Good News Press January/February 2016 Good News Press January/February 2016 | Page 3

Good News Press - 3
2015 Top 10 Religion Stories of the Year
Continued from Front Page
It claims responsibility for beheadings
of 21 Coptic Christians, the burning
alive of a Jordanian pilot, the deaths
of hundreds on a Russian airliner, and
deadly bombings in Beirut and Paris.

In the wake of the tragedy, many
Southern institutions remove displays
of Confederate symbols.

9) The #BlackLivesMatter movement
draws support from faith-based
groups, including Christians, Jews,
4) Anti-Muslim rhetoric flares in the Muslims and Unitarian Universalists,
U.S. and Europe as some politicians
amid increased scrutiny of police killcall for surveillance of Muslims and a ings of black suspects and racial isban on Muslim refugees, citing terror- sues in public universities.
ism fears.
10) Pope Francis continues his re5) Pope Francis makes a historic visit formist agenda — ending a three-year
to the United States where he greets
supervision of U.S. nuns, speaking out
crowds in Washington, New York and for the needy, streamlining the annulPhiladelphia, and speaks before Con- ment process and recommending a
gress and the United Nations.
more pastoral tone while upholding
church laws on divorce and remar6) Paris reels from its second major
riage.
terrorist assault in 2015 on Nov. 13 as
attackers linked to the so-called Islam- Other stories in this year’s poll,
ic State kill at least 130 and wound
listed by final ranking:
many others at a concert hall, restaurants and other sites.
11) Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik kill 14 and injure 21 in
7) Pope Francis issues encyclical
San Bernardino, Calif. Fears of vioLaudato Si on the environment, a call lence in the name of Islam also arise
for replacing fossil fuels linked to
as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez is
global warming and lamenting a
charged in the deaths of five U.S. serthrowaway culture. Meanwhile, reli- vicemen in Chattanooga, Tenn.
gious leaders call for similar goals at
the November Paris climate summit. 12) Rowan County, Ky., Clerk Kim
Davis becomes a conservative Chris8) A white-supremacist gunman is
tian hero for choosing jail over signcharged in the shooting deaths of nine ing licenses for gay couples, citing
black worshipers in Charleston, S.C. “God’s authority.”