{"id":345,"date":"2008-12-29T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T11:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/the-ten-worst-religion-stories.html"},"modified":"2008-12-29T11:56:05","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T11:56:05","slug":"the-ten-worst-religion-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/the-ten-worst-religion-stories.html","title":{"rendered":"The Ten Worst Religion Stories of 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the best of religion, it was the worst of religion in 2008.  <\/span>Let’s concentrate on the worst.  <\/span>The following are the ten stories that made us want to roll our eyes, curl up into a ball or raise our fist.  <\/span>Hopefully we will be among those who learn from history – and not repeat it.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

10. Jews feel the financial and image pain of Wall Streeter Bernie Maddoff<\/a> as his money lies damage Yeshiva University and Elie Weisel as well as smaller stakeholders.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

9. Sarah Palin’s witchcraft video.<\/a>  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

8. Rev. Jeremiah Wright appears at the Washington Press Club<\/a>. By playing the fool Wright makes his defenders, including Barack Obama, look foolish.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

7. Prosperity Gospelers add to the foreclosure crisis<\/a> by preaching that Jesus had provided poor congregants with a house they could not afford.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

6. Elizabeth Dole runs the “There is No God” campaign<\/a> ad accusing opponent Kay Hagen (who teaches Sunday School) of atheism.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

5. The Catholic Church, Mormons and Rick Warren join in a theologically unlikely alliance<\/a> to pass Proposition 8 and revoke the right of Gays and Lesbians to marry.  <\/span>Rick Warren is tapped by Obama to offer the invocation at his inauguration. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

4. The anti-Muslim rhetoric<\/a> in the presidential election, coupled with a persistent belief that Barack Obama was a Muslim topped off by the Obama campaign insistience on the candidate’s Christian faith rather than condemning the religion-baitng. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

3. Buddhist Monks and nuns are slaughtered in Tibet <\/a>as China cracks down in anticipation of the Olympics and similar violence in Burma by the dictatorship. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

2. Islamist terrorists take the city of Mumbai Hostage killing people of all faith<\/a> and especially targeting Jews.   <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

1. With all of the power of the world religions in 2008 we did not muster the political will to stop the daily starvation <\/a>of thousands of our fellow human beings. <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the best of religion, it was the worst of religion in 2008.  Let’s concentrate on the worst.  The following are the ten stories that made us want to roll our eyes, curl up into a ball or raise our fist.  Hopefully we will be among those who learn from history – and not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-in-the-public-square"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Ten Worst Religion Stories of 2008 - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/the-ten-worst-religion-stories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ten Worst Religion Stories of 2008 - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}