The Latest in Evangelicals Becoming Catholics: Former Christianity Today Editor Mark Galli

Why do evangelicals convert to Catholicism and how should we respond? This Sunday, September 13, a man named Mark will become confirmed as a Catholic. Why is this significant? Mark Galli, who will be confirmed under the name of St. Francis, is a former Presbyterian pastor and editor-in-chief for Christianity Today. And, as RNS noted, for a few days last December he was perhaps the best-known evangelical in the nation for his editorial calling for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump... Read More

In This Fraught Racial Moment, We Need a Refresher on Human Depravity

We also need a reminder of God’s radical grace. As a renewed focus on race and justice have dominated the national conversation over the past few months, I’ve watched with sadness as the response among some white Christians has fallen along ideological and political lines. Some conservatives belittle the reality of racism. They acknowledge that racism is a sin, but they see it as mostly a relic of the past or merely the wrong actions of a small, dwindling group of people. On the... Read More

Train Up a Teen: Young Evangelicals Mostly Keep Their Parents’ Faith

Pew Research finds that even the most devout young believers don’t agree with Mom and Dad on everything. Christian parents weigh in on the challenges of teenage discipleship. A majority of American teens still follow their parents’ lead when it comes to religion. The trend holds whether families are religious or not—but it’s especially good news for evangelical Protestants, who care the most about their children sharing their beliefs. Evangelical teens, like their... Read More

Christian Colleges Are in Crisis. Here’s What That Means for the Church.

If we save them, our schools can be beacons of light for the Christian community. Whether you describe it as a decadent society or a decaying culture or a democracy dying in darkness, 2020 has given us a taste for what Cormac McCarthy once described as “the frailty of everything revealed at last.” We have been frail for a very long time, but what we could deny before has been made glaringly manifest through a pandemic, racial injustice, social unrest, mass unemployment, and a... Read More

Southwestern, Baylor Sue Foundation that Shifted Support After Paige Patterson’s Firing

The schools were stated beneficiaries but say they lost their input in recent restructuring. Two Baptist schools in Texas have sued a charitable foundation they say is trying to misuse millions of dollars in assets. Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary filed suit Tuesday against the Texas-based Harold E. Riley Foundation and its board of trustees. According to the lawsuit, the foundation was set up in 2002 by Riley, a wealthy businessman who died in 2017, for the... Read More

COVID-19 Concerns Accelerate Homeschool Movement’s Growth

Continues to trend more secular, as safety and flexibility are given top priority. Parents across the nation abruptly became de facto home educators this spring, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted school-as-usual. Buildings were shuttered, courses were moved online, and children were sent home with extensive lesson plans and an assignment for their parents: emergency homeschooling. Heading into a new school year, with districts adopting new plans for in-person, hybrid, and online... Read More

Old Scars and New Wounds: Christians Comfort Lebanon’s Trauma

One month since the blast, emotional support comes from evangelicals, refugees, children, and other unexpected sources. One month since the blast, emotional support comes from refugees, children, and other unexpected sources. To a traumatized child, a teddy bear can make a big difference. But as the handful of Lebanese evangelicals trained in counseling are emphasizing in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, so can an ordinary individual. “I don’t think the... Read More

Bethel’s Sean Feucht Rallies ‘Worship Protest’ in Seattle

The tour, held in defiance of COVID-19 regulations, continues in Colorado, Minneapolis, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the week ahead. A battle of wills between a California musician known for a series of open-air Christian worship concerts around the country and the city of Seattle, which denied him a park venue for a Labor Day concert, ended with a two-hour “worship protest” being held one block north of the park. A group of local pastors located an alternate site on a blocked-off... Read More

Monuments Can Be Destroyed, but Not Forgotten

Our most controversial stone statues carry layers of communal history that aren’t easily cast aside. In the Hebrew Scriptures, stone monuments are earthen witnesses to a sacred covenant. When Jacob contractually maneuvered himself out from under his father-in-law Laban, he set up a pillar in the highlands of Gilead. It was supposed to be a reminder of a legal separation, but the fragility of the peace was underscored by the dueling names given to the monument: Jacob’s in the Hebrew... Read More

Christian Colleges Are Changing to Survive. Is it Working?

Facing with declining enrollments, evangelical schools add programs, cut programs, and hope. Norman Hall knew what he needed to do. The new president of Simpson University was appointed in 2018 to save the Christian and Missionary Alliance-affiliated school in Redding, California. The hard part was how. Enrollment was dropping at Simpson. In 2014, more than 1,000 full-time undergraduate students signed up to start classes in the fall. Four years later, there were only about 620. With that... Read More