By Deborah Caldwell
Senior Editor, Beliefnet

When I announced to my sources in Princeton, N.J., that I was leaving the beat to cover religion for The Times in Trenton, this was the standard reaction: “Um, I’m sorry. Were you demoted?”

It was 1989. Covering religion was not remotely hip. But I’d actually asked for the religion beat. And it was a promotion.

Nevertheless, I looked like a big, fat loser to all the people whose zoning decisions, elections, sit-ins, and scandals I’d covered. In the newsroom, my colleagues were mystified. For several months, one of the editors frequently pretended to sprinkle holy water on me. Some of the reporters would swing by my desk, lean over, and ask, “Are you, um, religious?”

I began to picture getting bounced from Sweeney’s Bar, the local reporters’ dive. “No beer for you, ma’am. You’re too religious.” Okay, that didn’t happen, but every time I went to parties thrown by journalists here is how the conversation went:

Ultra-cool journalist (UCJ): What do you do?
Me: I’m a projects reporter.
UCJ: What kind of projects?
Me (attempting not to say the dreaded “R” word): Oh, weekend stories. You know, longer-term kind of stuff.
UCJ: What have you covered lately?
Me (nervously trying and failing to lie): The Catholic Church, Jewish holidays, a Buddhist cult (or whatever it was that week).
UCJ: Oh, well, nice meeting you. I’m going to get another drink.

We all know that’s changed. (Well, sort of.) But it’s instructive to remember just how wacky it once was for journalists to admit they covered religion. And that was even after the 1973 passage of Roe vs. Wade, after the televangelist scandals of the 1980s, the rise of the Religious Right, the gay ordination debates, the flood of immigrants bringing different religions to America, and the beginnings of the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

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Then came Sept. 11. The biggest stories of the new century revolve around religion and ethics: Islam’s engagement with the West; Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle East; corporate accounting scandals; cloning; war; and the priest pedophilia crisis.

How do journalists covering religion keep up? How, especially, do people who are new to religion reporting figure out where to start? Here are some tips:

Stay focused on a few stories.
If you’re new to the beat, the first step is to learn everything you can about Islam and about Muslims in America. That will be the big story for the foreseeable future. Second, learn everything you can about the Roman Catholic Church and about Catholics in America. That will be the other big story. In addition, aging religious leaders such as Pope John Paul II and Billy Graham may die in the next few years -- a development that will rock your world when it happens. Begin preparing your operation’s coverage now.

Branch out slowly.
One great way, particularly at regional news operations, is to find a news peg related to a religious holiday. In August, well before the Jewish High Holy Days, call a local rabbi or Jewish leader, arrange a lunch, and chat about news of concern to Jews nationally and locally. Find local Sikh leaders and join them for their next significant observance, known as a gurupurab. Spend time at a Buddhist retreat leading up to Rohatsu (Dec. 8).

Make connections between the world of religion and the world of spirituality.
One of the major uncovered elements of religion in America is the extent to which most people combine rituals and beliefs to create their own spiritual lives. They take Holy Communion and practice yoga. They join the Temple Sisterhood and read up on astrology. They believe in the Earth Goddess, admire Oprah’s spirituality, and sing in the church choir. They fast during Ramadan and date Christians and Jews. They read self-help books and go to Bible study. Don’t miss these stories.

Give yourself the gift of the exotic.
After a year or two of covering religious holidays -- a year of lunching and networking and learning about interesting religious groups -- you’ll wake up one day and realize you never want to write those holiday stories again. Except you’ll have to. Over and over and over. Console yourself with diversity. With a little digging you’ll find some of the best stories on any beat -- the kind of stories for which photojournalists will clamor, the kind of stories your editors will push for the Sunday front, the kind of stories news directors would want to lead the B block, and the kind of stories that win awards. We’re talking rodeo preachers, child prophets, prayer warriors, Nudists for Christ, goddess worshippers, snake handlers, Muslim comedians, and apocalyptic cults.

Best of all, these are the kinds of stories you can recount in a glib and entertaining manner at parties -- parties thrown by journalists.

Deborah Caldwell is the senior editor and one of the founding employees of Beliefnet (www.beliefnet.com), an Internet website about religion and spirituality.