This is the time of year, of course, when news organizations post their Top 10 lists for the year. On the religion beat, the list that gets the most attention is the one produced by a poll of the members of the Religion Newswriters Association. Click here to see it’s announcement of the results.
I no longer get to vote in this poll, since my work for the Scripps Howard News Service is not my full-time job. However, I still write about the poll year after year.
Actually, it’s pretty easy to predict the results — since the biggest stories in the world often have a religion angle (thus, GetReligion exists). However, it is also clear that, when in doubt, you can count on politics or the pope placing very high. This year’s results are a perfect example of this reality. So here is how I started my column on this topic last week:
It was a simple commercial, with Mike Huckabee posed in front of a set of scandalously empty white bookshelves that, when framed just right beside a Christmas tree, formed a glowing cross behind the candidate.
And, lo, the former Southern Baptist pastor told the voters: “Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you’ve been seeing, mostly about politics? I don’t blame you. At this time of year, sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is a celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family will have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God bless and merry Christmas.”
This caused a firestorm among the political elites that symbolized the year’s biggest trend in religion news — the revenge of the infamous “values voters” who, apparently, remain alive and well in church pews across the heartland.
But will the Republican Party win this “pew gap” contest again? That was the question that dominated the Religion Newswriters Association poll to determine the top 10 religion news stories in 2007. There were plenty of new signs that the so-called religious right exists, but that it isn’t a monolith after all.
The key, as GetReligion regulars know, is that this story has two sides. Thus, it was striking to note how the RNA leaders worded the items that were selected as the No. 1 and 2 items in the poll.
The top item: “Evangelical voters ponder whether they will be able to support the eventual Republican candidate, as they did in 2004, because of questions about the leaders’ faith and-or platform. Many say they would be reluctant to vote for Mormon Mitt Romney.”
The runner up: “Leading Democratic presidential candidates make conscious efforts to woo faith-based voters after admitting failure to do so in 2004.”
The key to the whole Huckabee story, in my opinion, is that it offers more evidence that mainstream evangelical and conservative Catholic voters are not, repeat are not, meshing well with the GOP establishment. Huckabee is, after all, essentially a pre-Roe Bible Belt Democrat. Somebody really ought to write a book about this whole topic. Wait! Someone named Mark Stricherz has done that already.
You can read the rest of the RNA poll for yourself, either at the group’s site or in my column. This is also a year when you should check out the radically different poll results over at Christianity Today and at Time magazine.
The top item at CT focused on an issue of great concern to evangelicals, but it was also a global level human rights story:
1. Taliban takes Korean short-term mission team hostage, killing two Afghanistan’s resurgent Taliban used the team of 23 short-term workers from Saemmul Presbyterian Church as a bargaining chip, pressuring the South Korean government into a reported ransom payment and a promise to withdraw its 200 troops in the country. Bae Hyeong-gyu and Shim Seongmin were killed before the negotiation was completed.
Time, surprise, led with, well, the Time magazine cover about the spiritual struggles of Mother Teresa.
So, please consider this an open thread for commentary on these three Top 10 religion-news lists or any others that you have seen in mainstream or religious media.
Fire away. Contrast. Compare.
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Comments (10) |
January 2, 2008, at 9:31 am
‘The key to the whole Huckabee story, in my opinion, is that it offers more evidence that mainstream evangelical and conservative Catholic voters are not, repeat are not, meshing well with the GOP establishment. ’
I agree. So much to support the claim: that Huckabee rises with next to no funding or, initially, backing: appearing on The Colbert Report was the first anybody outside of Arkansas probably saw of the man, and it all came off as a lark.
The GOP has not seen a true conservative in quite a while: ask any true conservative.
Huckabee resonates with disenfranchised conservatives, whom the GOP, which is stuck on big money, has failed for about twenty years, because he stands for traditional Biblical morality—and is unafraid to say so.
