- Albert Mohler
- Christianity Today Top News Stories
- Collin Hansen's Top Ten Theology Stories
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Associated Press Top Stories
The Year in Review: The Ten Leading News Stories of 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
And thus 2011 comes to an end, like every year before it. The year came with its own surprises and controversies, tragedies and headlines. And, with the closing of the year, we find the need to put the year into some kind of historical perspective. We are chronological creatures, and the span of year is enough to require some accounting.Here, without strict ranking by priority, are the biggest news stories of 2011 as I have seen them.
1. The Arab Spring
In just a matter of months, the political map of the Arab world has been reshaped. It started with student protests in Tunisia and Egypt, and then swept through much of the Arab world, especially in North Africa. Regimes in Egypt and Tunisia fell first, followed by foment and revolutionary fervor elsewhere in the region. The collapse of the Mubarak regime in Egypt was followed by initial euphoria, but that was severely dampened in the following weeks as it became clear that the Egyptian military was very much in control. Of even greater concern was the rise of Islamist groups to power and influence throughout the region. The greatest trophy of the Arab Spring was the toppling of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, with Libyan insurgents assisted by NATO backing. Meanwhile, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad held ruthlessly to power. At the end of the year, the future shape of the Arab world is anything but clear. One fact remains of interest: No Arab regime fueled by large oil deposits ( such as the Gulf States) has yet been reshaped to any serious degree by the Arab Spring.
2. Tsunami and Earthquake Kill Thousands in Japan
Americans will forever remember 9/11. For the Japanese, it will be 3/11 — the March 11 tsunami and earthquake combination that wiped several coastal cities and villages off the map, killing as many as 20,000 people. An earthquake on the sea floor off Japan’s coast triggered a tsunami that left massive devastation in its wake. The combined catastrophe was made far worse when it was discovered that sea water had breached one of Japan’s major nuclear power facilities. It was later conceded that the reactor at the Fukushima Diachi nuclear plant had experienced a complete meltdown, though the level of contamination outside the plant is still not yet known. The sheer scale of the combined disasters is without precedent in the industrialized world.
3. The Death of Tyrants and Terrorists
History will record the year 2011 as a bad year for tyrants and masterminds of terror. Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by insurgent forces in Libya, bringing his 41-year dictatorship to an end. Gaddafi would eventually be shot as he tried to escape capture, having eluded pursuers for weeks after his regime fell. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign, and was put on trial. As the year ended, it was unclear that the aged former ruler would live to see that trial concluded. Americans were told on May 1 that its most targeted enemy, Osama bin Laden, had been killed by an elite force of U.S. Navy SEALs, who invaded his fortress in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. and the leader of al-Qaeda, bin Laden had declared himself to be an enemy of the United States and Western powers until his death. Also killed in a separate action was the American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. At the very end of the year, North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il died of a massive heart attack. His youngest son, Kim Jong-un, believed to be age 28, was declared by the North Korean press to be the “Great Successor” within the hermit kingdom.
4. Occupy Wall Street
For a few weeks, it looked as if the 1960s had returned to some American cities. It began with a call for protestors to arrive at Wall Street in New York, ready to take a stand against financial and economic injustices. It mushroomed into a huge protest movement, with crowds of generally young people pitching tents and “occupying” strategic areas around Wall Street and in cities across the nation. This came after rioting young people rampaged through the streets of London weeks earlier. The Occupy Wall Street movement was, in the end, not so much a movement as a meeting of sorts. The crowd lacked a consistent message or defined goals. Some commitment to anarchy seemed to doom the movement to being little more than a massive publicity stunt. Nevertheless, a sizable portion of the U.S. population indicated some support for the protest in spirit. In the end, the movement was driven off the streets by police action and cold weather.
5. Natural Disasters in the United States
2011 was a year of tragedy for many in the United States. Massive systems of tornadoes brought devastation to communities in Alabama and Georgia. A path of cyclonic devastation was visible from the air as passenger planes approached Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport months later. Another massive tornado brought death and destruction to Joplin, Missouri. The Joplin tornado shifted a hospital off its foundation, destroyed entire neighborhoods, and left no one in the regional city unaffected. Over 5,000 Joplin residents were left homeless. In Texas, drought and wildfires tormented residents. The Northeastern United States was hit by a major hurricane, leading to massive flooding. Washington, D.C. was, of all things, the epicenter of an earthquake, causing cracks in major facilities and historical sites, including the Washington Monument.
