BuddhistCatholicContemplativeEvangelicalGeneral ChristianHinduJewishLatter-day SaintMuslimNew VisionsProgressive Christian
Beliefs
- Buddhist
- Catholic
- Contemplative
- Evangelical
- General Christian
- Hindu
- Jewish
- Latter-day Saint
- More Voices
- Muslim
- New Visions
- Pagan
- Progressive Christian
Topics
- Religion News
- Food and Religion
- Sports and Religion
- Religious Art
- Religious Music and Entertainment
- Religious Events
- History and Religion
- Style and Religion
- Politics and Religion
- Women in Religion
- Recreation Outdoors and Religion
- Business Finance and Religion
- Careers Workplace and Religion
- Education and Religion
- Family Parenting and Religion
- Health Fitness and Religion
- Home and Religion
- Relationships and Religion
- Technology and Religion
- Travel and Religion
Columnists
- Buddhist Columnists
- Business Finance and Religion Columnists
- Careers Workplace and Religion Columnists
- Catholic Columnists
- Contemplative Columnists
- Education and Religion Columnists
- Evangelists Columnists
- Family Parenting and Religion Columnists
- General Christian Columnists
- Health Fitness and Religion Columnists
- Hindu Columnists
- History and Religion Columnists
- Home and Religion Columnists
- Jewish Columnists
- More Voices Columnists
- Latter Day Columnists
- Muslim Columnists
- New Visions Columnists
- Nonreligious Columnists
- Pagan Columnists
- Politics and Religion Columnists
- Progressive Columnists
- Recreation Outdoors and Religion Columnists
- Relationships and Religion Columnists
- Religion News Columnists
- Religious Art Columnists
- Religious Events Columnists
- Religious Music and Entertainment Columnists
- Sports and Religion Columnists
- Style and Religion Columnists
- Technology and Religion Columnists
- Travel and Religion Columnists
- Women in Religion Columnists
Resource Library
- 2026 Calendar
- Library of World Religions
- The 100 Most Holy Places on Earth
- Patheos Answers
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Faith Leaders Database
- Anglican Episcopalian
- Bahai
- Baptist
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Confucianism
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Hinduism
- Holiness and Pentecostal
- ISKCON
- Islam
- Judaism
- Lutheran
- Methodist
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- New Age
- Paganism
- Presbytarian and Reformed
- Protestantism
- Religion Behind the Scenes
- Roman Catholic
- Scientology
- Shia Islam
- Sikhism
- Sufism
- Sunni Islam
- Taoism
- Zen
- See all religions
Research Tools
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support
Follow Patheos 
- Trending:
- Forgiveness
- |
- Marriage
- |
- Consciousness
- |
- Death Penalty
- |
- Election
- |
- Halloween
- Home
- Evangelical
- Politics and Religion
- Year in Review 2024
Year in Review 2024
Last updated on: December 31, 2024 at 3:10 pm by Gene Veith
Year in Review 2024 2024-12-31T15:10:53-05:00 Gene Veith
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
One of the things I do to mark the coming of the New Year is to first look back on the old year, reflecting on what happened and then wondering what might happen next.
Newspapers and websites are doing that, compiling lists of the top ten stories in news, politics, entertainment, or whatever their purview is. We’ll survey some of those here.
It’s also good for us to review the year in our personal lives. For me, this was the year my mother died. My wife and I bought a place in St. Louis. We are settling into our lives here, getting more involved in our new congregation and enjoying what the city has to offer. Two of our granddaughters are doing college visits! Tempus fugit. In the words of my fellow St. Louisan T. S. Eliot, “I grow old … I grow old …/I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”
But let’s look at the bigger picture. . .
News of the Year
Politico‘s Jonathan Martin is calling 2024 “the most extraordinary year in modern American politics.” The consensus biggest story of the year has to be the re-election of Time Magazine‘s Person of the Year, Donald Trump. He barely won in 2016, lost in 2020, was vilified by the nation’s elite, dragged through the criminal justice system, was nearly assassinated twice. . . .And then was re-elected to the presidency, winning the popular vote with his coattails winning the legislative branch for the Republicans!
To add to the most extraordinary year, after President Biden swept his primaries, the Democratic Party nominated someone else! Having covered up the president’s impairments throughout his term of office, the Democratic establishment decided he could not beat Trump and pressured him not to run after all. Instead, they anointed Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden beat in the previous Democratic primary because she was such an ineffective candidate. And extraordinary things keep happening, with the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, being put in charge of cutting the deficit and the health iconoclast Robert Kennedy, Jr., being put in charge of the government’s health programs! Next year may shape up as the most interesting year in modern American politics.
Another big story is that the wars drag on. Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, since February 24, 2022! Hamas invaded Israel over a year ago, on October 7, 2023!
For overviews of the year’s news, sports, entertainment, pop culture, etc., etc., all illustrated with great photos, see this Year in Review hub for the Associated Press.
