A study was conducted to examine the journalism work of James Gordon Bennett, who founded the "New York Herald" in the 1830s, and to determine the nature of his coverage of religion before, during, and after the "Moral War" waged in 1840 against Bennett's popular newspaper. In addition, the study analyzed what Bennett's religion coverage reveals about the man, his work, and his times. A content analysis was conducted of randomly selected issues of Bennett's "New York Herald" from 1836 to 1844. Each issue in the sample was read and all items, exclusive of paid advertisements, that mentioned a religion, religious person, or word commonly associated with religion was considered religious coverage. Each item was then coded using a content analysis scheme that called for recording the length, author, style of writing, geographic location of the newsworthy event or situation, the primary religion discussed in the item and the image of that religion created by the coverage. Examination of the 224 religion items identified in the study indicates that religion coverage in the paper was more complex and less easily stereotyped as irreverent and critical of religion than some historians suggest, and that, although the coverage of religion did change over time, the change cannot be ascribed to an attempt to allay criticism of the paper that followed the Moral War. (DF)