Throwing down the gauntlet...

Throwing down the gauntlet

There's been a lot of religion news in the past few weeks, much of it centred around the Vatican's chief resident.  (Faith and the Media will concentrate on coverage of the pope's visit to the Jordan and Jerusalem next month.)  But there have also been a number of excellent opportunities for religion stories which have gone uncovered.  So here, I throw down the gauntlet, and ask readers to either take up the challenge, and do some reporting or column-writing on these topics, or point me in the direction of reports which actually have covered these issues.  (Find me at [email protected]) ]Dirty dining/Holy eating LForgive us our trespasses... kCloning pigs for whose use?

But in the reports, there's been no mention of the requirements of restaurants who serve particular religious communities.  For example, if one is counting on eating completely vegetarian fare -- for example, if you are a Jain, Buddhist, Hindu -- how can you be assured that the dish being served to you is free of any animal products?  Similarly, there's room to do a story on the religious bodies that ensure that meats are either prepared in a kosher (Jewish) or halaal (Islamic) manner.  How do these regulators do their job?  What kind of training is involved?  Is it an extra layer of inspections from those of the public health department? Does the cost of the food go up because of the inspections?  Are there ever any conflicts between the government and religious bodies?  Depending on the findings, it could just as well turn out to be a good news as a bad news story.  Perhaps non-religious folks might start frequenting these establishments if they thought they were cleaner and better inspected than the 'secular' equivalents.

Let's see it!

LForgive us our trespasses...
Much has been written and produced about Pope John Paul II's apology for sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church against women, aboriginal peoples and Jews.  But this is one good example of a story plagued by assumptions.

Much of the commentary has focussed on the pontiff's lack of detail, particularly with regard to the silence of the Vatican during the Holocaust.  Many think this discussion will come to the surface on the occasion of the pope's visit to Israel later this month.  But there is some basic confusion in terms.  Again, I haven't seen or heard a story which discusses the meaning of sin to Catholics as compared to Jews or the many varieties of indigenous religion practised by aboriginal people worldwide.  What makes a mistake or an error a "sin" in each of these traditions?  In what ways does one sin as an individual, and/or as an institution, like the church?  How does a person or a big organization seek forgiveness?  Through words? Acts?  Rituals?  One of the biggest challenges in reporting religion is to make sure that the words being used are being used by everyone with the same basic meanings.  Words like "sin," "forgiveness," and "pardon" are multilayered, and filled with ritual dimensions of different hues, if based on similar ideas.

Wouldn't it be helpful to have a sidebar story discussing some of these concepts?

Let's hear it!

kCloning pigs for whose use?
A few new little piggies were shown off on their way to the genetic market this month.  Cloned by  PPL Therapeutics Plc, the "makers" of Dolly, the piglets are a step closer to using pigs as hosts for human organ manufacture, in an attempt to meet the enormous demand for transplantation.  There was a lot of talk about the medical dangers of such a procedure, particularly the potential cross-over of diseases generally found only in animals, spreading to human beings.

But just who is this technology being developed for?  Is it a particularly Christian, or atheist or agnostic approach?  Remembering that for Jews and Muslims, pigs are unclean animals, and the orthodox will not eat pork, what would it mean to have your only chance at getting kidney coming from within the body of a pig?  And for traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, where all life is sacred, and presumably, killing an animal in order to harvest its 'human' organs would be wrong.  If these assumptions are correct (and I don't claim to be an expert in  religious/medical ethics), then a huge proportion of the world's population will not benefit from this advance.  What is the latest thinking on these issues from theologians?  Do the scientists consider these potential problems when beginning their research?  What would be the response if it were possible to use some other animal, rather than a pig?  What if the animal itself was not killed in the process?

Let's read it!

In conclusion, even when there are stories which aren't at first blush "religion" stories, there are almost always religious angles.  It would be so refreshing to have reporters who recognize the potential for these other aspects in their non-religion journalism.
 

Joyce Smith is Research Director of Faith and the Media, and specializes in issues at the intersection of news and religion.  She holds English literature, journalism and religious studies degrees from the universities of Toronto, Western Ontario and Natal.

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