Today’s Briefing

Some evangelicals who were skeptical of cryptocurrency learned to stop worrying and love the $TRUMP, but the president’s policies raise concerns about conflicts of interest and possible corruption.

Bible study teacher Kay Arthur has died at 91. The author of more than 100 titles said, “You need to know God’s Word, and there are basics,” starting with how to mark up the text.

One woman tries to find spiritual respite when it’s always summer and never vacation.

Meet the evangelical abolitionists who can guide the church today.

Baby-face church leaders fight ageism in Asian congregations.

If the internet ends the literacy age, what does that mean for Christian faith?

Behind the Story

From news editor Daniel Silliman: As a journalist, you develop (as Liam Neeson once said) “a very particular set of skills.” Or maybe we should say “very peculiar.”

One of mine is finding the names of people’s parents. An obituary doesn’t technically have to name someone’s parents. But to me, it feels incomplete until I get them in the record. It can take some doing!

Kay Arthur, for example, never mentioned her parents in the many interviews she gave—or even her maiden name. But I did know what town she was born in and the name of her first husband.

Trolling through an online archive of newspapers with those two bits of info, I got a hit: a bit of community news from 1956 reporting that Arthur and her sister were taking a trip to France. That gave me her maiden name and her father’s name, but not her mother’s. And her dad had a really common name. But I got one other useful detail: He was a lay leader in the Episcopal Church.

A few more searches with the keyword Episcopal, and I found an ordination notice that gave me what I was looking for: Leah Winifred Miller Lee and John Edward Lee, both of Jackson, Michigan. Victory!

Most readers, I suspect, will pass over those details. But to me, they’re a sign of thoroughness that I’m proud of.

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In Other News

Rural religious colleges are most in danger of closure, though evangelical schools don’t seem as vulnerable as Catholic schools.
Thirty percent of Americans, including a small number of white evangelicals, consult astrology, tarot cards, or fortune tellers.
A Polish evangelical magazine celebrates 100 years.
A Lego tabernacle? It’s popular on Kickstarter.

Today in Christian History

May 22, 337: Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, dies. Though known for calling the Council of Nicaea (which condemned the Arian heresy) and for beginning the process of Christianizing the empire, he waited until just before his death before he finally accepted baptism into the church (see issue 57: Converting the Empire).

The Christian Schools That Cried Wolf

As our twin boys played with their little sister across the classroom, they did not know what we knew: that this admissions interview could help set the course not only…

Liberty University Pays Jerry Falwell Jr. $5.5 Million

Liberty University is paying disgraced former president Jerry Falwell Jr. about $5.5 million in addition to the nearly $10 million he received in severance and retirement, according to recently filed…

Pastors Press on After 46,000 Churchgoers Leave Hong Kong

Inside an elementary school auditorium on the outskirts of Hong Kong, pastor Samuel Leung led the 200 congregants at his church in the last song of a worship service in…

Their Families Abandoned Them. Emeagwali Took Them In.

Catherine Emeagwali stared into the fragile baby’s dim eyes. Someone had hurriedly wrapped the barely-a-day-old girl in shabby clothes. Her translucent skin and faint veins bore bruising from a rushed…

in the magazine

It’s easy to live in a state of panic, anxiety, and fear, from the pinging of our phones to politics and the state of the church. In this issue, we acknowledge panic and point to Christian ways through it. Russell Moore brings us to the place of panic in Caesarea Philippi with Jesus and Peter. Laura M. Fabrycky writes about American inclinations toward hero-making. Mindy Belz reports on the restorative work of Dr. Denis Mukwege for rape victims in Congo. We’re also thrilled to give you a first look at the Global Flourishing Study, a multiyear research project about what makes a flourishing life across the globe. While panic may be profitable or natural, we have a sure and steady anchor for our souls in Jesus.

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