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They succeed in that goal, says the Chicago Tribune's Steve Johnson. "Religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular are rarely covered in mass media, unless somebody has been caught in an act of blatant hypocrisy," he writes. "Nightline's achievement here is to take us into this world when it is behaving in a fashion closer to the norm. … Nightline's hard-bitten Washington insiders paint their portrait of these teens and their backgrounds with compassion, with an honest search for understanding and, yes, with grace."

Perhaps Nightline's smartest decision was to avoid narration, says Elizabeth Jensen of the Los Angeles Times. "It's a world some viewers are sure to find intriguing and others will find controversial—some of the subjects in the report say so themselves—but what we don't hear is any kind of judgment, outside commentary or even basic journalistic 'here's what critics think' questioning about the boys and their calling."

Some articles make it clear that television is hurting from the lack of religion reporters like Wehmeyer, whose job it would be to find compelling stories like this. The idea for this series didn't come from anyone at ABC News, but from commercial producer Matthew Kaufman, who attended the preaching competition in 2001.

"It's high time we started doing more" reports on the evangelical community, Sievers told the Los Angeles Times. Maybe this will be the start of it, says The Baltimore Sun, noting that observers think religion coverage is improving in public broadcasting and the print media. "There have been great strides in the complexity and diversity of the kinds of coverage," Religion Newswriters Association Executive Director Debra L. Mason tells the paper.

A few other papers cover the competitors profiled in the Nightline broadcast, but Weblog won't spoil the ending.

Ugandan rebels ordered to kill Catholics:

• Church fears Uganda rebel threat | After attempts by church leaders to mediate a ceasefire between the rebels and the government, LRA leader Joseph Kony is reported to have ordered Catholic missions to be destroyed, priests and missionaries killed and nuns beaten up (BBC | audio1 | audio2)
  
  
• Ugandan rebels ordered to attack Catholic missions (UN-IRIN)
  
  
• Why kill the messenger? | It is not the first time that the LRA have issued such threats. The difference this time round is that the credibility of the report has been strengthened by the use of the Catholic Church's own local radio network (Editorial, The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda)

Persecution in China:

• China arrests eight underground Christians | Police in southwestern China have arrested eight members of an underground Christian church on charges of spreading "feudalistic superstition," the local religious administration said on Thursday (Reuters)
  
  
• Chinese Christians arrested | The authorities in China have arrested 12 members of an underground Christian church, officials said on Thursday (BBC)

Gay marriage in Canada:

• U.S. gays who marry in Canada face hurdles | Gay Americans who visit Canada to marry will come home to a confusing patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions and competing laws (The New York Times)
  
  
• Canada's celebration of marriage | Same-sex couples married in Canada should be treated as legally married people in the United States (Editorial, The New York Times)
  
  

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June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47