The mayor of Lancaster, CA says his city is "growing a Christian community," but after reading myriad wire stories and the handful of local features regarding this topic, I still have no sense of what life (religious or otherwise) is like in Lancaster.

Why should I care? Lancaster is the eighth largest city in my home county of Los Angeles, and its population is growing at a rate that is more than double that of the state of California--which arguably makes it a microcosm of exurban culture in the U.S. The fact that Lancaster's largest employer is Edwards Air Force Base adds another potentially intriguing ingredient to the mix.

Yet I cannot find a single story about Mayor R. Rex Parris' recent remarks that relays more than a few scant details about the economic, political and religious context of this sprawling community.

But let's be fair here. Local news organizations aren't exactly chomping at the bit to send their skeleton staffs to the outer reaches of the county when sensational stories closer to home tend to attract more eyeballs. So what kind of information can reporters use to convey what's interesting about a bellwether community and a mayor with some apparently provocative religious convictions?

The Los Angeles Times published a blog item or two on the mayor's coming under fire from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Undeniably interesting, but the blogs would better serve readers by providing some context about the Muslim population in Lancaster. And how about the mayor's use of the word "Christian," which started this whole hullabaloo in the first place? Is there a significant Christian influence in Lancaster? Perhaps a talk with local clergy members would help sharpen this point.

And I'd like to know who was in the room when the mayor delivered his State of the City address. What do community members think about the mayor's vision for their city (or his apology)? Where does the mayor go to church? Do his fellow congregants agree with his vision?  Where do people pray in Lancaster?

Instead of parsing what the mayor said, we should focus on what he didn't say. The only story I read that attempted to portray the religious context of Lancaster was a piece published on examiner.com. About seven paragraphs deep, the reporter quoted a statistic suggesting that the Muslim community makes up 2.7 percent of the Antelope Valley population.  The writer didn't attribute the statistic, but at least that suggests why the Council on American-Islamic Relations took up the issue.   

Another ready-to-boil issue: the comments Lancaster City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez posted on her Facebook page about Islam. Disconcerting? Yes, indeed (see paragraph six). Who are these local government officials, and perhaps the more pressing question is, what do we know about the folks who elected them?    

I hope some reporter somewhere is going to dig in and ask the right questions. Until then, the reporting on this potentially rich story is missing the kind of context that could really make it come alive.

Evan Pondel is a master's candidate in specialized journalism at the University of Southern California.  He has more than a decade of experience as a print journalist, serving as a writer and editor for the Wall Street Journal online, the Christian Science Monitor and the Los Angeles Daily News.  He has also written for Los Angeles magazine and the Jewish Journal.