Congratulations on the excellent June 2017 issue. It is full of weighty things to think about and learn about, including Mark Galli’s editorial. This issue raises a high bar for future issues. I will reread it before the next issue comes.
I am so thankful that God is using this magazine to bring more light to the darkness of human trafficking in Cambodia. It is encouraging to know that more and more young girls are getting out of the industry due to the efforts there. In light of this, however, I call on the abolitionists involved to not stop with child trafficking alone. Adults caught in the sex trade are just as vulnerable and abused as children. It can be easy to think that the 14- to 16-year-old is in need of dire rescue and aftercare while the 19- to 22-year-old just chose this life and has to find a way out on her own. As it was said in “Bringing Light to the Trafficking Fight,” mental chains are much harder for victims to break than physical ones, and these chains don’t all of a sudden become a choice when someone is over 18.
Ruthie Picha Elmhurst, IL
I appreciate CT giving lots of ink to the trafficking scourge in Cambodia, yet I have my doubts about the claim that Christians “are making big progress” in that region. Another source in whom I have great trust says that the sex trade is not dwindling, but due to cybersex on demand it is increasing even there. International Justice Mission may have pulled back somewhat in Cambodia, but Rapha House has gone ahead with building safe houses, etc. If anything, help is needed more than ever. There’s too much money in trafficking to think it will diminish substantially.
Ronald E. Keener Chambersburg, PA
Great article! Very informative and a blessing to see the transformation in one city just because a DJ opened a Bible.
I share Mark Galli’s puzzlement at white evangelicals’ support of Trumpism. I wonder, though, if the cause goes deeper than a lack of preaching about helping the alien and sojourner. We conservative Christians were rocked by post-’60s cultural change. Yet our response, four decades of politicization, has drawn us into one of the oldest and subtlest forms of idolatry. The Israelites grew impatient with trusting God. Ignoring the warnings of Samuel, they cried, “Give us a king!” Similarly, evangelicals left off praying and went to politicking. Yet the way of politics is the way of power, by its very nature coercive. If we couldn’t persuade people to change behavior, we would compel them, by force rather than love, by law rather than grace.
We reached the point of supporting anyone who promised us control of the Supreme Court.
We got our king. Too bad he’s more Herod than David.
Tom Griffith Beverly, MA
How did evangelicals (church-going and not church-going) get to this place where they marry conservative politics to the gospel? I believe it is because there is among evangelicals no well-reasoned, Bible-based political philosophy. This is what we need. The answer is not getting the unchurched believer back in church. What we need for both groups of evangelicals are nonpartisan guidelines based on the spirit of the Old Testament law and prophets combined with the grace of the New Testament gospel.
I can look back over more than 60 years of serving the Lord. In the first part, I believed that the gifts of the Spirit had been discontinued when the New Testament was completed. In the second equal time span, I believed that they are still valid. There are some conditions for their use. The Holy Spirit must be the one in charge, and they must be done in love, humility, and faith that works in love. I have observed that the miracle gifts of the Spirit are very helpful in the task of worldwide evangelism. And that includes even such a country as the Netherlands, where I was born and raised and where I later returned for 14 years to serve the Lord.
Thanks for the clear, concise interview with historian Mark Noll. It would be great to see a sequel dealing with what sola scriptura means for corporate discipleship and the shape of Christian community, not just with the question of individual appropriation of saving faith. This is not really covered in Noll’s four levels. Jesus and Paul focused much on it, however.
Yes, family focus of churches can be unhelpful. Important as biological families are, they are not the gospel. We are a new family in Him.
@enterintothejoy
Correction: In “Bringing Light to the Trafficking Fight,” anti-trafficking ministry AIM was misidentified as Agape International Ministries. The correct name of the organization is Agape International Missions.
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While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.العربيةFrançais
We must always be people of the Word, but we’ll have to reimagine deep engagement with Scripture.
