CT’s list is curious, at best. We can overlook the quirky choice of #1 story (”Taliban takes Korean missions team hostage”) though it’s one that few Christians know–so it won’t affect us greatly, though the editor says that was the basis for the selections. We can even forgive a Billy Graham-founded magazine the suspicious separation of Ruth Graham’s death (#5: “promoted to glory”!) from the deaths of Jerry Falwell and D.J. Kennedy (#7: “Religious Right lions” who simply “pass away”). But what invalidates the list is that the CT editors appear to have concluded it a month or so ago, for it leaves out two of the biggest events of the year, the gun slayings in Colorado at YWAM and New Life Church, and the November “Stem Cell breakthrough” discovery that human skin cells can behave like embryonic stem cells, so human embryos no longer need to be destroyed. TIME magazine ranks this as the #8 news story of the year in the entire world, but CT overlooks it entirely, while selecting a simil

I am shocked by all the bitterness I read. I am shocked at how some of you, who appear to be mere shills of the democrat party or possibly Ron Paul. just want to bad mouth George Bush and the war in Iraq, regurgitating the same party lines of the dems. How about Darfur? How about the continued suppresion and murder in Myanmar and China and Tibet? Our last president stood by and watched the slaughter of millions in Rwanda, we can no longer allow Darfur to continue, but alas the world does not seem to care. We need to care as Christians and no one seems to. Stop the bitterness and hatred, love one another. Happy New Year.

#11 Jesus Christ once again fails to return to Earth.

I agree with Jim. No mention of Iraq and the sacrifices being made by our troops. Please, never forget; All gave some, and some gave all. There are so many stories that aren't mentioned. Like it or not, the tv show American Idol has become a springboard for several Christian artists who are enjoying new careers. Mandisa and Chris Daughtry come to mind, and the Christian concerts that are held at major league baseball parks before games. How about the Pope visiting a Russian Orthodox Church, the first Pope in a thousand years to do so. Let's get relief help to the ten thousand plus children living in the sewers in Bucharest, Romania. The ongoing slaughter going on in Africa. Maybe I'm reaching too far, and Im not saying I disagree with your list, but there are other things going on in the world.

As we sometimes divide books into fiction and non fiction it might be good to break such stories into international and domestic. As SteveR said, the big stories internationally don't seem to get much play at CT. The huge growth of the international church and the move from Northern Whites to Southern Browning of the church has to garner some attention. Along with the Pentecostal and Charismatic flowering all over the world and its replacing Mainliners and Evangelical cessationists is a very big story. Even Krista Tippet covered it twice. I also agree with him that the Reveal studies were bigger here than some of your list. Also Rick Warren's leap into Africa and AIDS with Bono has to eclipse the abortion ban and the NRB dust up. Conflicts among Fighting Fundies and Evangelicals over Global Warming and AIDS is simply a continuance of the move that brought CT into being. The discipleship/spiritual growth is key especially now that Willow's Model has crashed. Can't you feel it?