Priest Abuse Is Top Religion Story of 2018
By Doug Mendenhall
When weighing the size of a story, journalists consider how big a change it represents. Like, a year ago, both the Religion News Association collectively and me – a single RNA member – voted that the top religion story should be the support of evangelical Christians for President Trump, because that represented a huge change within both American political and religious landscapes. Which is also why I voted this year that the top story should be the opposition of many religious leaders to Trump's policies about immigration – because I saw that as just as huge a swing in the opposite direction. RNA overall, though, went in a different direction, giving its top spot to a Pennsylvania grand jury’s report that accused 301 Catholic priests of abusing at least a thousand minors. Here are the rest of the top 10 RNA stories of the year: 2. A gunman kills 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. 3. The Rev. Billy Graham dies at age 99. 4. Religious leaders oppose Trump on immigration (my No. 1 choice). 5. The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of a baker who refused to bake the cake for a same-sex wedding. 6. Trump moves the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 7. The Supreme Court upholds a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations. 8. Retired Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is barred from ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse of teens. 9. Political progress of religious minorities in Congress and other offices. 10. Accusations that Pope Francis covered up sexual misconduct by McCarrick. And here’s the rest of my own top 10 ballot: 2. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. 3. The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, caused by a proxy war in which U.S. weapons have fed the Saudi Arabia campaign against Iran. 4. Billy Graham’s death. 5. The ascension to the Supreme Court of Brett Kavanaugh, with heavy support from conservative Christians. 6. The Pennsylvania grand jury report about priests’ sexual abuse of children. 7. The Colorado baker’s right not to bake for a same-sex wedding. 8. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints abandoning the use of “Mormon” as an acceptable name for its adherents. 9. The 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King. 10. Political progress of religious minorities in Congress and elsewhere. To sum up, I agreed with the rest of the RNA on six of their top 10, and I don’t have the arrogance to argue that my list is any more insightful than theirs. I do think that two major issues in the religious culture of 2018 are revealed in this process, especially if you pore over all 27 of the suggested stories from which the top 10 were selected. The first issue is the escalation of recriminations for sexual abuse on the part of clergy. It’s easy to see this as a parallel to the #MeToo movement that has led to men losing their positions of authority in entertainment, politics and other arenas. I doubt this tide suddenly will ebb in 2019. The second is the intertwining of conservative Christianity with conservative politics. Here, the volatility of the current president means that almost daily, many believers have to recalibrate the relationship between their faith and their political goals. I predict we’ll see this high on next year’s list of top stories, too. Email Dr. Doug Mendenhall, who teaches journalism at Abilene Christian University, at doug.mendenhall@acu.edu
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