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Mike O’Brien emailed a few hundred colleagues last month to announce his retirement after 32 years at Ford Motor. The sales executive’s note included the obligatory career reflections and thank yous—but came with a twist. Attached to the email was a spreadsheet detailing a few thousand a meticulous log of mixed metaphors and malaprops uttered by co-workers over a decade.

During a 2019 sales meeting to discuss a new vehicle launch, a colleague blurted out: “Let’s not reinvent the ocean.” At another meeting, in 2016, someone started a sentence with: “I don’t want to sound like a broken drum here, but…”

For more than a decade, O’Brien kept a meticulous log of verbal flubs uttered in Ford meetings, from companywide gatherings to side conversations. It documents 2,229 linguistic breaches, including the exact quote, context, name of the perpetrator and color commentary.

There is a leaderboard and a clear GOAT of verbal flubs. The list became so known—and feared—that one executive cursed O’Brien’s name in a meeting after tripping up on an expression. Violators could appeal their inclusion but success was rare. And nobody was above a grammatical roasting: Ford CEO Jim Farley twice made the list.

“We weren’t being mean,” O’Brien said. “It was just funny.”

Possible Preaching Angles: This is an example of good-natured ribbing, but sadly, some of us keep a meticulous list of flubs and offenses and sins that are much more damaging.

We all carry the memories of unspoken words and missed opportunities. The quiet echoes of regret and the whispered reminder that perfection is elusive and regret is a constant companion. So, it’s no surprise that a new poll finds that most Americans are concerned about the road not taken in their lives. And when it comes to regrets, people are more likely to dwell on things they didn’t do than the things they have done.

A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, which found that only 11% of Americans don’t have any regrets. Among the regrets the majority of us have are the following:

Not speaking up (40%)

Not visiting family or friends enough (36%)

Not pursuing our dreams (35%)

The missed chances to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip

On the other hand, the top actions Americans regret doing include:

Spending money or purchasing something they later regret (49%)

Fighting with friends or family (43%)

Making an unnecessary comment (36%)

32% of baby boomers have a regret that spans three decades and still crosses their minds an average of three times per month. While the oldest regret millennials’ is only about 11 years-old, they fret about it on average almost once per week, more than any other generation.

A 27-year-old Chinese student studying in Japan was rescued twice from Mount Fuji within a span of four days—after he returned to the mountain to retrieve personal belongings left behind during his first rescue.

According to Japanese authorities, the man was first airlifted from Mount Fuji earlier in the week due to climbing difficulties. After the rescue, he realized he had left behind his mobile phone and other possessions on the mountain. Determined to recover them, he returned to Mount Fuji just days later, despite the clear dangers of a second off-season climb.

On his return ascent, he was spotted over 3,000 meters above sea level by another climber, who alerted rescue teams. The man was again brought down the mountain and taken to a hospital, reportedly suffering from symptoms of altitude sickness. Officials later confirmed it was the same individual rescued days earlier.

Mount Fuji is snow-covered for much of the year and officially open to hikers only between early July and early September. The risks of off-season climbing are well known, and local authorities have stressed the dangers repeatedly. The dual rescue has drawn attention not only for its rarity but also for the man’s decision to return so soon. Though he was not charged with any crime, local officials emphasized the seriousness of the situation and lamented the loss of resources required for such rescue operations.

Hopefully this young man will do a better job of learning from his mistakes in the future.

Possible Preaching Angles:

It’s easy to fall into repeating our mistakes, even when we know better. Ignoring wise counsel can lead us into real danger. But never forget the grace of God, which offers the incredible gift of second chances.

Almost half of Americans (48%) believe that the rise of artificial intelligence has made them less “scam-savvy” than ever before. With AI working its way into education, finance, and even science, a new survey finds people admitting they can’t tell what’s real anymore.

The poll of U.S. adults revealed that only 18% feel “very confident” in their ability to identify a scam before falling victim to it. As the United States enters a new era of tech, AI is continuing to blur the line between reality and an artificial world.

One in three even admits that it would be difficult for them to identify a potential scam if the scammer was trying to impersonate someone they personally know. Between creating fake news, robo-callers with realistic voices, and sending texts from familiar phone numbers, the possibility and probability of falling victim to a scam may cause anxiety for many Americans.