6. Sports Scandals Explode
College football had a very bad year, with scandals at Ohio State University and the University of Miami taking most of the headlines for most of the year. The head coach lost his job at Ohio State, while Sports Illustrated called for the University of Miami program to be shut down. Baseball’s Barry Bonds was convicted of obstructing justice as Major League Baseball sought to regain its moral grounding in light of drug scandals. Then, a scandal of epic proportions erupted at Penn State University, as a Pennsylvania grand jury handed down indictments in a case involving the sexual abuse of young boys. It became clear that several of the most significant leaders of the university had failed to stop — or even to report — the sexual abuse of boys by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Within days, the president of the university was forced out and fabled head football coach Joe Paterno was fired. A vice president and the athletic director were arrested. The nation hardly had time to think about the meaning of the Penn State scandal when another scandal of the sexual abuse of boys erupted in the basketball program at Syracuse University. Every leader in America was put on notice — there can be no toleration of sexual abuse, and no failure to report suspected abuse to legal authorities.
7. The European Union Fights for Survival
The economic crisis that exploded in 2008 continues to reverberate around the world. 2011 will be remembered as the year that Europe had to act decisively to save the Euro and the so-called Euro-zone of nations within the European Union. The nations had attempted a monetary union without a fiscal union, but the prized achievement of European cooperation, the Euro, was threatened when it became clear that Greece was in danger of defaulting on its debt. The crisis in Greece revealed a large crisis of sovereign debt within Europe, as well as major cultural divisions that could no longer be denied. As the year ended, an agreement brokered by Germany and France bought some time for the Euro, but with a significant loss of national sovereignty for member nations. Unelected technocrats took power in Greece and Italy, and Great Britain refused to join the agreement to save the Euro, which it had never adopted. European governments and businesses understood that the collapse of the Euro remained a clear possibility. The larger issue remained the survival of the attempt to forge a new European identity on secular and economic terms.
8. Political Frustration in the United States
The American political scene was marked, above all, by a sense of frustration on the part of the public. President Obama and the U.S. Congress shared disastrously low ratings with the American people. Congress played continual brinksmanship with the threat of shutting down the government and President Obama found that blaming the previous administration for the nation’s economic woes and high unemployment no longer worked. Americans grew more nervous about the threat posed by the nation’s towering national debt and both major parties geared up for the 2012 national election. On the Republican side, the campaign for the presidential nomination began earlier than ever, but with no consistent front-runner. All that is likely to change when actual voting takes place very soon after the New Year.
9. Notable Deaths take the Headlines
Steve Jobs, the iconic co-founder of Apple, resigned as CEO in August, announcing that his fight with cancer left him unable to lead the company. He died just six weeks after making that announcement. Jobs’ death became a signal event for the year, with massive news coverage and media refection. All this pointed to Jobs as the symbol of the digital age, the inventor of the iPad, the iPod, and the iPhone. But the cultural attention prompted by Jobs’ death also pointed to the vast role that digital technologies now play in our world and in our lives. Other notable deaths of 2011 included former First Lady Betty Ford, former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, and movie star Elizabeth Taylor, along with political figures Sargent Shriver and Warren Christopher.
10. The Redefinition of the Book and Publishing
Centuries after the invention of the printing press, the book experienced another transformation with the arrival of electronic books (or e-books) and reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle. 2011 may well be remembered as the year that readers had to decide whether to read a book in print, or on screen. Publishers revealed in 2011 that many mass-market titles were selling more in e-book form than in print. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble and Amazon brought out new and very inexpensive digital reading devices. The Barnes & Noble Nook reader established the company as a major player in the digital market, explaining in part why Barnes & Noble survives into 2012 while major competitor Borders Books did not. Borders collapsed and closed all of its stores after a series of failed rescue bids. Meanwhile, Amazon released its color tablet known as the Kindle Fire just in time for Christmas, selling millions. Still, the printed book holds its place — and so do brave independent bookstores. Novelist Anne Patchett and others opened a new independent bookstore in Nashville in 2011, Parnassus Books.
Of course, 2011 will be remembered by individuals in different ways. For many, the year will be remembered for events far more intimate and personal than these major national and world events. Deaths, births, marriages, graduations, retirements, and other milestones mark our years. All of these meld into our memory. Those of us who shared the year 2011 are left with plenty of reasons to reflect, to remember, to hope, and to pray.
Top 10 News Stories of 2011
The events, people, and debates of the past year that have shaped, or will significantly shape, evangelical life, thought, or mission.
