
This edition is sponsored by Moody Publishers
weekend reads
This week, our Latin America editor published a harrowing report on the rural Mexican churches facing threats of violence, extortion, kidnappings, and forced displacement by drug cartels. “In some cases, there were no services because there was no quorum,” said one evangelical leader. “Families had to flee because gangs were recruiting all the young people, and there were no people to gather with.”
Pastor Esaú Aguilar divides his time between ministry duties and a job at a tomato packaging company. His church in El Refugio is just a ten-minute drive from a training camp and killing site run by the cartel, called a “Mexican Auschwitz” by one newspaper. Earlier this year, authorities investigating the compound found ashes and bone fragments.
Though young men working for cartel bosses follow behind them, Aguilar and his congregation continue to evangelize in their community, handing out pamphlets. The pastor prays for these men and others who’ve been trapped by the cartels.
“It’s a life of slavery and sin,” he said. “The only thing that can free you from it is the Lord Jesus Christ.”
P.S. Our global coverage this week also included reports on Christian Rohingya refugees in India, crime in Nigeria, and aid distribution in Gaza. And our editor in chief Russell Moore wrote on PEPFAR’s lifesaving impacts across Africa. Christianity, he says, is “at odds with the pagan world in saying that the powerful should care about the vulnerable, that every person ought to matter. If we are right about that—and I think we are—we should speak up for our own legacy.”
This Father’s Day, we’re honoring dads with a gift for everyone. Now through June 15, new subscribers can save $10 on a digital subscription or $20 on a digital + print subscription. Visit OrderCT.com/FathersDay to subscribe and save.
weekend listen
On Being Human, psychologist-theologian Chuck DeGroat speaks with Steve Cuss on the crisis of integrity in church leadership.
“How is character formed in the first place? If there is to be character reformation, what does that look like?” | Listen here.
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editors’ picks
Haleluya Hadero, Black church editor: I really liked this piece about Syrians who returned home after Assad fled, to reconnect with family members and, in the case of one woman, look for her detained father.
Sara Kyoungah White, editor: The British game show Taskmaster season 19. My husband and I have watched all the seasons, and this latest is a good one.
Bonnie Kristian, editorial director, ideas and books: This may be a too-ambitious project I’ll come to regret, but I’ve ordered a personalized recipe journal for each of our kids with the idea that I’ll write down all my regulars so the kids can eventually go out into the world as reasonably competent cooks with reliable, familiar, mostly easy recipes at the ready. (The part about writing down a bunch of stuff by hand—in triplicate!—is where I think the regrets may arrive.)
Technology has revolutionized our world time and time again. Electricity transformed daily life, increased industrial productivity, and provided safer and more stable power for lighting, heating and cooking alike. Television…
prayers of the people
- For Mother Emanuel church, ten years after “one of the most heinous acts of racial violence in the nation’s history.”
- For the flourishing of the biblical sexual ethic: “We need transformation, not an excuse for sin. We can love well without endorsing licentiousness. Faithful disciples lead with grace without letting go of the truth.”
- For musicians in a Spotify age.
- For burned-out pastors.
more from CT
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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