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December 11, 2025

This edition is sponsored by Gloo

Today’s Briefing

This week on The Bulletin: the future of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, tariffs on farmers, and Pew’s new religion report.

From CT’s Harvest Prude: three books to read on politics and public life.

Come into the anteroom of Christmas and stay for the hot chocolate recipe at the end.

Looking at the archives: In 1964, CT published a slate of articles on faith and art and reflected on the death of C. S. Lewis the year prior. “We need Christian artists of dedicated talent who will extend their horizons in humility and devotion to the true praise of the Giver of talent, who is best honored by the faithful use of his good gifts,” said artist Grant Reynard at the time.

How students can turn toward each other and away from their screens.

Behind the Story

The top trending article on CT’s site right now covers 12 neglected Christmas movies, so we asked other members of our staff about their unconventional Christmas movies. Here’s what we heard from national political correspondent Harvest Prude:

Whenever Advent rolls around, I start to hanker for the 1970 Jackson 5 Christmas Album, hot cocoa, and, of course, a marathon rewatch of The Lord of the Rings. My family usually starts The Fellowship of the Ring on December 23 and The Two Towers on Christmas Eve, and then sometime between the presents, brunch feast, and plethora of board games, we wrap up the series with The Return of the King. Perhaps it’s the theme of a victorious ruler that makes it so fitting for a rewatch during the celebration of Jesus’ first coming. Or perhaps it’s simply that hobbits pair perfectly with the general coziness of winter.

Paid Content

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In Other News

As Japan recovers from a 7.6-magnitude earthquake, a missionary recounts how the gospel spread in the wake of the devastating 2011 tsunami.
The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury is facing a complaint over her handling of an abuse case. The previous archbishop stepped down over reported mishandling of abuse.
A church in Lexington, Kentucky, shows off its 500 Nativity displays from 80 countries.

PAID CONTENT FOR GLOO

The Faith & Flourishing Ecosystem

In the United States, more than 450,000 churches, ministries, and non-faith-based organizations combine into an ecosystem. This is more than double the number of fast food restaurants across the country,…

Today in Christian History

December 12, 1189: King Richard I “the Lion Hearted” leaves England on the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, which had fallen to Muslim general Saladin in 1187 (see issue 40: The Crusades).

The Chinese Christian Behind 2,000 Hymns

At 5 a.m. every day, Lü Xiaomin kneels on the floor in a dimly lit room of an apartment in northern China. She sings a hymn aloud, reads a passage…

Death by a Thousand Error Messages

Technology flooded schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many public school districts—particularly in states with stricter social distancing rules—there seemed to be no other realistic, affordable, and legal option to…

The Antichrist Hides in Plain Sight at Christmas

This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here. The manger scene on your living room table might be keeping you from understanding Christmas. Those Nativity sets are, after all, how…

The Surprising Joys of a Gift-Free Christmas

Three years ago, I declared to my five children, “There will be no gifts for Christmas this year.” “But why, Mom? I already promised my friends I’d join the Secret…

in the magazine

As we enter the holiday season, we consider how the places to which we belong shape us—and how we can be the face of welcome in a broken world. In this issue, you’ll read about how a monastery on Patmos offers quiet in a world of noise and, from Ann Voskamp, how God’s will is a place to find home. Read about modern missions terminology in our roundtable feature and about an astrophysicist’s thoughts on the Incarnation. Be sure to linger over Andy Olsen’s reported feature “An American Deportation” as we consider Christian responses to immigration policies. May we practice hospitality wherever we find ourselves.

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