1 of 1 
ADVERTISEMENT
1. Rob Bell tries to legitimize universalism, prompting huge backlash. He laterannounces he's leaving Mars Hill Bible Church to work in TV.
2. States adopt 80 abortion restrictions in their 2011 legislative sessions, an all-time high (the previous record was 34).
3. Mideast Christians conflicted about the Arab Spring, especially as anti-Christianviolence follows Mubarak ouster in Egypt.
4. John Stott, evangelical statesman, pastor, and builder of the global church, diesat 90.
5. Beijing's Shouwang Church holds outdoor services for more than six months, enduring mass arrests as it leads China's booming house churches in unprecedented demands for religious freedom.
6. HarperCollins, which already owns Zondervan, buys Thomas Nelson; it now has about 50 percent of the Christian book market.
7. How best to translate "Son of God" in Bibles for the Muslim world becomes aflashpoint, prompting Wycliffe to clarifystandards and missionaries to pledge more civility.
9. Largely Christian South Sudan votes for independence; persecution ensues for Christians in the Nuba Mountains and Khartoum.
10. The PC(USA) votes to allow noncelibate gay pastors, prompting defections from presbyteries. (Meanwhile, the United Methodists hold the line on same-sex unions amid a planned clergy revolt.)
My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2011
The Top 10 Religion and Politics Stories of 2011
December 30, 2011, 12:39 am
Four years ago, in 2007, we faith-and-values pundits were pondering Mitt Romney’s coupling of secularism and radical jihadism in a memorable December speech. We were trying to figure out why John McCain, of all people, was invoking “Christian nation” rhetoric.
We were assessing presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s many references to youthful Bible study and Sunday School taught by her mom. As for that junior senator, Barack Obama, we marveled at the newcomer’s God-talk skills. He was too green, obviously; maybe 2016 would be his time.
Nor were we really focused on those who would soon become faith-and-values Persons of Interest in 2008. Mike Huckabee only flitted across the radar late in 2007. Outside of the initiated, no one knew who the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was. And few, if any, on the religion beat had ever heard of Sarah Palin.
Which is my way of saying that that top-10 lists are loads of fun, but they often predict future political outcomes worse than the Ames Straw Poll (won by Mitt Romney in 2007 and Michele Bachmann in 2011, thank you). What follows, then, is a look back that tries to look forward. What were the biggest American politics and religion stories of 2011, and how might they play out in the presidential campaign of 2012?
10. Occupy Wall Street and the Religious Left: Missed Opportunity? Ever since the rise of the Religious Right in the late 1970s—or maybe since the unraveling of the civil-rights coalition in the 1960s—observers have been wondering when (or if) the Religious Left would ever re-mobilize as a political force to be reckoned with.
Occupy Wall Street did not start as a religious movement. Nor have the progressive faith communities that eventually joined its ranks come to play a pivotal role in its leadership or activism. Were they to do so, fairly obvious synergies would develop around issues such as poverty, corporate greed, the environment, and health care, to name just a few.
One might surmise that OWS could benefit from the organizational infrastructure, if not the respectability, of Blue churches, synagogues, and mosques, etc. As for progressives of faith, the OWS movement could provide them with something they have been sorely lacking for decades: masses of energized voters.
Whether an affinity develops in 2012 between the Occupy forces and the Religious Left, with crafty Obama operatives forging those bonds and reaping the rewards, remains to be seen.
9. The Persistence of Anti-Mormon Sentiment. Just when it seemed that anti-Mormon prejudice among evangelicals was on the wane, up jumped Pastor Robert Jeffress, who chimed in that Mormonism was a cult and Mitt Romney wasn’t a Christian.
Was this Rick Perry supporter “just being honest” and articulating the true feelings of his co-religionists? Hard to tell. Recall that Romney ran as an “evangelical Mormon” last time around. Many evangelicals backed him. They displayed an admirable willingness to put theological reservations aside and support a candidate who shared their political views.
Still, a mistrust of Mormons appears to be at least one of the factors explaining why some whit,e conservative evangelicals in Iowa have flirted with every candidate but Romney. They have careened from Michele Bachmann, to Rick Perry, to the Herminator, to, in the past few days, a surging (Catholic) Rick Santorum. It seems plausible to assume that some evangelicals, at least, just won’t vote for a Mormon.
In this light, Romney’s decision to tamp down, though not silence, religious themes on the stump was shrewd.
8. Islamophobia: What’s It Good For? The so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy of the summer of 2010 may have taught some strategists that playing the Muslim card could be useful for good, old-fashioned base-whipping-up.