I like to live over again the past year month by month. The Wall Street Journal offers that with a timeline of 2024’s Biggest News Stories. That one, behind a paywall, is serious. More fun to read is Dave Barry’s “Year in Review,” which is also serious while being hilarious.
Top 10 Religion Stories of the Year
The Religion News Association polled its members to come up with the Top 10 religion stories of 2024, my comments in brackets:
1. “Former President Donald Trump won a second term in the White House with the help of many white Christians.” [Trump even wins the top position in surveys of different topics! Yes, many white Christians voted for Trump. So did many black Christians, many Hispanic Christians, many Muslims, many Jews, many Nones, and many evangelicals who no longer go to church.]
2. “Jews raised concerns about facing higher levels of discrimination and harassment.” [I think this should be the top religion story. Anti-semitism is back in vogue around the world. What started as opposition to Israel’s retaliation against Hamas for its invasion, hostage-taking, and atrocities, has become old-fashioned conspiratorial-minded Jew-hating.]
3. The war between Israel and Hamas caused American Muslims to turn against the Democrats and vote for Trump, “complicating Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to victory.” [One of many political turn-arounds. Note that even religion reporters have a bias for Harris. She didn’t get very far on her “path to victory.” I’d say it was more than “complicated.” It didn’t materialize.]
4. Louisiana passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in the states’ public schools. [I want to know what text they used. Do they have two commandments against “coveting”? We Lutherans, like Catholics do, and there are lots of Catholics in Louisiana.]
5. Christian nationalism gets attention because of the election. [Many Christian nationalists voted for Trump. So did many non-Christian nationalists and many non-nationalist Christians.]
6. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. [And rightly so!]
7. “Islamophobia surged across the U.S. amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.” [Islamophilia more like! On university campuses, Islam is the one religion that gets respected. You can even oppose extramarital sex and homosexuality if you are a Muslim, though not if you are a Christian.]
8. In the election, seven states voted in favor of abortion. [Of these, also four voted for Trump. The bigger story is that the Republican Party dropped its pro-life platform.]
9. The United Methodists dropped their ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. [Well, of course they did, after 7,600 more conservative congregations left the denomination, leaving the progressives unopposed and firmly in charge.]
10. “The Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns put a spotlight on candidates’ unique religious backgrounds.” [A non-church going Presbyterian and a devout Catholic convert up against an “inter-faith” candidate who as a child went to both a Hindu Temple and a Black Baptist church, where she currently is a member, and today has an “inter-faith” family with her Jewish husband plus a liberal Lutheran. Their backgrounds are not so much unique as all too common.]
Most Influential in the Media
Mediaite put out its 2024 list of the 75 most influential people in new media. I won’t bore you with all 75, since you probably haven’t heard of most of these people who are influencing you, but the #1 selection was interesting: Elon Musk, for what he has done with Twitter–sorry, X–making him “the single most powerful person in all of media this year.”
And, what with DOGE, his project for cutting the costs of the federal government and his evident influence over Trump, “Musk is poised to become the most powerful civilian in American history – if he isn’t already – and augment his already vast fortune in the process.”
Illustration: Tom Lehrer’s album, That Was the Year that Was. The cover art can be obtained from Reprise/Warner Bros. Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2489390
Previous Post
December 26, 2024
Be Thinking About Your Predictions
Next Post
December 27, 2024 DISCUSS: Optimistic or Pessimistic?
Recent Comments
"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."
"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."
"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."
"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."
Browse Our Archives
Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war
Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007
Follow Us!
TAKE THE
Religious Wisdom Quiz
Commanded to go to Nineveh, I fled in the opposite direction on a ship to Tarshish. Who am I?
Select your answer to see how you score.
Jeremiah Elijah Hosea Jonah
Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith
Related posts from Cranach
On Trump's Political Ads That You Paid For
As Fulton Sheen Is Beatified, Don't Forget Walter...
Authoritarian vs. Totalitarian
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Evangelical
Methodist Central Hall and Westminster Abbey
Situated on the same square is Methodist Central Hall and Westminster Abbey. ...
57th Dove Awards Honor Dolly Parton, Crown New...
On gospel music’s biggest night, the 57th annual GMA Dove Awards honored...
The First Eucharistic Controversy: Christ’s Real Presence
For Catholics, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian...
What a Stop Sign Can Teach Us About...
How to Make a Decision When You Can't Hear God Main point:...
Archdiocese Hosts Military Marriage Retreat in Germany
RASTATT, Germany — The transient military lifestyle, with its frequent deployments and...
Nearly every morning, I make the drive to Detroit with my high-school-age...
view all Evangelical blogs
What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support
- About Us
- 2026 Calendar
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Library of World Religions
- Faith In Media Tracker
- Advertise With Us
- Write for Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Do Not Sell My Data
- Contact Us
- Radiant Digital
- Manage Newsletter Subscriptions
- Unsubscribe From Notifications
- Sitemap
Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.
Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In
Follow Patheos