This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 4, 2012 - This week is seeing the launch for a new regional online publication, the Religion & Politics Journal, which aims to “provide informed context around the religious and political issues that clash, converge and shape everyday public life.”
The weekly publication is the work of the staff at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. Center director Marie Griffith is the editor.
The journal will feature at least “three new substantive serious pieces each week,’’ she said, augmented by some new daily content and links to pertinent articles elsewhere.
The authors will be experts from various fields, including those from universities and “people who do serious journalism.”
The chief focus, said Griffith, will be “the intersection and interplay of religion and politics” in the United States.
The first issue, for example, features such articles as “Oklahoma’s socialist history’’ and “Why American evangelicals love the British,’’ and a look by New York Times columnist Mark Oppenheimer at The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
There also is a piece by former Time contributing editor Amy Sullivan, who writes that politicians often are asked “the wrong religion questions.”
“There is a real dearth of long-form pieces on these topics,” said the journal’s managing editor Tiffany Stanley, in the new publication’s kickoff article. “Most objective news outlets covering religion and politics do it in quick hits, short articles or blog posts. Others tackle it from a partisan viewpoint.
“We want to harness the wealth of intellectual knowledge that’s out there and bring established leaders, people who have been studying these topics for many years, who can provide the long view, historical context and critical analysis.”
Stanley previously worked for The New Republic, Religion News Service and Harvard magazine. The associate editor is Max Mueller, who is described by the journal as “a scholar of American religious history with interest in Mormonism and presidential elections.”
Besides a changing array of news articles, the Journal also will have some regular features, including “The Table” and “The States of the Union Project.”
“The Table” is described as “a forum for commentators to debate the issues of the day.”
“The States of the Union Project” is part of the Journal’s planned 2012 election coverage, and will feature “writers around the country talking about where they discovered religion and politics in their states.”
