THE 1980s: RELIGION: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

On 11 November 1985 Ezra Taft Benson, a former agriculture secretary in President Dwight Eisenhower's cabinet, became president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

On 13 May 1980 a Chicago theologian, Ralph Wendell Burhoe, became the first American to receive the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Richard Dortch, PTL president, was dismissed by Jerry Falwell following revelations of his role in the PTL scandal on 28 April 1987.

Fundamentalist Moral Majority leader Rev. Jerry Falwell scolded the United States for "bellyaching" and urged that it give "unswerving support" to President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines on 11 November 1985.

Controversial Nation of Islam leader minister Louis Farrakhan announced on 1 May 1985 that he had accepted a $5 million interest-free loan from Libyan leader Col. Mu'ammar al-Gadhafi.

Rev. Billy Graham issued a bold, controversial speech to a convention of religious broadcasters in Washington, D.C., warning of the "dangers" of television evangelism on 28 January 1981.

In September 1982 T. J. Jemison became the president of the NBCUSA, succeeding Joseph H. Jackson, the president of the organization for twenty-nine years.

On 15 March 1988 Bishop Eugene Antonio Marino was named Roman Catholic archbishop of Atlanta, making him the first African American Catholic arch-bishop in the United States.

Rev. Patricia Ann McClurg, a Presbyterian minister, was installed on 5 November 1987 as the first female minister to head the National Council of Churches.

On 1 July 1982 former Episcopal priest, now Roman Catholic, Father James Parker became the first married priest to say mass in the Catholic Church.

Rev. Norman Vincent Peale received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 26 March 1984.

Father Donald E. Pelotte on 6 May 1986 became the first Native American to be ordained a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.

On 21 February 1988 televangelist Rev. Jimmy Swaggart was removed from his pulpit by the Assemblies of God after he confessed his sin of adultery.

James Watt, President Ronald Reagan's secretary of the interior, on 22 January 1981 became the first Pentecostal to hold a cabinet position.