News

Gleanings: September 2021

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Lauren Daigle sets record with fifth No. 1 single

Lauren Daigle became the first female artist to top the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart five times after performing “Hold On to Me” on the season finale of NBC’s singing competition show The Voice. The single was streamed more than 1.8 million times in the US the following week and purchased about 5,500 times. Daigle’s previous chart-topping songs were “Trust in You” in 2016; “Back to God” in 2017; “You Say,” which stayed in the No. 1 spot for a record 129 weeks starting in July 2018; and “The Christmas Song” in 2019. The second most popular female Christian artist is Carrie Underwood, with three No. 1 songs.

Prayers and support for Israeli prime minister

A diverse group of American evangelicals congratulated Naftali Bennett on becoming the new prime minister of Israel and successfully forming a coalition government, offering reassurance to Israelis concerned about American support after Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure. Some Israelis were distressed after Mike Evans, founder of the Jerusalem-based Friends of Zion Museum, lambasted Bennett for his perceived political betrayal of Netanyahu. Evans boasts a large social media following and is regularly described in Israeli media as the “world’s largest evangelical leader.” The letter promising prayer and support was signed by pastors, Christian professors, and parachurch leaders across the denominational spectrum.

Methodist museum closes

COVID-19 dealt the final blow to the World Methodist Museum in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, which had been struggling financially and seeing fewer visitors since 2013. The museum was founded in 1956, when Western North Carolina was a popular summer site for the annual meetings of many Protestant denominations. The Methodists built a brick replica of the home where John Wesley was born and collected many Wesley artifacts, including 250 of his letters, his traveling pulpit, and a copy of his death mask. The collection will be sent to a library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Objection to US pride flags

More than a dozen evangelical churches joined together to protest the flying of a rainbow flag at the US Embassy during LGBT Pride month. In a statement, the churches said that while all people are entitled to dignity, they object to American “cultural imperialism” and the use of a the diplomatic mission “to promote a perverse lifestyle that flies in the face of established science, leads to the corruption of children, destruction of family life and the hijacking of femininity itself through the transgender movement.” The statement was also signed by churches and religions nonprofits in nine other Caribbean nations.

First new churches since Castro

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is reestablishing congregations in Cuba for the first time since Communists came to power in 1959. The Black Methodist denomination first planted a church in Santiago in 1898 but, along with other religious groups, clashed with Fidel Castro’s vision of an atheist nation. Some AME churches continued, but in secret and without any outside contact. Castro started reopening the country to religious activity before he died in 2016, and the trend has continued since. Five pastors and congregations were received into the AME in 2021, under the temporary oversight of the Dominican Republic Annual Conference.

No acknowledgement of prophet’s passing

Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders in Nigeria did not publicly acknowledge the death of T. B. Joshua, the 57-year-old televangelist, faith healer, and charismatic prophet who claimed to correctly predict elections, terrorist attacks, soccer matches, and celebrity deaths. The lack of public condolences was widely seen as a snub in the West African country. Some observers attributed it to envy at the reach of Joshua’s ministry, while others saw it as an attempt to distance Joshua from mainstream evangelicalism in Nigeria. Joshua, who was not allowed to join the Christian Association of Nigeria or the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, had an international following and brought an estimated 2 million religious tourists to Lagos annually.

Churches pick presidential candidate

Deputy President William Ruto will receive “Holy Spirit coronations” at churches across Kenya, marking him as the Christian candidate of choice to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2022 election. The church activism comes after National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi was coronated by elders at a traditionalist shrine. “They have picked their kingpins from the bushes and we will pick ours from the altar of God,” said one Christian politician backing Ruto. Churches in 15 counties are expected to participate in the drive, which will culminate in a national prayer gathering and the unveiling of a running mate and potential appointees.

