I notice that the front page of The Arizona Republic on March 23 had no mention that it was an Easter Sunday edition. I checked around the country and saw that some papers had "Happy Easter" on the front page above the fold while many others had no mention, or a slight mention.

Obviously, opinions differ as to the importance of newspapers recognizing religious holidays. That makes sense to me as religion is such a personal thing and there are so many different religions to deal with. If a newspaper proclaims "Happy Easter" on their front page but omits "Happy Rosh Hashanah" or "Happy Ramadan" in celebration of a Jewish and Islamic holiday, is it showing partiality to Christianity? I'm sure many would think so but you will never see those latter holidays get a front page mention.

For a lot of newspapers, the issue of religion is usually ignored. Carolyn Pione of The Enquirer says that "Religious beliefs are very deeply and emotionally held. This is why people go to war over religion. Newspapers like to stay in the mainstream. They attempt to appeal to a broad audience. Broaching subjects such as faith is fraught with danger."

This doesn't mean that most papers neglect everything with religious overtones. Some writers with large followings may talk about faith because that writer has been around a long time and has his readers who enjoy that subject. Other papers have a religious page with church listings and occasional religious articles. But, in most cases, newspapers do not give enough coverage to religion to warrant the employment of a specific reporter to cover it.

There are times when religious beliefs can be difficult to understand, either for readers or the people writing the story. Religion is a sensitive subject that can cause unintended controversy within a faith or between faiths.

Religion is personal with most people. It is also subjective while most newspapers try to be objective. These are good reasons why it is best if newspapers try to avoid getting in the religion business.