Beginning in 2002, South Korean national Somang Son served as a missionary in New Delhi, India, for five years. In 2015, she embarked on another mission trip to the southern Indian city of Bengaluru. It was a new city and a different team, but one thing remained the same: She was the youngest missionary there. Son, 45, sees this same dynamic playing out in her work as a member care coordinator in a mission agency that reaches out to Muslims. “In the last three or four years, we never had... Read More
Category: Christian news
Arrested Filipino Pastor Apollo Quiboloy Claims He’s the Messiah
Apollo Quiboloy called himself the “Appointed Son of God.” But to Filipino and American authorities, he was a man wanted for years on charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking. Quiboloy, the 74-year-old leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, surrendered to authorities on September 8 after 2,000 security officers descended on the religious sect’s massive complex in Davao City in the Philippines. Thousands of followers gathered at the 74-acre compound to protest Quiboloy’s arrest as... Read More
Egyptian Christians Show ‘Love of Jesus’ to Displaced Palestinians
Almost six months have passed since Issa Saliba boarded a bus in Gaza with 15 other Christians to seek safety in Egypt. But he still relishes how they sang, clapped, and danced as they escaped devastation. The air conditioning cooled his nerves, frayed from the harrowing journey to the border. Later that day, the wayside stop provided his first full meal. As 1.9 million Palestinians—90 percent of Gaza’s population—remain internally displaced, less known is that 100,000 have... Read More
Expert: Ukraine’s Ban on Russian Orthodox Church Is Compatible with Religious Freedom
During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Kamala Harris accused Donald Trump of a fondness for dictators, alleging that he supported a negotiated settlement with Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump, declining to affirm that a Ukrainian victory would serve US interests, replied that if he were still in the Oval Office, the war would never have happened, and he claimed that he could bring it to an end even as president-elect. Both candidates failed to address the... Read More
Ohio Haitians Feel Panic, Local Christians Try to Repair Divides
On Thursday, Viles Dorsainvil, a former pastor in Haiti and the leader of Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, Ohio, was getting phone call after phone call from local immigrants feeling “panic” over their safety. The 60,000-person city has felt the strain and culture clash of welcoming 15,000 Haitians over the past four years, most of whom have temporary legal status in the US due to violence in their home country. Those tensions escalated this week as false rumors... Read More
The Church Can Help End The Phone-Based Childhood
As American kids head back to school this fall, many will do so with smartphones in hand. The average age at which American kids receive their first phone is just 11, and most public schools only ban nonacademic classroom phone use—and struggle to enforce even that. We know this is a problem. Research from academics like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge continues to show American young people are in a mental health crisis, and there’s compelling evidence that... Read More
Taste and See If the Show is Good
Of this year’s Emmy-nominated television shows, my husband and I have watched all of The Crown, a fair bit of Abbott Elementary, and a couple episodes of Only Murders in the Building. We used to have a Hulu subscription, so we watched the first season of The Bear and several seasons of What We Do in the Shadows. (We’ve since canceled our subscription, so regrettably, no Reservation Dogs.) Ask me what I liked or disliked about any of these shows, and I can tell you: the dialogue, the sets,... Read More
A Pastor’s Wife Was Murdered. God Had Prepared Him for It.
When disaster strikes, it’s easy to comfort ourselves with empty phrases like “It was a freak accident” or “That’s so unlikely to happen.” Much easier, certainly, than acknowledging that none of us are immune to tragedy. We soothe ourselves with statistics of survival, but inside we know the path of our lives has already been determined. Data is no weapon against God’s sovereignty. Those unlikely, catastrophic events do happen—as they did to Davey and Amanda Blackburn.... Read More
The Soul of MAGA
Donald Trump stands wrapped in the arms of Secret Service agents—their dark sunglasses and suits blending like a many-armed, many-eyed modern seraphim. Blood streams from his right ear, and his face is contorted with rage, determination, and pain. He thrusts his fist skyward. Behind him, the Star-Spangled Banner yet waves. You couldn’t pose a more iconic image if you tried. In the months before the assassination attempt, I watched dozens of old Trump speeches and read a stack of his... Read More
New & Noteworthy
Great to Good Jae Hoon Lee (IVP) Highly driven performers and organizational leaders often speak of making the leap from good to great. As his book title suggests, Korean pastor Jae Hoon Lee believes the church (and individual Christians) should invert that mindset, pursuing Christlike character rather than earthly power and glory. “Jesus referred to himself as a good shepherd, not a great one,” writes Lee, whose reflections draw upon his Korean church context. “He attributed his... Read More