This may be because 34% of respondents have fallen victim to a scam in one way or another over the years. For others, the sting is still fresh. According to the results, 40% of people have been impacted within the last year — with 8% indicating it was as recent as last month.

BOSS Revolution VP Jessica Poverene said in a statement, “As AI technology advances, so do the tactics of scammers who exploit it. It’s crucial for consumers to stay vigilant.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The question “Can You Spot an AI Scam?” can apply to Christians with a slight change. The question becomes, “Can You Spot a Doctrinal Scam?” In this age of deception, there are many false doctrines being spread by false teachers and it is important to be informed and vigilant. “But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.” (2 Tim. 3:13)

On October 31, 2024, thousands of people descended upon O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, to witness a Halloween parade. They waited, and waited some more. It took a while for the crowd to come to an uncomfortable realization: The parade was a hoax.

It started as a false advertisement on a website called My Spirit Halloween, but quickly gained traction online, spreading like wildfire on social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook. Part of the reason why it took off is that the site,"myspirithalloween.com," advertised multiple events, including some that were real. Its promotion of the fake Dublin parade also referenced the legitimate Irish performance group Macnas. To bolster its credibility, the website also included fake reviews, real photos from previous Macnas Halloween events, fake social media pages on Facebook, and other AI-generated text.

As the advertised start time of 7pm rolled around, thousands of people, some dressed in Halloween costumes, had gathered on O'Connell Street, despite the fact that there were no traditional signs of a parade. No streets had been blocked off, no police escorts, no signage, nothing. Videos and photos of the bewildered crowd flooded social media. The incident even disrupted Dublin's tram lines.

Irish police, in an attempt to disperse the crowd, issued a statement: “Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin City Centre this evening or tonight. All those gathered on O’Connell Street in expectation of such a parade are asked to disperse safely.”

Industry analysts believe the My Spirit Halloween website exists purely for the purpose of advertising revenue, and probably relies on AI-generated content to generate timely, relevant content. Just like the Spirit Halloween stores that the site references, this story popped up at just the right time to make an impact, then disappeared just as quickly.

Modern life is full of common mishaps such as mistakenly sending a text to the wrong person or confusing a stranger for an acquaintance. In a survey of 2,000 adults, researchers found that frequent blunders include laundry mishaps, accidentally ordering the wrong thing in a restaurant, and putting the wrong destination into the car’s GPS.

The study, conducted by OnePoll, also found that the average adult encounters 84 mishaps a year, amounting to more than one embarrassing error per week. Additionally, 31 percent confessed to repeating the same mistake more than once.

Top Mishaps People Endure in Modern Society:

1. Sent a text to the wrong person
2. Mistook a stranger for someone you knew and greeted them
3. Washed clothes and accidentally shrunk them or turned them to a different color
4. Accidentally sat on the TV remote control and missed a key moment on live TV
5. Prepped a meal for work but forgot to take it
6. Forgot to cancel subscriptions you never use
7. Had your phone go off in a place it should have been on silent
8. Tried to unlock your car before realizing it was someone else’s vehicle
9. Forgot about plans and didn’t show up for an event
10. Bought a piece of furniture but didn’t check the dimensions and it was a lot smaller or larger than you thought

These misfortunes are a part of life, and we can all make them. The findings show it can happen to anyone and everyone can relate to making a mishap.

Despite being the butt of the joke, 45 percent laugh at their misfortunes, while 21 percent felt they had learned something from the experience. In fact, a remarkable 87 percent acknowledged that mistakes and mishaps are simply an unavoidable part of life.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As James says, “We all stumble in many ways” (Jam. 3:2). If we allow ourselves to make honest mistakes, humble ourselves (and maybe even join in the laughter), we are in the best place possible to learn a lesson about humility and grow by allowing others to be imperfect also.

Here’s how Tim Keller used to explain our sin problem:

Imagine your present self looking at your past self, say 10 years ago. Your present self thinks your past self was a fool. Your present self looks back and says, “Back then, I needed guidance I didn't understand. I was so naive. I was so silly. I was immature. I behaved badly.” So, your present self always thinks of your past self as a jerk. Well, the problem is that your future self will think of your present self as a jerk 10 years from now. You'll look back now and say, “Back then, I thought I needed guidance. I thought I understood, but I was such a fool.”

