Sites list top religion stories of 2012

The "nones" — those who don't identify with a particular religion but who call themselves religious or spiritual — are the fastest growing religious group in the United States and are the third-largest faith group in the world, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The phenomenon of the "rise of the 'nones'" got a lot of coverage, and the religiously unaffiliated were found to be an influential voting bloc in the 2012 presidential election. It was the No. 2 story for RNA and Huffington. Curiously, the rise of the nones was on a list of the most under-covered stories of the year compiled by Religion Dispatches' Peter Laarman.