{"id":318,"date":"2010-12-09T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T11:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html"},"modified":"2010-12-09T11:52:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T11:52:00","slug":"religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html","title":{"rendered":"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I try to keep perspective when covering religious extremists, noting that these folks represent a tiny fraction of a much larger community of believers (Mormons, evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc.) &#8212; but the news value of such stories gives disproportionate coverage to the crazies.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/10\/westboro-baptist-church-defends-rights-before-scotus.html\">Westboro Baptist Church in general<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religiousleftlaw.com\/2010\/12\/elizabeth-edwards-and-god-updated.html\">its recent announcement <\/a>that its Phelps family plans to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/12\/09\/elizabeth-edwards-funeral-westboro-baptist-church_n_794333.html\">picket at Elizabeth Edwards&#8217; upcoming funeral<\/a>. (Stay klassy, fake Christians. Also, until someone figures out a law that stops them without chilling free speech, let&#8217;s stop covering them so much and rewarding their provocations with legal settlements, which is obviously how they earn their money.)<\/p>\n<p>With that disclaimer out of the way, here are some religious extremism topics in the news today:<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Elizabeth Smart Trial<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE6B808R20101209\">Last witness in Smart trial: Mitchell not mentally ill <\/a>(Reuters)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/sltrib\/home\/50836447-76\/mitchell-welner-lake-salt.html.csp\">Mitchell doesn&#8217;t suffer major mental disorders, expert testifies <\/a>(Salt Lake Tribune)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Faith Healing Death<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/inquirer\/local\/pa\/20101209_In_faith_healing_trial__Philadelphia_father_said_devil_killed_son.html\">In faith healing trial, Philadelphia father said devil killed son <\/a>(Philadelphia Inquirer)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Homegrown Terrorism<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/maryland\/bs-md-bombing-martinez-20101208,0,7134308.story\">Man charged in bomb plot appeared to drift into Islamic extremism <\/a>(Baltimore Sun)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2010\/12\/08\/eveningnews\/main7131761.shtml\">Baltimore plot shows more terror home grown <\/a>(CBS News)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I try to keep perspective when covering religious extremists, noting that these folks represent a tiny fraction of a much larger community of believers (Mormons, evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc.) &#8212; but the news value of such stories gives disproportionate coverage to the crazies. See also: Westboro Baptist Church in general, and its recent announcement that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I try to keep perspective when covering religious extremists, noting that these folks represent a tiny fraction of a much larger community of believers (Mormons, evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc.) &#8212; but the news value of such stories gives disproportionate coverage to the crazies. See also: Westboro Baptist Church in general, and its recent announcement that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-09T11:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror - Belief Beat","og_description":"I try to keep perspective when covering religious extremists, noting that these folks represent a tiny fraction of a much larger community of believers (Mormons, evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc.) &#8212; but the news value of such stories gives disproportionate coverage to the crazies. See also: Westboro Baptist Church in general, and its recent announcement that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-12-09T11:52:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html","name":"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-09T11:52:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-09T11:52:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/12\/religious-extremism-at-work-elizabeth-smart-case-faith-healing-death-more-homegrown-terrorism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Extremism News: Westboro Baptists, Elizabeth Smart Trial, Faith Healing Death &amp; More Homegrown Terror"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. 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She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}