January 2, 2008, at 10:19 am
I am something of a political junky so the religion/politics story lines don’t bother me from that perspective, but I do tire of them from my religious perspective. I get the feeling sometimes that some reporters having similar feelings about the rise of religion in politics, but for maybe not the same reasons.
January 2, 2008, at 11:39 am
Speaking of radically different poll results, you might be interested in taking a look at my picks for the top ten religious stories from a Pagan perspective.
Part One:
http://www.wildhunt.org/2007/12/top-ten-pagan-stories-of-2007-part-one.html
Part Two:
http://www.wildhunt.org/2007/12/top-ten-pagan-stories-of-2007-part-two.html
Honestly, I thought the Veteran Pentacle win would have made a radar of at least a couple “top religious stories” lists.
January 2, 2008, at 11:51 am
The list is very US-centric - too much so in my opinion. The continuing Shi’a - Sunni issue for Islam would be on my list.
January 2, 2008, at 12:17 pm
What struck me about the RNA list is what your headline suggests: At least half the stories are political stories that just happen to have a religious element to them. Global warming was an important political issue during the past year, but was it as its core really a religion story?.
January 2, 2008, at 1:42 pm
I thought the Anglican Communion conflicts, which was #5 in both CT and TIME, should have been a bit higher. I see it made #3 for RNA; meaning as you pointed out that all aspects of life are seen through the lens of politics, first. I am surprised and pleased that TIME even mentioned the Motu Proprio lifting the prohibitions on the “old form” of the Roman Rite. I think the story of Christians being persecuted in Iraq has been under-reported in the MSM.
**
The issue of Christian and Muslim dialogue may be a story for 2008. The many Islamic clergy sent out a letter some time ago to B16 and ABC Williams and others. I also saw in the WSJ this week a letter of goodwill signed by many Islamic clergy for the Christmas season and new year.
January 2, 2008, at 4:29 pm
I think Palladio makes a good point. I’m leaning toward Huckabee. Whenever the Republican party calls (whether it’s county, state, or national) I’ve been saying “sorry, not interested,” these last couple of years. I can’t bring myself to vote for a Democrat because even if they don’t, I take their party platform too seriously. Call me disenfranchised but there are some days when I wish it would all go away …
January 3, 2008, at 12:59 am
My (non-journalist) question to you (journalists): What is a “true” conservative?
My impression is that the MSM’s usage applies to fiscal conservatives (although I think that, technically, MSM usage applies to fiscally conservative/socially moderate). I’m not sure how the MSM labels social conservatives unless it falls under the general category of the “Religious Right” or ???
Just wondering … .
January 4, 2008, at 3:24 pm
I am not a journalist, but I would want to say that a true conservative would be one who judges as inestimably valuable, indispensable, and irreplaceable the sanctity of life and marriage, family, religion, liberty, self-determination, charity, the liberal arts… Averse to the miasma of moral and cultural relativism, he would tend to want strongly to conserve these and a host of other things for which there is no substitute. A citizen of the world and a student of history, he would be aware of a long and diverse conservative tradition in the States and elsewhere, and strive to make himself literate in that tradition. He would measure politicians by their fidelity to tradition as measured in their words, deeds, and the facts on the ground: do his policies or legislation really favor the family, for example, would be one question wanting an answer?
January 4, 2008, at 4:12 pm
“Evangelical voters ponder whether they will be able to support the eventual Republican candidate, as they did in 2004, because of questions about the leaders’ faith and-or platform. Many say they would be reluctant to vote for Mormon Mitt Romney.â€
What I want to know is since when does religion have to do with qualifying a person for office? I agree on the sentiment that Huckabee won Iowa becuase it was a backlash from disenfranchised evangelicals. I’m surprised that none of the contenders took him seriously, but what troubles me is the ongoing Huckabee/Romney/National “war on religious specifics.” It has nothing to do with being president. Faith, values, issues do.
An interesting note - there is a film coming out about this, that is starting to gain some traction: http://www.articlevithemovie.com/trailer.php#
It looks like I’m not the only one who sees it odd that suddenly being part of “the right” religion is suddenly a requirement for being president.