Perhaps this is why 2011 brought us Donald Trump, who discerned “a very negative vibe” in the Koran. Herman Cain unleashed seasonal anti-Muslim outbursts.
Michele Bachmann, for her part, was recently tarred as an anti-Muslim bigot by Ron Paul (on the Tonight show no less!), and Rick Santorum is not unacquainted with the genre.
The practice of singling out one group of religious Americans for this type of derision is clearly odious. But does it work? Results from 2011 indicate that it does not. Purveyors of anti-Muslim rhetoric presently staff the backbench of the GOP pack. Those who do not aggressively play that card (e.g., Ron Paul, Mitt Romney) appear to be doing well in Iowa.
7. Bloomberg Holds His Ground. Much attention was paid to the controversy surrounding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s refusal to permit clergy to speak at the 10th commemoration of 9/11 in downtown New York.
Less was said about the relevance of the challenge to Bloomberg’s “Sodom”(see below) and its unusual outcome. As for the latter, it sure is unusual that some leader in America, finally, stood up to the Religious Right. And lived to tell about it.
What we should bear in mind, however, is that only a politician like Bloomberg, who was: (1) financially reliant on no one, (2) not interested in re-election (as far as we can tell), and (3) on good terms with communities of faith in his city, could have ever dreamed of pushing back. Let there be no doubt: This was a victory for American secularism, albeit a rare one. Secularists should study the episode carefully if they want to prevail again.
6. The Swashbuckling Evangelicals. The Manhattan controversy brought something else to light: the word-and-thought-defying boldness and dynamism of the Christian Right. After all, the evangelical protesters conducted this in-your-face operation in the most secular city in the nation. How brazen was that?
More diverse (and less centralized) than some are led to think, the Religious Right iseverywhere. In 2011, for example, Gothamites learned not only about the 9/11 project, but “church planting” initiatives in New York City. Then they found out about attemptsto transform public schools into Christian worship spaces on Sundays.
Looking beyond the Hudson, there was the reign of the “Personhood Amendments,” which were only rebuffed after frantic mobilization and great effort.
The point is that the Christian Right is political dynamism personified. It never stops, never relents, never thinks small, and is afraid of nothing. I would add that it usually also conducts its activities within the law.
5. Catholics and Evangelicals Don’t Always Lock Arms. Yet the Christian Right is far less juggernautlike when Catholics don’t come along for the ride. On at least two occasions in 2011, the nearly unstoppable political duo of conservative evangelicals and Catholics showed signs of fracturing. The Catholic Church did not sign on to the aforementioned Personhood Amendments, nor to the 9/11 controversy. The lesson going forward is clear: Without massive Catholic buy-in, the Christian Right has a hard time achieving its goals.
4. Values Voters Are Less Interested in Values. It was the 2004 presidential election that gave us the highly controversial term “values voters.” This referred to white conservative evangelicals and, to a lesser degree, traditionalist Catholics who putatively cast their ballot on the basis of their religious values.
Some commentators suggest that these voters scrutinize the personal morality of the candidates. But 2011 belied that assertion. Conservative Christian voters have been lukewarm at best to ethically unbesmirched candidates such as Romney, Huntsman, and Santorum (not to mention unbesmirched incumbent Barack Obama). Conversely, they were willing to get galvanized by besmirched ones, be they Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and so forth.
“Values voters” was always a problematic term. Perhaps it is imprecise enough to be discarded.
3. Justice Kagan’s Dissent in Arizona School Tuition Organization v. Winn, et al. In her first dissent—and a crackling one at that—Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan lamented how difficult it had become for citizens to bring establishment-clause cases to the Court’s attention.
She warned that the decision “offers a roadmap—more truly, just a one-step instruction—to any government that wishes to insulate its financing of religious activity from legal challenge. … No taxpayer will have standing to object. However blatantly the government may violate the Establishment Clause, taxpayers cannot gain access to the federal courts.”
Still, Kagan’s demurral reminds us that 2011 was not a good year for those opposed to the blurring of lines between church and state.
2. President Obama: Innoculated. No news is sometimes good news, and the degree to which the Obama administration didn’t get into scraps about religion in 2011 is very good news for the Democrats.
Sure, there were moments of manufactured hysteria, such as the recent noise about Obama’s godless Internet Thanksgiving salutation.
Yet for the most part, neither the president’s personal faith nor his policy initiatives have created difficulties for him with mainstream religious Americans. Obama has beenostentatiously prayerful, thus preempting critique from the Religious Right. His Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has laid low, avoiding the scandals and divisiveness that characterized George W. Bush’s mock-up, the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.
