Life Magazine Looks at 'America's Coolest Churches'

April 5th, 2007 12:19 PM

UPDATE at bottom of post.

Thursday home editions of the Washington Post come equipped with a Life magazine insert, and I was pleasantly surprised with the pro-religious, pro-faith content that graced its pages.

The cover for the current issue (April 6 weekend) is: "America's Coolest Churches: The amazing places where presidents, cowboys, and dog lovers go to pray."

The cover photo is a breathtaking shot of the Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy on a bright, sunny day.

I found the photo essay by Danny Freedman a quirky but respectful tribute to some of the more unusual houses of worship across the fruited plain. Pegged to hit American doorsteps during Holy Week it's a welcome change from other media outlets that often see Easter as a time to trudge out the usual suspects of gnostic revisionism. [continued...]

Freedman's cover article is followed by a column by John Grogan who remembers a special Easter in 1965 in which his mother sought "to connect the dots between the Judeo and Christian traditions" by holding a Passover seder to "remind her children that Jesus was a Jew who, on the night before his crucifixion, was celebrating Passover with his apostles."

It's a touching tribute to the author's devout Catholic mother and an overtly pro-religion piece we rarely see in the mainstream media.

Kudos to Life magazine.

Unfortunately, at the time I'm posting this, the April 6 edition is not available online. I imagine it will be on Good Friday, however. You can access Life magazine on the Web here.

UPDATE (15:05 EDT): The MRC's Culture and Media Institute has a breakdown of the media's bias against religion in their latest study, "The Easter 'Hit' Parade."