Tenth-century church unearthed

Archaeologists in eastern Germany have discovered the forgotten remains of a royal church destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The church was about 100 feet long, with three aisles, and shaped like a cross. Researchers believe it was built in 968 on the orders of Otto I, who was considered the savior of Christendom after defeating pagan Hungarians in 955 and became the head of the Holy Roman Empire in 962. It was likely torn down in the 1600s during violent religious conflict between Lutherans, Catholics, and Calvinists. In some parts of Germany, as much as half the population was killed by war and plague in that century.

Concerns for Christian minority

The World Evangelical Alliance, the European Evangelical Alliance, Middle East Concern, and the Association of Protestant Churches–Turkey have submitted a report to the United Nations expressing concern about the treatment of Christians. Few congregations are allowed legal license to meet, foreign Christians and their Turkish spouses are regularly deported, public declarations of faith are treated as subversive political statements, and the national intelligence agency surveils worship services. In the COVID-19 pandemic, government officials refused to communicate which lockdown rules applied to churches. There are about 25,000 Protestants in the country meeting in 13 traditional churches and about 150 unlicensed fellowships.

Christian count questioned

A Pakistan Bureau of Statistics report says the portion of Christians in the country has declined, slipping from 1.6 to 1.3 percent, while the total number has grown by about 540,000. Christian leaders, including the moderator bishop of the Protestant Church of Pakistan, are disputing the statistic, claiming Christians have been underreported. Shunila Ruth, a leading Christian politician, says the census takers did not do a good enough job. “How is it possible that of all the other minorities, only the Christian population has shown a decline over the last two decades?” she said. “Have Christian mothers stopped giving birth?”

Also in this issue

Our September issue went to press before the stunningly rapid fall of Afghanistan’s government. This month’s cover honors the history of faithful, unseen service in Afghanistan on the part of local believers and Christian aid workers. With US troops largely gone from the country and the Taliban now firmly in control, it’s easy to forget that the church was at work there long before America’s “forever war” began—and will remain at work there, in whatever form it takes, now that the war has ended.

Cover Story

She Was Captured by the Taliban in 2001. But God Gave Her a Bigger Story.

Cover Story

What Christian Aid Workers Want You to Know About Afghanistan

News

Safeguard Gaps Leave Refugees Vulnerable to Sexual Abuse, Exploitation

Our September Issue: Hope Beyond the Headlines

News

Ministering to the 9/11 First Responders Who Never Had to Be Told to ‘Never Forget’

God Uses Changing Climates to Change Societies

News

Pro-Life Advocates Push Local Resolutions

Testimony

I Went to Hollywood to Make My Own Music. Now I Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord.

Reply All

Editorial

The Church Has Helped to Heal Those It Once Hurt

Why Christians Keep Preaching to Themselves

Review

Fannie Lou Hamer’s Fight for First-Class Citizenship

Well-Intentioned Sin Is Still Sin and Deserves Judgment

New and Noteworthy Books

Getting High Is (Increasingly) Lawful. Is It Ever Beneficial?

Why Environmental Destruction Is Bad for Worship

News

1 out of 3 New Guitars Are Purchased for Worship Music

Populism Poses Dangers to Democracy. It Does the Same to Christian Witness.

Review

Understanding Autism from the Inside

Where the Great Commission Meets Deportation

View issue

Our Latest

News

Ghana May Elect Its First Muslim President. Its Christian Majority Is Torn.

Church leaders weigh competency and faith background as the West African nation heads to the polls.

Shamanism in Indonesia

Can Christians practice ‘white knowledge’ to heal the sick and exorcize demons?

Shamanism in Japan

Christians in the country view pastors’ benedictions as powerful spiritual mantras.

Shamanism in Taiwan

In a land teeming with ghosts, is there room for the Holy Spirit to work?

Shamanism in Vietnam

Folk religion has shaped believers’ perceptions of God as a genie in a lamp.

Shamanism in the Philippines

Filipinos’ desire to connect with the supernatural shouldn’t be eradicated, but transformed and redirected toward Christ.

Shamanism in South Korea

Why Christians in the country hold onto trees while praying outdoors.

Shamanism in Thailand

When guardian spirits disrupt river baptisms, how can believers respond?

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