In terms of not being vulnerable to the charge of being “anti-religious,” 2011 was a happy success for Obama. Secularists, needless to say, were less happy.
1. The Evangelical Vote: Fractured, Then Formidable. Pundits in 2007 were flummoxed by the fact that not one of the early GOP frontrunners (i.e., Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani) was an evangelical. Then things (momentarily) started making sense: Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who conservative Christians initially ignored, emerged from the B-List to upset Mitt Romney in Iowa.
Eager to avoid a repeat of that scenario, the GOP in 2011 offered a diverse array of menu options for conservative Christians to consider. These ranged from prayerful souls like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, to Catholics like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who speak fluent Evangelical. At present it seems unlikely that social conservatives in Iowa will coalesce around any one of them.
The lesson of 2007 and 2011 is that white conservative evangelicals are fractured in the primaries. The lesson of 2004 and 2008 is that when the ticket takes shape, they are a formidable Republican bloc. So long as someone like George W. Bush or Sarah Palin is there to inspire them, they offer between 74 percent and 80 percent of their vote to the GOP. If Mitt Romney does in fact win his party’s nomination, he will need to bear this in mind as he chooses a running mate.
Xposted at “On Faith,” washingtonpost.com
Top 10 news stories of 2011
Death of bin Laden, Japan tragedies, Arab and Occupy movements led reports
Vice President Joe Biden, left, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- as well as members of the national security team -- receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room on May 1. Bin Laden was shot dead in a U.S. raid in Pakistan. / PETE SOUZA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A young evacuee is screened March 24 at a shelter for leaked radiation from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, after a tsunami caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast. / WALLY SANTANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is moved from the scene of a Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six people. She was the target. / JAMES PALKA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Every year the Associated Press polls editors nationwide for their view of the top news stories of the year.
Here are 2011's top 10:
OSAMA BIN LADEN'S DEATH: In May, the nearly 10-year manhunt ended with a nighttime assault by a helicopter-borne Navy SEAL squad on the terrorist leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was shot dead by one of the raiders.
JAPAN'S TRIPLE DISASTER: A 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's northeast coast in March unleashed a tsunami that devastated scores of communities, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead or missing and wreaking an estimated $218 billion in damage. The tsunami triggered the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 after waves knocked out the cooling system at a nuclear power plant.
ARAB SPRING: It began with demonstrations in Tunisia that rapidly toppled the longtime strongman in January. Spreading rapidly, the Arab Spring protests sparked a revolution in Egypt that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February, fueled a civil war in Libya that climaxed with Moammar Gadhafi's death in October, and fomented a bloody uprising in Syria against the Assad regime. Bahrain and Yemen also experienced major protests and unrest.
EU FISCAL CRISIS: The European Union was wracked by relentless fiscal turmoil. In Greece, austerity measures triggered strikes, protests and riots, while Italy's economic woes toppled Premier Silvio Berlusconi in November.
U.S. ECONOMY: Hiring picked up a bit, consumers were spending more, and the unemployment rate finally dipped below 9%. But millions of Americans remained buffeted by foreclosures, joblessness and benefit cutbacks.
PENN STATE SCANDAL: In November, former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was accused of molesting 10 boys; two senior Penn State officials were charged with perjury; the longtime president and coaching legend Joe Paterno were ousted.
GADHAFI TOPPLED: After nearly 42 years of mercurial and often brutal rule, Moammar Gadhafi was toppled by his own people in August. Anti-government protests escalated into an eight-month rebellion that culminated in Gadhafi being and killed in the village where he was born.
CONGRESSIONAL SHOWDOWNS:Partisan divisions in Congress led to several showdowns on fiscal issues. A fight over the debt ceiling prompted Standard & Poor's to strip the U.S. of its AAA credit rating in August. In November, the so-called supercommittee failed to agree on a deficit-reduction package of at least $1.2 trillion -- potentially triggering automatic spending cuts of that amount starting in 2013.
OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS: It began Sept. 17 with a protest at a New York City park near Wall Street, and within weeks spread to scores of communities across the U.S. and abroad. The movement depicted itself as leaderless and shied away from specific demands, but succeeded in airing its complaint that the richest of Americans benefit at the expense of the rest.
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS SHOT: The popular third-term Democratic congresswoman from Arizona suffered a severe brain injury when she and 18 other people were shot by a gunman as she met with constituents outside a Tucson supermarket in January. Six people died, and Giffords' painstaking recovery is still in progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment