This Just In

Good journalism needs to be fast paced and colorful, and to base its broad-brush generalizations on vivid examples and stories. You need a strong thesis. Too many qualifications and attempts at careful analysis blur the outline and hold up the action. One way to get around this is to sell your product with startling figures and projections and then slip in a warning about the unreliability of statistics concerning religion. Or you can set up an alarming scenario of new...

The remainder of this article is only available to paid subscribers.

Print subscribers to Commonweal are entitled to free access to all premium online content. Click here to purchase a print subscription, or if you’re already a print subscriber, register now for premium access.

Online-only subscriptions provide access to all premium online articles for just $34/year. Click here to subscribe.

Registered users, please log in below: