By Jim Coggins

In spite of the widespread perception that we live in a secular society, religion made the news frequently in 2009 - as evidenced by the links to stories in the mainstream Canadian media (national print news) collected by CC.com's Peter Chattaway. Each week, he posted these links on this website, grouped according to theme. These groupings form the basis for the following analysis.

Who's number one?

There is no question about what Canada's mainstream media considered the most newsworthy religious category in 2009. As in 2008, the category receiving the most coverage by far was 'Islam and the West,' with at least 230 stories -- almost twice as many as any other category.

Since Muslims make up only about two percent of the Canadian population, obviously numbers aren't what matters. Religion is recognized by the Canadian media primarily when it is involved in conflict and controversy.

International Islamist terrorism was the focus of many of the stories about Islam, but there was increasing attention paid to more domestic cultural questions - the acceptance of sharia law in Western countries, the wearing of the burka by Muslim women, and 'honour killings.'

Jews and Judaism garnered 30 stories, partly due to the conflict with extremist Islam but also in connection with perceptions of an increase in anti-Semitism.

Buddhism was the focus of 39 stories, primarily in connection with visits to Canada by the Dalai Lama and the fall Peace Summit in Vancouver. In contrast to almost all other religious news stories in the mainstream press, these stories tended to portray Buddhism in a generally favourable light.

Sikhism accounted for 25 stories, many dealing with whether the ceremonial dagger (kirpan) should be considered a weapon.

Atheism garnered 10 stories, evidence of increasing efforts by atheists to spread their point of view. Communism garnered a couple more stories, and 'environmentalism as a religion' was discussed in seven stories.

Can't ignore the Pope

Christianity was not ignored by the media. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest denomination in Canada and was the focus in 129 stories.

Pope Benedict XVI was the focus of a couple of dozen stories, often for his pronouncements on various issues. He was accused by some of offending both Muslims and Jews in 2009. Catholic bishops also received some attention for their official pronouncements.

Halifax Bishop Raymond Lahey received as much media attention as the Pope, for being charged with possession of child pornography.

Other Roman Catholic personalities also received some attention. Retiring Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin, and theologian Richard John Neuhaus, who died, received generally positive attention -- as did Sister Carmelina Tarantino, who is on the path toward sainthood. However, these were outnumbered by the dozen stories about dissident bishop Richard Williamson, who was welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church even though he is a Holocaust denier.

Public institutions received public scrutiny. Roman Catholic schools were covered in 15 stories, including several stories dealing with problems with the Toronto Catholic School Board. Residential schools were discussed in 10 stories; this is an indication that attention is shifting away from this issue somewhat. Religious schools in general were discussed in three stories, in relation to the suggestion by Vancouver Sun religion writer Douglas Todd that religious schools promote intolerance.

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These totals do not include the 14 stories devoted to Wafergate, the overblown controversy about whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper ate the communion wafer given to him at the Roman Catholic funeral of Romeo Leblanc.

Protestants not prominent

Protestants were not nearly as prominent in the media. Anglicans managed to be noticed in 18 stories because of their schism over same-sex blessings and other theological issues, and their subsequent lawsuits over ownership of church buildings.

The United Church gained attention in 13 stories due to its controversial positions on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lutherans would likely have gone unnoticed if a Lutheran church in Vancouver had not given sanctuary to former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov. This was covered in seven stories.

No news is good news

Evangelicals make up over 10 percent of the Canadian population, with many more attenders than mainline Protestant churches. However, they hardly appeared in the mainstream media last year. Perhaps that can be taken as a positive sign, given the negative attention the media gave to other religions.

The lack of attention may also be due to the fact that evangelicalism is more decentralized, with fewer large institutions or authoritative spokespersons.

There were a few articles criticizing the Conservative government for appointing a couple of evangelicals to government office. The Dominion Christian Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, was noticed in three stories due to allegations of financial irregularities. The Salvation Army is working to free women from human trafficking/prostitution, but that was only noticed because of three articles about prostitutes criticizing its efforts.

Issues that don't die

Issues concerning life - abortion, universities' censorship of pro-life clubs, stem cell research, and efforts to legalize euthanasia (mercy killing) - were discussed in 61 news stories.

The religious implications of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution received attention in 26 stories.

Religious perspectives on economics or the environment received scant attention in the secular press (but considerably more in the religious press) in 2009. However, sex was certainly noticed in a religious context.

The polygamous practices of the tiny British Columbia community of Bountiful were reported in 67 stories, more attention than was given to all evangelicals combined.

The interaction of homosexuality and religion was covered in 27 stories, representing a significant decline in attention from a few years ago. Many of the stories concerned the federal government's funding of Gay Pride parades and events. Human rights commissions, the forum for much controversy between homosexual and Christian groups in the past, were discussed in 30 stories. However almost all of these stories focused on allegations of discrimination and attacks on freedom of thought and religion by the human rights commissions themselves.

Prostitution was discussed in seven articles, including the three mentioned earlier.

The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada and the Vanier Institute collected seven news stories for research on family life. These were among the more positive treatments of a religiously related story in 2009.

In addition, we counted 27 generally positive stories around the great Christian celebrations of Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.

One final note: This may be the last year that analysis of the coverage of religion by the mainstream Canadian press will be provided on CC.com. As a cost-cutting measure in the current economic climate, Peter Chattaway's presentations of news links has been discontinued.

January 6/2010