Contact: Madison Trammel, Associate Editor, Christianity Today, 630-260-6200 ext. 4237, mtrammel@christianitytoday.com

CAROL STREAM, Ill., Dec. 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Taliban's capture and killing of Korean missionaries in Afghanistan tops Christianity Today magazine's annual list of top ten religion news stories. The annual listing just released also notes the success of atheism as a topic on the bestseller charts as well as faith-related surprises in early months of the presidential campaigns.

"Our top stories don't just reflect what made the headlines this year, but what events most shaped evangelical life, thought, and mission," said Ted Olsen, Christianity Today Managing Editor. "The Korean hostage situation, with its implications for a core outreach of the evangelical movement and its interplay of religion and politics in one of the world's crisis areas, made it the number one story for us."

Christianity Today's Top Ten Religion News Stories:

1. Taliban takes Korean mission team hostage, killing two
2. Atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens top the bestseller charts
3. Presidential campaigns start early, with some faith-related surprises
4. Wife of famed evangelist Billy Graham dies at 87
5. Anglican Communion fractures over Scripture, homosexuality
6. Three Christians tortured and killed in eastern Turkey
7. Leaders of the Religious Right Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy die
8. President of the Evangelical Theological Society returns to Catholicism
9. Campaign to oust National Association of Evangelicals’ Richard Cizik fails
10. Supreme Court upholds 2003 federal partial-birth abortion ban

You can find the full list with commentary here.

Christianity Today International was founded by Billy Graham in 1956. The publisher now produces 13 publications, an award-winning website with more than 30 online-magazine channels and 2.3 million unique visitors per month, and a wide array of Internet resources for people of faith.

Madison Trammel, Associate Editor
Phone: (630) 260-6200 x4237
E-mail: mtrammel@christianitytoday.com