Faithful times

Every once in a while, a reader will ask me why journalists are so obsessed with religion. "What are y'all trying to do, convert us?" goes the insinuation.

Here's the easy, personal answer to this: As a religion writer, I'm paid to obsess over religion. But speaking a little more broadly, religion sets the cadence for a good chunk of the nation and the world. Someone once said that law is simply morality encoded, and for most people, morality has its roots in faith. I'm hard-pressed to think of a story that doesn't have some religious or moral context to it. Simply put, religion is news.

Today's Gazette is a great case-in-point: In the front section alone, eight of the 33 stories contained some explicit reference to faith or religion. Stories ranged from the IRS investigating a Pasadena church for becoming too political, to a follow-up to Venezualian President Hugo Chavez calling Bush the "devil," to Christian militants being executed in Indonesia. Another 10 had some obvious religious undertones.

And there's more to come. Starting today, a number of conservative religious groups, including Colorado Springs' Focus on the Family, will gather in Washington, D.C., to participate in a three-day Values Voters Summit.