(RNS) Here are my picks for the top 10 religion stories from 2011:
1. Islam and Muslims dominated the news in 2011 with the “Arab Spring” rebellions; the electoral success of extreme Islamic parties in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco; Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on his people; and Iran’s ominous steps to develop a nuclear weapons.
2. The ongoing Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal focused on Ireland and created a bitter dispute between the Emerald Isle and the Vatican. The Dublin government accused Rome of covering up decades of child abuse by Irish priests. A high-profile case in the United States involved Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was indicted on criminal charges for failing to inform civil authorities about a priest in his diocese accused of possessing child pornography.
3. Once thought to be moribund after the 2008 elections, the religious right emerged with greater vigor than ever, and its social wedge issues influenced many political candidates. Several wannabe Republican presidential nominees claimed God had told them to run for office. In addition, the Mormon Church was denounced as a dangerous “cult” by a Dallas pastor, and polls revealed significant voter suspicion of Mormon candidates.
4. Atheists intensified their demands in 2011 for full representation in the public square. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs took steps to welcome pagans and Wiccans — as well as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others — as officially recognized groups within the student body. The U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy appear likely to follow suit.
5. Social networking increased during the year, with Jews and Christians easily communicating with one another outside the formal boundaries of church and synagogue. A papal declaration, a rabbinical statement and a personal blog all look the same on a computer screen. We also saw a related proliferation of “couch churches” and “sofa synagogues” — decentralized electronic gatherings of people who study, sing, and pray together in a non-structured form.
6. The Dalai Lama stepped down as the political leader of the Tibetan people. The exiled 76-year-old Buddhist leader will instead focus on his role as a global religious teacher.
7. Anti-Semitism continued unabated in many Islamic societies, as well as within some European academic, cultural and athletic groups. Such animosity, often justified as simply an expression of “anti-Zionism,” includes boycotts and sanctions directed against Israel.
8. There was a sharp drop in the number of active churchgoers in Europe, the continent that has long been the spiritual center of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, have expressed concern about the decline of a visible and viable Christianity and the growing impact of “secularism.” Running counter to this trend, however, is the robust post-Communist assertion of Orthodox Christianity in parts of the former Soviet Union.
9. Seoul’s Yoido Full Gospel Church now numbers more than 1 million members, and it’s only one of many South Korean megachurches. In September, Korean authorities began investigating Cho Yong-gi, Yoida’s leader since 1958, who is alleged to have embezzled $20 million in church funds.
10. Among notable deaths in 2011 were composer Debbie Friedman, who transformed much of Jewish music in the world; Ambassador Sargent Shriver, a leader in the movement to help Soviet Jews; Harvard professor Oscar Handlin, the dean of American Jewish historians; Tullia Zevi, the longtime leader of the Italian Jewish community; and Esther Broner, a pioneer of Jewish feminism.
On a personal note, Leonard Weinglass, my college classmate and a prominent civil rights attorney, died this year. Lenny’s motto was “Refuse and Resist,” and he took on some of the nation’s most unpopular cases, including the trial of the Chicago Seven in 1970. I will miss him.
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the upcoming “Cushing, Spellman, O’Connor: The Surprising Story of How Three American Cardinals Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations.”)
