• Brennan’s Treachery Comes Full Circle – As Evidenced At These Pages, 2013 To Date

    Originally Published on This Site Share on GAB ” The Shepherd Boy And The Wolf “, a classic short story, is often taught to junior and senior high school students to illustrate the importance, relevance, and contextual framework of morality. Its overall basis breaks down thusly: “once a liar, always a liar.” Similarly, “once a...
  • Southern Baptists, Outsiders Hear Our Confessions Too

    Southern Baptists, Outsiders Hear Our Confessions Too
    Baptist confessions have long drawn attention beyond the church. The proposal on male pastors will too.Messengers from around the country will soon gather in Indianapolis to conduct the business of the Southern Baptist Convention. As in recent years, they will consider the exact relationship between the association and its member churches—a question of unique significance to Baptists who have historically valued local church independence.This week, they will be asked to take final action o
  • Southern Baptist Digital Hymnal Gets Saved

    Southern Baptist Digital Hymnal Gets Saved
    Worship leaders convince curriculum company of the value of lifewayworship.com.Lifeway no longer plans to shut down its online music ministry resource lifewayworship.com .
    In July 2023, the companyannounced its plan to retire the platform—a “digital hymnal” that provides users with chord charts, vocal arrangements, and orchestrations—thenpaused those plans a week later after a strong response from customers. After a year of reevaluation and interviews with worship leaders
  • I’ve Preached the Gospel Countless Times. The Love of the Amish Preached it to Me.

    I’ve Preached the Gospel Countless Times. The Love of the Amish Preached it to Me.
    An excerpt on grief, forgiveness, and the gospel from Beechdale Road: Where Mercy Is More Powerful Than Murder.On Sunday, June 21, 2020, 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, was kidnapped and later murdered by Justo Smoker—my brother-in-law.As you might expect, my family journeyed through tremendous grief, anger, and pain. But as you might not expect, we also journeyed through the challenge of receiving unexplainable grace, kindness, and mercy at the hands of the Ami
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  • Evangelicals Don’t Love Donald Trump Enough

    Evangelicals Don’t Love Donald Trump Enough
    Christians who wave away the former president’s sexual immorality may be the most anti-Trump constituency of all.This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here.For the first time in history, a former (and possibly future) president of the United States is now a convicted felon. A jury found that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star, with whom he had an affair, in order to keep the story from hurting his 2016 p
  • Indian Christians Relieved as Election Results Limit Hindu Nationalists

    Indian Christians Relieved as Election Results Limit Hindu Nationalists
    With Modi’s BJP denied an outright majority in parliament, church leaders credit prayer movements and hope the restoration of coalition politics will protect religious minorities.The world’s largest democracy underwent a significant political shift in its 2024 general election, as Indian voters upended the previously unshakable dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) remains the largest coalition an
  • Many Southern Baptist Women Care More About Calling Than What They’re Called

    Many Southern Baptist Women Care More About Calling Than What They’re Called
    As the SBC debates restrictions around titles and roles, female leaders continue their work in women’s ministry in their local churches.
    When women’s ministry began dominating her schedule, taking too much time from her responsibilities at work and at home, Jacqueline Heider submitted a letter of resignation.Her pastor responded by offering her a paid position.That was 18 years ago. Since then, Heider has led women’s ministry at Warren Baptist Church. She serves on the lead tea
  • Doubting Thomas: Why the Evangelical Crush on Aquinas Needs to Mature

    Doubting Thomas: Why the Evangelical Crush on Aquinas Needs to Mature
    Thomism is experiencing a renaissance in theology, but there’s a reason it’s controversial.To engage with the medieval Italian priest Thomas Aquinas (1224–74) is to approach one of history’s greatest theological giants. Aquinas is second only to Augustine in his influence on Western Christianity—and his legacy of Thomism is a vast ocean. Academic discussions in theology and philosophy demand Aquinas and Thomism as conversation partners.Yet evangelicals, in particula
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  • Ban the Mob, Not the Bible

    Ban the Mob, Not the Bible
    Christians are the victims of hate in some places and the targets of hate speech laws in others. How can believers advocate for nations to address both threats in a consistent, principled way?Hate speech is a thorny problem in many countries of the world. Nations such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for example, regularly demonstrate how it can be used to incite violence against Christian minorities. But even Western nations that highly value freedom of expression have experienced demonstrations on c
  • This Is the Way: How the Dao Helps Chinese People Understand Christ

    This Is the Way: How the Dao Helps Chinese People Understand Christ
    Ancient philosopher Zhuangzi’s teachings can be a means of evangelism.In the opening lines of the Gospel of John, God’s eternal presence is rendered as “the Word,” a translation of the Greek word logos. In many translations of the Chinese Bible, including the popular Chinese Union Version, you will find this concept rendered as “the Dao (Tao).”In English, Dao is commonly translated as “the Way.” In Chinese, the word (道) indicates a teaching
  • Inside the ‘Secret World’ of Global Evangelism to Muslims

