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The 10 Biggest Religion Stories
By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007
#1
Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith
Letters Mother Teresa wrote to her confessors describe the agony of not being able to sense her beloved God for half a century. “The silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,” she wrote. These revelations raise the question of whether her spiritual “dryness” made her a greater saint or some kind of self-deceiver.
#2 | Faith Stalks the Campaign Trail!
Hillary tells Rick Warren about her White House prayer group! Mitt explains how he’s a Mormon! Huckabee is an actual preacher!
#3 | The Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies
His death, along with that of the ultra-right-wing Rev. James Kennedy, marks the start of the literal passing of an order. Warren’s conciliatory and less political style characterizes the next one.
#4 | The Pope and Latin Mass
Benedict XVI relieves priests of having to get their bishop’s permission to celebrate mass in old-school Latin. To many, it is an unwelcome return of church élitism. Others sink happily back into it.
#5 | The Slow-Motion Episcopal/Anglican Train Wreck
The Episcopal Bishops’ meeting in New Orleans fails to stem the ongoing defection of conservatives over the church’s positions on gays, or the likelihood of a worldwide Anglican split over the same issue.
#6 | Green Evangelicals
Global warming, along with poverty and torture, have become hot issues to a maturing conservative Christian movement.
#7 | The Roar of Atheist Books
There may or may not be more atheists, but there are more atheist authors--and readers want to give them a hearing.
#8 | Another Blow to a Megachurch
A year after Ted Haggard resigned as pastor of Colorado’s New Life Church--having admitted to “immorality” involving a gay escort--a gunman kills two congregants in its parking lot. Haggard’s replacement, Brady Boyd, moves to heal many wounds.
#9 | The Creation Museum
A few months after opening its doors, the Petersburg, Ky., multimillion-dollar monument to the Flintstone (Young Earth) principle doubles projected attendance. Of Americans, 77% think God at least guided our development.
#10 | Kidnapped Korean Missionaries
The Taliban kills two of the 23 and eventually releases the rest amid rumors that South Korea paid $10 million in ransom, which it denies. Missionary work and its perils are no longer a Western monopoly.