

weekend reads
Earlier this year, Carrie McKean hosted an unusual gathering at her home. In preparation, “I lit a candle, picked up a stray sock, said a little prayer, and fluffed a few pillows,” she writes. Her guests? CDC officials, doctors, and vaccine-hesitant mothers in her West Texas community.
“By the end of the night, everyone looked a little dazed. We weren’t sure what had happened or what good it could do in the world,” McKean reflects.
“The divides we tried to reach across—between the pro- and anti-vax, those who trust public health agencies and those who don’t—are too big to overcome in my living room. But perhaps we each made some change in the world within, learning to see a person where once we saw only a problem. And in the weeks that followed, I came to think that was no small thing.”
weekend listen AND WATCH
This week on The Bulletin: A conversion therapy case at the Supreme Court, TikTok’s algorithm, and the conviction of Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris.
“Information is so easily weaponized—not just in terms of propaganda … but about the things that we don’t ever hear about at all.” | Listen here.
P.S. House of David season 2 is available on Amazon—but it will cost you extra. Our Bible-movies writer Peter T. Chattaway covers the new Wonder Project channel.
P.P.S. Our music correspondent Kelsey Kramer McGinnis calls Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl a “continuation of Swift’s public self-construction.” Find her review here.
The Future of the Church Can’t Wait
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editors’ picks
Bonnie Kristian, deputy editor: One recent read: “The Four Quadrants of Church Life in the Gray Zone,” by Dave Strunk and Ben Ruyack for Mere Orthodoxy.
Haleluya Hadero, Black church editor: I’ve been enjoying AND Campaign’s The Church Politics Podcast.
Alex Mellen, senior copy editor: My favorite way to use a banana gone brown is a simple microwave muffin.
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 egg
- 1 medium mashed banana
- A drizzle of honey if desired
- Chocolate chips, walnuts, or other mix-ins
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry in a small bowl or large mug, and microwave for 2 minutes on high.
prayers of the people
- Two years after October 7, for the churches in Israel and Egypt providing food, aid, and a listening ear to those scarred by war. (And for a possible end to the conflict.)
- For pro-life efforts in the aftermath of the FDA’s approval of another generic abortion pill. (Read our review of a new book on the religious history of Roe v. Wade.)
- For an Indian village transformed by the gospel.
- For the childless couples seeking support from the Kenyan church.
more from CT
IN THE MAGAZINE

The Christian story shows us that grace often comes from where we least expect. In this issue, we look at the corners of God’s kingdom and chronicle in often-overlooked people, places, and things the possibility of God’s redemptive work. We introduce the Compassion Awards, which report on seven nonprofits doing good work in their communities. We look at the spirituality underneath gambling, the ways contemporary Christian music was instrumental in one historian’s conversion, and the steady witness of what may be Wendell Berry’s last novel. All these pieces remind us that there is no person or place too small for God’s gracious and cataclysmic reversal.
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