    Inside the ‘Secret World’ of Global Evangelism to Muslims
    While reporting from conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, Adriana Carranca met evangelical missionaries sent from surprising places.In a 2007 article, CT described British church historian Andrew Walls (1928–2021) as “the most important person you don’t know.” Among his greatest achievements was helping turn the attention of Western scholars to the remarkable growth of Christianity in the Global South. Walls’s work on what he then called “non-Western
  • How to Make Friends at Church

    How to Make Friends at Church
    It’s tough to plunge into a new congregation. Here’s how to get your head above water.Once, a man decided to attend religious services while visiting a new town. He went to the meeting location and made a bunch of new friends, just like that.The man in question was the apostle Paul, and we learn this story of his visit to Philippi, including that friendly Sabbath, from Acts 16. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t like Paul in multiple key respects, so perhaps the story should be a
  • Died: Jürgen Moltmann, Theologian of Hope

    Died: Jürgen Moltmann, Theologian of Hope
    A German soldier found by Christ in a prisoner of war camp, he became a renowned Christian scholar who taught that “God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him.”Jürgen Moltmann, a theologian who taught that Christian faith is founded in the hope of the resurrection of the crucified Christ and that the coming kingdom of God acts upon human history out of the eschatological future, died on June 3 in Tübingen, Germany. He was 98.Moltmann is widely regarded as one o
  • Southern Baptists Pledged to Launch an Online Database of Abusers. It’s Still Empty.

    Southern Baptists Pledged to Launch an Online Database of Abusers. It’s Still Empty.
    Lack of funding and liability concerns have stalled abuse reform efforts.
    A volunteer Southern Baptist task force charged with implementing abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination will end its work next week without a single name published on a database of abusers.The task force’s report marks the second time a proposed database for abusive pastors has been derailed by denominational apathy, legal worries, and a desire to protect donations to the Southern Baptis
  • What Silicon Valley’s New Ethical Thinking Gets Right—and Wrong

    What Silicon Valley’s New Ethical Thinking Gets Right—and Wrong
    Effective altruism and longtermism are all the rage these days. How should Christians engage?Former cryptocurrency trade executive Ryan Salame was sentenced last week for federal financial crimes he committed while working for FTX. The company’s billionaire founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced months ago for engaging in “one of the largest financial frauds in history.” This case is making headlines and sparking long-term conversations in the burgeoning field of tech ethics
  • Nominate a Book for the Christianity Today Book Awards

    Nominate a Book for the Christianity Today Book Awards
    Instructions for publishers.Dear publishers and authors,Each year, Christianity Today honors a set of outstanding books encompassing a variety of subjects and genres. The CT Book Awards will be announced in December at christianitytoday.com. They also will be featured prominently in the January/February 2025 issue of CT and promoted in several CT newsletters. (In addition, publishers will have the opportunity to participate in a marketing promotion organized by CT’s marketing team, complet
  • For Sale: Christian Ministry Headquarters

    For Sale: Christian Ministry Headquarters
    Evangelical organizations including Wycliffe, CT, and Lifeway are giving up their buildings and developing new models for remote work.Wycliffe Bible Translators’ building is 167,000 square feet of class-A office space, with windows looking out over palm trees, golf course grass, and a shimmering blue lake that appears to be a near-perfect circle. The headquarters is about 10 miles from the Orlando airport in the Lake Nona area, sitting on 272 lush acres that include wetlands filled with Fl
  • Let the Anxious Children Sing to Me

    Let the Anxious Children Sing to Me
    New worship music offers today’s young believers a wider range of emotions and greater spiritual depth.
    Kids need more from worship music than dance motions, silly lyrics, and singsong melodies. Musicians like Keith and Kristyn Getty and Shane & Shane are building a body of songs with theological depth and musical simplicity to help disciple young believers.“Jesus Calms the Storm (Hymn for Anxious Little Hearts),” arecent single released by the Gettys in collaboration with
  • Francis Collins’s New Project: Eliminate Hepatitis C

    Francis Collins’s New Project: Eliminate Hepatitis C
    The Christian doctor and researcher sees a “moral imperative” in destroying a curable fatal illness. Other countries are on track to erase it, but not the United States.Francis Collins, the former longtime head of the National Institutes of Health and founder of BioLogos, has seen deaths in his work as a physician and researcher. But some of those have been personal: He watched his brother-in-law die a slow and painful death from complications of hepatitis C, an often fatal disease t
  • India’s Christians Brace for 2024 Election Results

    India’s Christians Brace for 2024 Election Results
    Church leaders mobilized prayer for parliament and state elections, knowing the question wasn’t whether Hindu nationalists would win but the size of their mandate.As India’s monumental elections finally come to an end this week, all eyes are on the extent of the mandate that will be handed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party. Especially among the subcontinent’s estimated 28 million Christians, for whom the result will test whether religious freedom a
  • The Moral Confusion Around Trump’s Felony Conviction

    The Moral Confusion Around Trump’s Felony Conviction
    Among the former president’s antagonists and admirers alike, there is a great deal of calling evil good and good evil.The homepage of The New York Times announced the conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony charges Thursday afternoon in the kind of large-scale, black letter headline we typically associate with yellowed century-old newspapers declaring war has come. “TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS,” it blared above a photo of the former president looking weary in some crowded public
  • Guilty Verdict Shakes Trump Supporters’ Faith—in the Justice System

