JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
From the U.S. presidential election to the war in Gaza, religion has played a big role in many news stories this year. The Religion News Association surveyed journalists who cover the beat and has released its rundown of the top stories. Here to talk about what is on the list and what's not are executive editor Roxanne Stone with our partner Religion News Service and NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Welcome to both of you.
ROXANNE STONE: Hello.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Hello.
SUMMERS: All right, y'all, I want to start off with domestic stories. And, Jason, I'll turn this one over to you. What were some of the biggest national stories in religion this year?
DEROSE: Well, no surprise the election of Donald Trump is a major story and the role that evangelicals played in putting him back in office. he got 80% of the white evangelical vote. Also noteworthy is the role of Muslim voters in Trump's return to the White House, especially in key swing states like Michigan. Here's Dearborn public school teacher Zeinab Chami.
ZEINAB CHAMI: I do agree with the notion that we have to punish the Democratic Party.
DEROSE: Punish Democrats, of course, for supporting Israel in the Gaza war. So it'll be interesting to watch how that community ends up feeling once Trump is back in power. And at the state level, there were a number of stories about what I would call the intersection of religion and public schools. In Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas, you have various situations where elected officials want to infuse more religion into the public school classrooms, and any one of those could make their way to the Supreme Court and test that separation of church and state.
SUMMERS: Roxanne, over to you. How about on the international scene?
STONE: RNA members said that the top global religion story of 2024 was Israel's continued war in Gaza. And while this is not always or necessarily a religion story, its impact on religious groups worldwide is hard to overstate. We've seen how much it's contributed to antisemitism and Islamophobia spiking in Europe, where it was really already beginning to surge before the war. And we've seen it absolutely devastate interfaith relations around the world, alienating especially Jews and Muslims from each other but also being a real lightning rod across the religious spectrum, even at the Vatican. On a happy note, Paris' Notre Dame reopened in December to great fanfare five years after being devastated by a fire.
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STONE: The restored cathedral features new bells, a renovated ceiling and some gorgeous, good-as-new stonework.
SUMMERS: What do you think is missing from this list of top stories?
DEROSE: Well, something I covered, Juana, is Pope Francis and trans issues. He came out against what he calls gender theory and against the very idea of the ability to be transgender. And you'll remember another story with him. He used an anti-gay slur earlier this year, and that happened after many believed him to be friendlier toward the LGBT community.
But other LGBTQ rights and gender issues did make the list, and I want to touch on a couple of those. The United Methodist Church voted to allow both LGBT clergy and same-sex weddings after a significant number of congregations left the denomination over the issue. And then there's the Southern Baptist Convention and women clergy. They're still kicking out congregations that have women pastors, Juana. At their annual meeting this year, though, they couldn't get enough votes to amend their constitution to permanently ban women clergy.
SUMMERS: What stories are you keeping an eye on that might make next year's top religion stories list?
STONE: When I asked Religion News Service reporters about this, they pretty much all gave me an answer that's a variation of how they expect the new Trump administration to impact their beat and their reporting. And when you're thinking about a new administration, you're really looking at policy and personnel. And when we're looking at policy, I would say one of the top religion stories in 2025 will be around immigration. Trump has promised deportations. He's said he will shrink the refugee cap and the number of immigrants allowed into the country. He's also said he will cease letting churches claim sanctuary status so that they can harbor undocumented immigrants.
And religious groups are really at the forefront of immigrant activism in the country. Most of the religious refugee resettlement groups that the government works with are faith-based, and a lot of religious groups have ministry to immigrants, and, of course, many minority religious groups are made up of immigrants. So this'll be a top religion story in 2025.
Another major story that we're watching is sort of a gender shakeup in Christian churches. In 2024, we saw more young men than young women attending church, and this is a big deal. It's sort of common knowledge in America that women are more religious than men. So we're really going to be looking at what is it that is driving these young women away and what is pulling these young men toward churches. And how is that going to shape the future of Christianity in America? And will that expand to other religious groups?
SUMMERS: That's Roxanne Stone with Religion News Service and NPR's religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Thanks to both of you.
DEROSE: You're welcome.
STONE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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