50 Top 10 Lists of 2007

Top 10 Religion Stories

#2. Democrats Embrace Religion and Mitt Romney Channels JFK

After what seems like decades of "not getting it," someone programmed a Bible concordance into Democrats' teleprompters. Suddenly it feels typical, rather than odd, that Senator Hillary Clinton would attend an AIDS conference at an evangelical megapastor's church and talk about her prayer practice. The rubber will hit the road if one of the Dems gets elected, and has to make some decisions about the many faith-based initiatives established by his or her predecessor, or deal with whatever rulings his hand-picked Court doles out. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Mitt Romney tried to recreate John F. Kennedy's successful 1960 speech about his Catholic faith by announcing that if elected he would not be taking orders from the Mormon elders in Salt Lake City. That assurance may have alleviated any worries on the part of the general public, but perhaps not those of Iowa's evangelicals.

Connect to this TIME Story