Top Ten Religion Stories 2000

1. Presidential hopefuls Bush, Gore embrace faith-based programs.

My Meeting With the President-Elect | An inside view of Bush’s meeting with religious leaders. (Dec. 22, 2000)

The Bush Agenda | Will the White House be user-friendly for religious organizations? (Dec. 15, 2000)

Bush’s Call to Prayer | After Al Gore’s concession, evangelical leaders unify around faith-based initiatives, morality, and prayer as the incoming Bush administration gears up. (Dec. 14, 2000)

Bush’s Faith-Based Plans | (Oct. 25, 1999)

2. Rioting Muslims target Christians in Ambon, Indonesia.

Indonesian Island Attacks Go Unnoticed | World ignoring plight of Christians in Ambon, visitors say. (Aug. 21, 2000)

Daily Life in the Maluku Islands: Chaos, Fear, and the Threat of Violence | Christians plead for international monitoring to prevent Jihad raids, and more aid for refugees. (Aug. 1, 2000)

Churches Pressure for Swift Action to Calm Maluku Violence | Indonesian army joining in attacks on Christians. (July 21, 2000)

Indonesian Religious Riot Death Toll Dwarfs 30 New Corpses | Death count has passed 1,700. (Mar.3, 2000)

Maluku Islands Unrest Spreads to Greater Indonesia | Violence on Lombok Island may hasten government intervention. (Jan 25, 2000)

3. Gay marriage gains in Vermont, but loses ground among United Methodists.

Mainstreaming the Mainline | Methodist evangelicals pull a once ‘incurably liberal’ denomination back toward the orthodox center. (Aug. 18, 2000)

Sticking With the Status Quo | United Methodists reject gay marriage, ordination. (May 15, 2000)

Vermont House Approves Civil Unions for Homosexual Couples | Amended bill defines ‘marriage’ as heterosexual. (March 27, 2000)

States Discuss Marriage Laws | (Feb. 2, 2000)

4. Texas Southern Baptist moderates defund SBC agencies.

SBC Funding Imperiled | Texas Baptists resolved reduce monies for SBC seminaries and programs. (Sept. 25, 2000)

Southern Baptist Leaders Lament Funding Cuts | Texas board’s action to reduce funding called ‘bad for common missions causes’ (Oct. 2, 2000)

5. U.S. Supreme Court nixes pre-game, public prayer by students.

An End Run Game Plan? | After pregame prayer is barred, educators say they do not need a microphone to pray. (July 20, 2000)

6. African churches fight stigma, panic in HIV-AIDS crisis.

Speaking with Action Against AIDS | A report from the Thirteenth International AIDS Conference. (July 17, 2000)

Have We Become Too Busy With Death?’ | As 4,900 people die each day from AIDS, African Christians are faced with the question. (Feb. 4, 2000)

Church Leaders Confront AIDS | (Feb. 2, 2000)

7. Evangelicals protest medical research using human-embryo tissue.

Congress Hears Testimony on Fetal Tissue | Witness’s credibility damaged by pseudonymous video. (March 30, 2000)

ABC’s ’20/20′ to Air Report on Fetal-Tissue Trafficking Tonight | House of Representatives Committee holding hearings on subject Thursday. (March 8, 2000)

Human Commodities | The grisly business of trafficking in fetal body parts may soon face Congressional hearings. (March 7, 2000)

New Stem-Cell Research Guidelines Criticized | NIH guidelines skirt ethical issues about embryo destruction, charge bioethicists. (Jan.28, 2000)

8. NCC makes overtures to Catholics, Pentecostals, and evangelicals.

Time to Kiss and Make Up? | The financially strapped NCC reaches out to evangelicals and Roman Catholics. (July 18, 2000)

9. Anti-sex trafficking bill enacted with broad Christian support.

‘Odd Couple’ Politics | Evangelicals, feminists make common cause against sex trafficking. (Feb. 8, 2000)

Churches Rescue Thailand’s Sex Tourism Workers | (Dec. 2, 1999)

Alliance Targets Sex Trafficking | (Aug. 9, 1999)

10. Christian enclaves in Bethlehem damaged in renewed Mideast violence.

Christmas in Palestine: Hunger and War | Starvation threatens Palestinian villages if U.N. aid continues to be delayed, Vatican official warns. (Dec. 13, 2000)

Between the Temple Mount and a Hard Place | Palestinian Christians want both peace in their villages and justice for their Muslim brothers. (Dec. 5, 2000)

Lutheran Bishop’s Appeal from Jerusalem | Religious leader’s letter requests prayer for Christians, Jews, and Palestinians in troubled region. (Nov. 10, 2000)

Latin Patriarch tells Israel to Surrender Lands to Palestinians | Catholic leader says Israel will never have peace unless it “converts all of its neighbors to friends.” (Nov. 1, 2000)

Fighting Engulfs a Christian Hospital in Jerusalem | Lutherans call conflict on their hospital grounds “an affront” to humanitarian purposes. (Oct. 16, 2000)