You know who scares me more than your garden variety True Believers? Converts. I don’t care if it’s Weight Watchers, Religion, smoking, alcohol, you name it. The people who’ve Seen The Light are the ones you have to watch out for, and the ones who are often most difficult to avoid.

On the other hand, they can provide you with a lot of entertainment bang for your buck. John Travolta’s tribute to scientology (aka Battlefield Earth) was so ham-fisted and awful that it was awe-inspiring. And it pleased me no end that other people finally realized why this guy’s career tanked the first time around. He sucks! Holy crap! How come we didn’t notice that before?

Here’s my new favorite example, “Prince Swears off Cursing”. [link dead] The article ends with the sentence “Jehovah’s Witnesses are an apocalyptic group that interprets the Bible differently than traditional Christian organizations.” That’s a pretty good spin on the whole JW thing. That statement shows some journalistic craftsmanship that’s been pretty lacking lately. I’m not sure what I expected to be at the end of the article.

It could have gone a couple of different ways. Usually, reporters take the snarky post-religious tack and write something along the lines of, “Jehova’s Witnesses are raving nutcases who have ridiculous beliefs, dress badly, and are fun to torment on Sunday morning when they show up at your front door to witness to you.” Or, they engage in old-fashioned fear-mongering, “Jehova’s Witnesses plan to sacrifice your virgin daughter on Halloween in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus.” Frankly, I was more prepared for the doomsday/lock up your daughters scenario.

Maybe we’re done seeing cults – satanic or otherwise – under every rock? Maybe someone finally figured out that you give a group power by demonizing them and giving them an “us against them” mystique to build up their believer base? Maybe mocking religious choices will loose it’s appeal as a journalistic hook? No, all of that sells papers. Prince supplies such an abundance of material for mocking that religion doesn’t even need to enter in to the equation.