OK. This is it. I promise. This is the last GetReligion #2020 Top 10 religion-news post that you’re going to see. I think. And sorry about the Kiss 2020 goodbye concert video with this post (I could not resist).
Let me be clear what this is. A few of us have already written columns or posts evaluating the results of the Religion News Association poll, like this “On Religion” column that I shared here: “Of course the pandemic was top 2020 religion-news story: But which COVID-19 story?”
However, each of us — when creating our own personal lists — saw the religion-news landscape through our own lens. Thus, I thought readers might enjoy seeing all of the RNA poll items — 27 news events and trends were on the ballot — and how some of us arranged them. Some readers, for example, have expressed a desire to explore what was left OFF the list and how the items were described on the official ballot. Read it all at the RNA.org website.
As I said earlier, in the GetReligion podcast and post in which I shared my own ballot (“The year when religion news went viral, and that was a bad thing”), I thought the key was that the COVID-19 crisis was several stories in one. I thought the most important angle was the First Amendment fights, so I wrote:
According to journalists who cover religion, this was the year’s biggest story: “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.”
But there was a problem on my ballot. The RNA list included another coronavirus item focusing on religious liberty. In some cities and states, officials created pandemic regulations that claimed many institutions — from grocery stores to casinos — provided “essential services.” Meanwhile, other institutions — like churches and synagogues — were deemed “non-essential.”
The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that religious institutions shouldn’t face tougher rules than secular groups and activities. It was wrong, for example, to ban masked priests from hearing confessions – outdoors, 10 feet away from masked penitents – while consumers were lined up at liquor stores.
Ryan Burge, in a post this weekend, had a similar take at the top of his list, stressing First Amendment and Supreme Court issues. The key, he said, was this: “I made a list based on what I thought would have the most lasting impacts into 2021 and beyond.”
So that brings us to new material from other members of the team, starting with Julia Duin. She sent me an email raising another issue with the RNA results:
First of all, Amy Coney Barrett was the religion newsmaker of the year, not George Floyd, etc. Have serious questions about the news sense of folks who voted for the latter. Newmakers, yes; RELIGION newsmakers, no.
I grade my story placement on the amount of discussion on religious topics generated in the secular press. The Catholic Joe Biden/Baptist, etc. Kamala Harris story got very little ink, so that would have been #20. And the Donald Trump-with-Bible story on Lafayette Square was a blip that got way too much attention.
Thus, here is her Top 10, which placed several international-news items higher than the RNA results:
(1) I’d agree with pandemic closing churches, etc., being the #1 story. Although I didn’t like the way the pandemic was split into multiple items.
(2) Amy Coney Barrett added to U.S. Supreme Court.
(3) COVID-19 pandemic limits spur protests.
(4) The fall of President Jerry Falwell, Jr., at Liberty University.
(5) The ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexual abuse report finally published
(6) Hagia Sophia turned into mosque (moved this up from the bottom even though most Americans were clueless about its significance).
(7) China human rights abuses with Muslim, Uighurs, etc.
(8) United Methodists agree to divide amicably, affecting congregations worldwide.
(9) Pope Francis makes another controversial statement about the church and same-sex couples.
(10) Hindu-Muslim clashes in India about new law on illegal immigrants, which many see as another attack on Muslims in the population. This is a story that most American newsrooms didn’t get (BBC report here), but it is having big repercussions in India.
Now, using the wordings from the RNA poll itself, here is the Top 10 from Clemente Lisi. Once again, note the pairing of the two pandemic stories right at the top:
(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.
(2) 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
(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.
(4) 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.
(5) 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.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.
(8) 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.
(9) Dozens of nations decry what they term widespread human-rights abuses by China against predominantly Muslim Uighurs and others in Xinjiang region, many in detention camps. New U.S. law authorizes sanctions against Chinese officials deemed complicit.
(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.
In addition to the Bobby Ross, Jr., package that we ran earlier (“Bobby Ross Jr. with positive, poignant ways to look at 2020 religion news”), here is his own RNA ballot list (with those wordings intact):
(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.
(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.
(3) 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.
(4) 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) 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.
(6) 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.
(7) 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.
(8) 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) 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.
(10) Fallout continues over a whistleblower complaint that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has built up a secret, tax-exempt, $100 billion reserve fund and hasn’t spent it on charitable purposes.
As a final comment, our religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling said — with a weary email shrug — he really didn’t want to look back over 2020, since he “might want to rethink other items not on the list.”
Besides, for way too many journalists and readers, he said that it’s possible that the 2020 news all boiled down to:
Covid Covid Covid
Trump Trump Trump
FIRST IMAGE: A mask selling at TeePublic.com and RedBubble.com
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