a Push For Reform

By Diane Winston

Statistics are one way to tell the story: In 1984, 87% of Irish Catholics went to weekly Mass. In 2011, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said 18% of Dublin Church members attend services. Images are another option: gaggles of green-bedecked youngsters and young adults line the St. Paddy’s Day parade route, but in Dublin’s cathedral youthful faces only speckle the crowd.

Politics/Law, Sexuality/GenderJuly 16, 2012

Heterosexual Martyrs and Gay Saints: Did AIDS Coverage Clear the Way for LGBT Equality?

By Diane Winston

As the AIDS crisis progressed and believers interrogated their faith, journalists reported their questions: Was God a God of love or judgment? Were biblical injunctions against homosexuality cultural artifacts or eternal truths?

Politics/LawSeptember 27, 2011

Tea Party, Circa 1930s: A Response to Michael Kazin

By Diane Winston

While the money for the Tea Party may have originated in the conservative revival of the ’70s, when it comes to ideology and language, it stretches back much further, to FDR’s New Deal, when coalitions of businessmen and religious leaders began their fight against ‘socialism.’

CultureApril 6, 2010

Capricology: Big Ideas, Lack of Humanity

By Diane Winston

As the half-season closes on this sci-fi epic, we take inventory on where the show has gone, and gone wrong. Among the robots, avatars, and people who love them, there are a lot of big ideas, but not enough story.

(A)theologies, CultureMarch 18, 2010

Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred

By Diane Winston

Welcome to the first installment of our ongoing coverage of television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion, with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed, and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica.

Culture, Politics/LawFebruary 23, 2010

Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money

By Diane Winston

The recent firing of a progressive leader by the Jerusalem Post has lit up the international press. If Israel is entering its own McCarthy era, as many fear, it is not without American support—on both sides. So where’s the American media coverage?

CultureJanuary 12, 2010

The Happening and the Gospel of Bruce Springsteen

By Diane Winston

M. Night Shyamalan’s much-maligned new movie sounds much more interesting if read as an extended argument for religious faith in general and intelligent design specifically.

Culture, Politics/LawSeptember 7, 2009

Labor Day Reading: An Innocent Man Sent “To Dust” by the State

By Diane Winston

A recent story in the New Yorker on the execution of an innocent man seldom mentions religion, though the elements are all there.

CultureJuly 27, 2009

Give Me That Small Screen Religion

By Diane Winston

For viewers whose search for meaning is not confined to institutional religion, the television landscape abounds with religious and moral themes. And whether it’s euthanasia, polygamy, angels, demons, or clerics doing cameos, treatment of religion on the small screen is often surprisingly sophisticated.