HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — In case you missed it, Christmas came and went last month.
The Lake Norman Citizen, a newspaper covering the northern suburbs of Charlotte, N.C., made sure its readers didn’t let the season slip by unnoticed. In fact, no news organization anywhere reported on the holiday quite like the Citizen.
“Spirit of fertility strikes twice!” screamed the headline on a Dec. 18 story which began, “Paranormal appearances have apparently produced a pair of surprise pregnancies. At least that’s the story a respected priest and young Nazarene woman are telling.”
On Dec. 25: “UFOs announce ‘savior’ of world born in a barn!”
And Jan. 1: “Baby and family skedaddle, not the cattle!” over a Bethlehem-datelined account which opened, “Child services authorities in this usually quiet Judean town confirmed today that they initially dismissed reports of a baby being born and then kept in a barn, but now believe the reports were true.”
These and other dispatches are the subject of Good Lord!, a weekly feature in which the Citizen retells stories from the Bible as they might have been “reported”
Good Lord! is the creation of John Deem, who helped start the Citizen last May after being laid off from his position as director of public relations for a Charlotte-area advertising agency. Deem spent more than a decade as an award-winning journalist before “crossing over to the dark side,” as he puts it, in 1997 to work in public relations.
While Deem uses humor to grab attention, Good Lord! does have a serious side. In a brief “Getting Real” section, Deem provides modern-day context for the real Bible story. The feature has gained a loyal following — and a few critics, who suggest the stories cross the threshold of irreverence.
PDF’s of Good Lord! pages are available, or you can see the online versions at www.lakenormancitizen.com.
You may contact John Deem directly at 980.355.2995, or johnd@lakenormancitizen.com.
