rick warren

The numbers are in and you, the reader, have chosen your favorite RD stories of the year; from Rick Warren to AIPAC, Sarah Palin, Creationism 2.0 and the fabled “death” of the religious right.

“Emerald”-level member uncovered fraud and deception before being kicked out; Charles Colson and “Redemption”; Americans United’s Top Ten Church-State stories; and more.

RD News Round-Up—December 2, 2008. Rick Warren and Reader’s Digest’s multimedia platform; Faith-based orgs and Katrina; Churches for sale; Breakaway Episcopalians; and Bob Jones U. apologizes for racism; and Ted Haggard returns.

From “God Hates Fags” to Desmond Tutu’s calls for compassion, religion has been deeply intertwined with the struggle for AIDS justice. Fully two decades after activists first challenged church authority on HIV/AIDS religion’s report card is mixed.

The proper role of government is to punish evildoers, Pastor Rick Warren tells Sean Hannity. If the Rev’s read is to be believed, the United States is in deep trouble.

His “new evangelical” positions on global warming, condoms, et al., separate Warren from the old guard of the religious right—but when it comes to reproductive and gay civil rights, the best-selling reverend assumes the hardest of the hard line.

What the presidential candidates’ responses to a question about the nature of evil reveal about the state of American Christianity…

Barack Obama and John McCain will share a stage for the first time this August. Their host? Rick Warren, megachurch pastor and bestselling author—and a man with undeniable political influence.

When one religious voice seems to dominate public discussion we need to ask why. Is it because it is the only voice speaking? Or is the media ignoring other voices?

A colleague suggests, in response to Andre Wills’ recent RD article, that being evangelical is no more antithetical to the prophetic strand of the black church than R&B is to gospel music…