Top 10 News Stories of 2011 | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

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Christianity Today, January, 2012

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1. Rob Bell tries to legitimize universalism, prompting huge backlash. He later announces 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-Christian violence follows Mubarak ouster in Egypt.

4. John Stott, evangelical statesman, pastor, and builder of the global church, dies at 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 a flashpoint, prompting Wycliffe to clarify standards and missionaries to pledge more civility.

8. Tim Tebow's prominent display of faith becomes one of the sports world's major talking points.

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.)

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Christianity Today also chose the top 10 news stories of 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000.

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January 2012, Vol. 56, No. 1, Page 11

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Lotus

January 02, 2012 4:25pm

What about... 1. The rise of the career Christians. 2. Sexual Abuse in the Protestant Church 3. The growing corporatism of the Church 4. The growth in non-belief Where are these on the list?

Tom

January 02, 2012 7:55am

Wow. Nothing about the death of Osama bin Laden or Christopher Hitchens? Wow. Nothing about the rise of Mormons Mit Romney and John Huntsman in the Republican primaries? Wow. Nothing about how Obama's White House Christmas tree lighting was the most specifically Christian WH tree lighting in decades? Wow. Nothing about how watching Tebow play quarterback for the Broncos is like watching the crucifixion? How about CT editors doing a little less naval gazing in 2012?

PLTK

December 31, 2011 6:41am

An additional comment about the untruthful comment about Rob Bell -- I do find it very disappointing that CT is engaging is this kind of misleading writing.... surely editors reviewing (and probably writing) such articles have to know this statement was false? Very disappointing! Agreed the statement says much more about the writers and the current biases of CT than the book. (And to clarify--I personally didn't like the book that much myself and thought it had numerous problems). Nonetheless, very disappointing to see CT engaging in misleading and untruthful journalism. Not a good reflection on Christian scholarship.

PLTK

December 31, 2011 6:30am

Seems like even CT writers need to learn to read better (or at least write more clearly and honestly). Rob Bell's book did not try to legitimize universalism, but instead pushed for radical free will and an admittedly provocative idea which has little Biblical support of post-death possibilities to continue to exercise that free will. Universalism is very different as it denies the possibility of free will as God's will overcomes and/or changes ours in all circumstances.

Dave

December 29, 2011 4:32pm

I guess I would have included in the top ten stories the impact of evangelicalism on the presidential nomination process, including associations with the tea party movement, and the reactions to a Mormon candidate--the impact OF evangelicalism, and the impact ON evangelicalism of this public political engagement.

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