Top 10 Religion Stories of 2017
We solicited our 800+ members around the world and our TMP Board to get their nominations for the "Top 10 Religion Stories of 2017". The following is a list of the stories we believe feature the best religion reporting of the past year. In addition to the stories on this list, there were several other notable stories worth mentioning. We have also included a list of those stories below...
Note: We received hundreds of nominations but most of them came from media outlets based in the U.S. and UK. We had hoped to receive more stories from other parts of the world. Please keep us posted of top religion stories you come across this year so we can include them in our "Top 10 List" next year.
The Top Ten Religion Stories of 2017: (in no specific order)
1. The New York Times: "The Two Americans" by Sabrina Tavernise
follow-up story... "The Vandal and the Mosque: A New Chapter of Forgiveness in Arkansas" by Sabrina Tavernise
and related Podcast... "The Daily: Two Lives Collide in Western Arkansas" by Michael Barbaro of The Daily
2. The New Yorker: “Roy Moore and the Invisible Religious Right” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
3. Washington Post / Sunday Magazine: “She Led Trump to Christ – The Rise of the televangelist who advises the White House” by Julia Duin
4. The Atlantic: “China’s Unregistered Churches Drive Religious Revolution" by Ian Johnson
5. BBC Newsnight Post: "Murder on Campus: The story of Mashal Khan" By Sikindar Kirmani
6. San Antonio Express News: “A month after church massacre faith and healing in Sutherland Springs” by Silvia Foster-Frau
7. Sports Illustrated: “You Can’t Give In: Monty Williams on Life After Tragedy" by Chris Ballard
8. New York Times “Deliverance from 27,000 feet” by Rajneesh Bhandari, Chandrasekhar Bhattacharjee and Arka Dutta..
9. The Washington Post: "How the prosperity gospel is sparking a major change in predominantly Catholic Brazil" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
10. The New York Times: “Motives in Egypt’s Deadliest Terrorist Attack: Religion and Revenge” by Nour Youssef
Honorable Mentions: (in no specific order)
Christianity Today: “Actually, Eugene Peterson Does Not Support Same-Sex Marriage” by Kate Shellnut
Associated Press: "Broken Faith" 23-story series on people’s heartbreaking and tragic experiences with religion and faith" by AP Staff
The Atlantic “How Two Mississippi College Students Fell in Love Decided to Join a Terrorist Group” by Emma Green
USA Today/Tennessean: "Houston family finds blessings after they clean up after Harvey" by Natalie Neysa Alund
Wall Street Journal “Russel Moore Baptist Leader Who Shunned Trump Splits His Church” by Ian Lovett
Propublica: “Sikhs in America: A History of Hate” by A.C. Thompson
Buzzfeed: “Meet the Young Saints of Bethel who go to College to Perform Miracles” by Molly Hensley-Clancy
The New Yorker: “How Kirk Franklin Is Pushing the Boundaries of Gospel" by Vinson Cunningham
The New Yorker: “Rod Drehers Monastic Vision” by Josh Rohman
Church Times Nigeria: "Reinhard Bonnke: Passing on the burning torch by Gbenga Osinaike in Church Times Nigeria” by Gbenga Osinaike
Wall Street Journal: “Christians, in an Epochal Shift, Are Leaving the Middle East” by Maria Abi-Habib
The Guardian: “How the Queen has made faith her message" by Catherine Pepinster
BBC News: “Reformation: Four things about the 500th Anniversary Celebrations”
The New York Times: "Across Myanmar, Denial of Ethnic Cleansing and Loathing of Rohingya" by Hannah Beech
The Guardian: “Christmas Violence and Arrests Shake Indian Christians" by Michael Safi
The Atlantic: “Can Anyone Stop Burma’s Hardline Buddhist Monks?” by Joe Freeman
Washington Post: “How Sarah Huckabee Sanders sees the World” by Michelle Boorstein
The Washington Post “In 1960 she went to confession and vanished, now we know the Priest Murdered her” by Samantha Schmidt