Author: Christopher Bader, Professor of Sociology
Wilkinson Review Spring 2013

In March of 2012 I was invited to attend a unique gathering of journalists held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.   Sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, the purpose of this meeting was to launch a global association to support reporters that cover religious issues.

Twenty-seven journalists representing twenty-three nations, including Serbia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Nepal, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Egypt and Turkey and many others, spent three days debating how to best encourage quality reporting and support their peers.

To be clear, I am not a journalist.  Rather, as associate director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.TheArda.com) (see sidebar), this nascent organization hoped that I could provide information on quality, unbiased sources of religion data that journalists could draw upon when developing stories.

While I was able to provide some useful information to the assembled journalists, I spent more time learning about the many challenges of reporting on religion…

Continue reading this story in the Spring 2013 addition of The Wilkinson Review page 10