Some years, picking the No. 1 religion story is a real challenge.
This year? Not so much.
Give the global pandemic credit for making at least one thing easy during 2020.
Let’s count down the Top 10 stories, as determined by Religion News Association members (including yours truly). I’ll sprinkle a few links to related stories into the RNA summaries:
10. “Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns amid controversies including a risqué photo and an alleged sex scandal. Claims of sexual misconduct also made against late evangelical apologist Ravi Zacharias and Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz.”
9. “Pandemic-related limits on worship gatherings spur protests and defiance by Hasidic Jewish groups and evangelicals led by pastor John MacArthur and musician Sean Feucht. Supreme Court backs Catholic and Jewish groups' challenge to New York's limits.”
8. “A Vatican investigation into defrocked ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick found that bishops, cardinals and popes failed to heed reports of his sexual misconduct. Debate ensues over the legacy of sainted Pope John Paul II, who promoted him to cardinal.”
7. “Dozens of nations decry what they term widespread human-rights abuses by China against predominately Muslim Uighurs and others in Xinjiang region, many in detention camps. New U.S. law authorizes sanctions against Chinese officials deemed complicit.”
6. “White evangelicals and other religious conservatives again vote overwhelmingly for President Trump, despite some vocal dissent. Protestants fuel his gains among Hispanic voters. Some religious supporters echo his denials of the election results.”
5. “Police, using tear gas, drive anti-racism protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, clearing way for President Trump to pose for a controversial photo with a Bible at historic St. John’s Church. Episcopal, other faith leaders express outrage.”
4. “Amy Coney Barrett, whose background in Catholic and charismatic circles draws scrutiny, joins an expanded conservative majority on the Supreme Court after replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who dies at 87 and whose liberal Jewish values shaped her views.”
3. “Joe Biden is second Catholic elected president with big assists from the religious left — especially Black Christians — and secular voters. Biden cites Catholic social doctrine for many policy views, but bishops decry his support for legal abortion.”
2. “Worldwide protests and racial reckonings follow police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, with many faith-based activists and groups taking part. Many religious institutions undergo soul-searching over racially fraught legacies.”
1. “COVID-19 pandemic claims lives of many religious leaders and laity, upends death rituals, ravages congregational finances, spurs charitable responses, forces religious observances to cancel or go online and stirs legal fights over worship shutdowns.”
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. The most American religion: At the bicentennial of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins gives an insider’s perspective on “one of the most peculiar and enduring religious movements in American history.”
His exceptional narrative mixes his compelling personal story with the crucial history and context — positive and negative — of the LDS Church.
Noting the current church president’s campaign against the term “Mormon,” Coppins explains, “I chose to use the term in this story for clarity’s sake, and also because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presented a multisyllabic writerly dilemma that my own God-given talents left me powerless to solve.”
2. Hark! The herald Dolly sings!: When RuPaul Charles interviews Dolly Parton, you’d expect talk about “her new projects, their wig collections, and how someone who brings joy to so many people finds her own happiness.”
This Marie Claire cover story delivers that, but the religion content is fascinating, too.
That includes Parton discussing her early-morning prayer life — her normal wakeup time is 3 a.m.! — and her effort “to find the God light in everybody.”
CONTINUE READING “In The Year Of The Pandemic, Counting Down The Top 10 Religion Stories Of 2020” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion UnPlugged.