Truth is, in Southern California, "Presbyterian" can describe everything from evangelical megachurches to old-line Protestant congregations on the religious left.

So was the [James] Holmes family active in the liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or the conservative Presbyterian Church in America? How about the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Synod, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America or the American Presbyterian Church?

Then again, journalists were soon reporting that this family has been active — for nearly a decade — in some kind of Lutheran congregation.

The problem, explained [Amy] Colon, is that journalists assigned to cover these media storms in the digital age are trying to report as much information as they can, as fast as they can, as easily as they can, while competing against legions of websites, Twitter feeds, 24-hour cable news and, often, smartphone videos uploaded to YouTube by eyewitnesses. Reporters are tempted to use as many easy labels and stereotypes as possible, simply to save time and space.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Media • Religion & Culture • Violence

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