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November 7, 2025

This edition is sponsored by Westfall Gold

Today’s Briefing

Malaysia’s high court finds government authorities complicit in pastor Raymond Koh’s disappearance, grants his family millions in damages, and orders a new investigation into his abduction.

Ann Voskamp looks at how Christian refugees’ displacement points to our eternal home.

YouTube mocumentary The Promised Land tries to make Exodus funny with uneven success.

Jen Wilkin says white wedding dresses and other traditional symbols matter less than hearts prepared for marriage.

The Gospel Coalition’s Collin Hansen talks about the challenges of sharing the gospel in a “spiritual but not religious” landscape.

Behind the Story

We recently reported on the outcome of a lawsuit over a missing pastor in Malaysia. Asia editor Isabel Ong, who’s on Pacific time, had to stay up until 10:30 at night to call the pastor’s wife across 16 time zones. Isabel said,

I did a WhatsApp video interview with her and was struck by how composed and gracious she was. Winning the court case wasn’t everything to her. “Spiritually, we have also won,” she said.

Her response to her husband’s disappearance was also very moving when she said that it has helped to deepen her family’s faith in God and helped grow them in patience and perseverance.

The pastor’s wife, Susanna Liew, had spent the week ahead of the court ruling visiting churches in France—where she felt encouraged by the number of people around the world praying for her and for the case. As she awaited the verdict, she said she clung to Romans 8:35–37, which declares that we are more than conquerors through Christ, who loved us.

PAID CONTENT

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In Other News

Moody Bible Institute has sued the Chicago Board of Education for religious discrimination.
Evangelicalism is growing in France.
A Presbyterian church in Salt Lake City discovered in its walls a time capsule of Japanese Christian immigrants from the city’s now-faded Japantown.

Today in Christian History

November 10, 1483: German reformer Martin Luther is born in Eisleben, Germany. (see issue 34: Luther’s Early Years).

When God Closes a Church, He Opens Another?

More than 70 years ago, when St. Jude Catholic Parish was established in Joliet, Illinois, the community boasted a robust manufacturing sector with Caterpillar, Texaco, and US Steel among the…

Zohran Mamdani’s Coalition Captured Some Christians, Alarmed Others

At the end of the high-energy praise and worship gathering at First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City, two days before Tuesday’s mayoral election, pastor Michael Walrond welcomed…

Have We Kissed Purity Goodbye?

If you grew up in purity culture, you probably remember the rose. A preacher holds up a perfect red flower, full and fragrant, and passes it through the crowd. As…

After Hurricane Melissa, Jamaican Baptists Look to Rebuild from the Ruins

A map hangs in the office of the Jamaica Baptist Union, with colored thumbtacks marking each of its 340 member churches: white for those that remained intact, yellow for those…

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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