    Guilty Verdict Shakes Trump Supporters’ Faith—in the Justice System
    Many white evangelicals don’t trust the felony conviction and still back the former president.Donald Trump’s historic felony conviction in New York on Thursday hasn’t deterred his evangelical supporters. Instead, along with fellow Trump loyalists, they have directed their ire at the justice system that issued a guilty verdict against him.“People think this is kind of the end of America,” Chad Connelly, CEO of Faith Wins, a conservative Christian organization, told C
  • Pakistan’s Christians Fear Forced Marriages. Punjab Court Ruling Brings New Hope

    Pakistan’s Christians Fear Forced Marriages. Punjab Court Ruling Brings New Hope
    Church leaders and human rights experts weigh in on whether raising the legal age is sufficient in shielding minors.Nearly one in five (18.3%) Pakistani girls are married before age 18, according to data from 2017 to 2018, with over half becoming pregnant as children. Many of these girls are of Christian or Hindu faiths that collectively make up 3.5 percent of the population, which is majority Muslim.While the government has officially banned child marriage, discriminatory laws and lack of enfor
  • Kwame Bediako Still Defines the Debate on African Culture and Christianity

    Kwame Bediako Still Defines the Debate on African Culture and Christianity
    Seven leaders weigh in on the late Ghanaian scholar’s provocative legacy 20 years after his best-known book.What Luther and Calvin are for evangelical Christians globally, Kwame Bediako is for many African evangelicals. From his dramatic conversion in 1970 to his death in 2008, Bediako was the primary architect of and inspiration for theological work that grappled with the realities of African culture.On this 20th anniversary of the publication (by Orbis Books) of some of Bediako’s m
  • Died: Lin Chih-Ping, Taiwan’s ‘Fool for Life’ Who Shared ‘Cosmic Light’ Through Eclectic Ministry

    Died: Lin Chih-Ping, Taiwan’s ‘Fool for Life’ Who Shared ‘Cosmic Light’ Through Eclectic Ministry
    The entrepreneur and social services leader had a unique vision for sharing the gospel and reaching people holistically.Peter Chih-Ping Lin (林治平), who launched a Christian magazine for those outside the church that grew into a sprawling, eclectic ministry, died of pancreatic cancer on April 27 at the age of 86 in Taipei. With little financial support, in 1973, Lin founded what became Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, which sought to reach non-Christians thro
  • The Chosen Season 4 Available for Streaming—‘Finally’

    The Chosen Season 4 Available for Streaming—‘Finally’
    The TV series had to wait months to go up online due to a legal dispute with its former partner Angel Studios over content licensing.After months of delay and a legal dispute, the first episode of The Chosen, Season Four, will drop on the show’s app at 7 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.“The wait is finally over. The response from those who’ve seen Season 4 in theaters was that this is our best season, so I can’t wait to deliver these episodes free and easy to the world,” sai
  • How to Flourish as a Creative Minority

    How to Flourish as a Creative Minority
    An Orthodox Jew advises American evangelicals on how to keep—and pass on—the faith in an increasingly pagan culture.Consider this a dispatch from my neighborhood to yours. Christianity Today doesn’t typically publish Orthodox Jewish writers, so you might consider me a distant cousin, writing in an effort to understand and encourage American evangelicals as they adjust to a dominant culture that is increasingly postmodern and even pagan. While Jews see this era as but another ch
  • Died: Sam Butcher, Artist Who Created Precious Moments

    Died: Sam Butcher, Artist Who Created Precious Moments
    His porcelain figurines sold millions while he built a church inspired by the Sistine Chapel.Sam Butcher sometimes struggled to explain why Precious Moments figurines, his signature artistic creation, became such a cultural phenomenon. Half a million people joined special collectors’ clubs to get them. The manufacturer released 25 to 40 new ones every year. And Butcher, an art school dropout, earned tens of millions of dollars in annual royalties.“I’m still … trying to f
  • After Covering Global Disasters for Decades, Nicholas Kristof Is More Hopeful Than Ever

    After Covering Global Disasters for Decades, Nicholas Kristof Is More Hopeful Than Ever
    The New York Times reporter’s memoir can refine our perspective on pursuing justice in a fallen world.I’ve got my top summer reading recommendation ready for you. In fact, I’m recommending you buy two copies of the book, Nicholas Kristof’s Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life. There are two reasons why.I’ll get to the second eventually. But the first is more straightforward: This is a memoir from someone who has led one of the most dramatically interesting lives of
  • To Guard Against the Monsters in My Life, I Became a Monster Myself

    To Guard Against the Monsters in My Life, I Became a Monster Myself
    A lifestyle of violence and addiction nearly destroyed me, but it brought me to the foot of the cross.I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, in a home filled with chaos. Home was an ever-changing address, with my parents’ fights the only constant. My dad enjoyed his plethora of drugs, and my mom enjoyed pushing his buttons and being the victim. They finally decided to call it quits when I was 11 years old, but not before I got some startling news: The man I had called my father wasn’t rea

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