Here's the blunt bad news about our condition: You're always a jerk, but you always think you're just getting over it. We always think that we've just arrived. It's what you thought when you were 15. Then, then you looked back at your 12-year-old self and said, “Now I've arrived. Boy, what a dummy I was when I was 12. I'm ready for the world now.” By the time you're 20, you say that 15-year-old self was so ignorant and flawed and sinful. But you see here’s the point: you’re always ignorant and flawed and sinful, but you continually think you're just getting over it. Sin is deeper in us than we ever imagined.

One of the zany experiments staged by the "Mythbusters" television show nearly turned into a suburban tragedy in Dublin, California when the crew fired a homemade cannon toward huge containers of water at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb disposal range.

The cantaloupe-sized cannonball missed the water, tore through a cinder-block wall, skipped off a hillside and flew some 700 yards east, right into the Tassajara Creek neighborhood, where children were returning home from school at 4:15 p.m. There, the 6-inch projectile bounced in front of a home on quiet Cassata Place, ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom, where a man, woman and child slept through it all, only awakening because of plaster dust.

The ball wasn't done bouncing. It exited the house, leaving a perfectly round hole in the stucco, crossed six-lane Tassajara Road, took out several tiles from the roof of a home on Bellevue Circle and finally slammed into the Gill family's beige Toyota Sienna minivan in a driveway on Springvale Drive.

That's where Jasbir Gill, who had pulled up 10 minutes earlier with his 13-year-old son, found the ball on the floorboards, with glass everywhere and an obliterated dashboard. "It's shocking - anything could have happened," Gill said after the van had been taken away as evidence, along with the cannonball.

"Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department. "You wouldn't think it was possible." He said the television crew was incredibly unlucky that the cannonball flew through Dublin, but "tremendously lucky that it didn't seriously injure or kill somebody."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Youl can use this to set up a sermon on the power of sin or hurtful words to inflict much more damage than we ever imagined. Just as the local police sergeant said, "Crazy, crazy, crazy. You wouldn't think it was possible." That's what we all say when we see the impact of our hurtful words or sins against others.

Authorities say that, due to a clerical error, a suspected murderer was released from county jail, but he’s now safely back behind bars.

A warrant for arrest was issued for 22-year-old Amarion Sanders who’d previously been held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $1 million bail. Sanders was facing aggravated murder charges in connection with a shooting in September of 2023.

Sanders was released on June 24, because another defendant in an otherwise unrelated case had his charges dismissed, and one of the court personnel incorrectly entered that case number into the database for dismissal. The next day, the second arrest warrant was issued, and Sanders was re-arrested without incident.

County, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, helped search for Sanders.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a great story to teach the lesson that small mistakes can have big consequences. It is important to maintain a system of checks and balances and to take immediate action when an error is discovered.

In Buddhist Japan, they now have robot priests. Mindar is a robo-priest which has been working at a temple in Kyoto for the last few years, reciting Buddhist sutras with which it has been programmed. The next step, says monk Tensho Goto, an excitable champion of the digital dharma, is to fit it with an AI system so that it can have real conversations, and offer spiritual advice. Goto is especially excited about the fact that Mindar is “immortal.” This means, he says, that it will be able to pass on the tradition in the future better than him.

Meanwhile, over in China, Xian’er is a touchscreen “robo-monk” who works in a temple near Beijing, spreading “kindness, compassion and wisdom to others through the internet and new media.”

In India, the Hindus are joining in, handing over duties in one of their major ceremonies to a robot arm, which performs in place of a priest.

In a Catholic church in Warsaw, Poland, sits SanTO, an AI robot which looks like a statue of a saint, and is “designed to help people pray” by offering Bible quotes in response to questions.

Not to be outdone, a protestant church in Germany has developed a robot called BlessU-2. BlessU-2, which looks like a character designed by Aardman Animations, can “forgive your sins in five different languages,” which must be handy if they’re too embarrassing to confess to a human.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Computer scientists and programmers pursue their goal of creating their own god from AI. They seek wisdom and guidance apart from the true source. “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13)

The Silver Bridge, officially named the Point Pleasant Bridge but known for its silver aluminum paint, opened on May 30, 1928, with great anticipation. Advertised as a groundbreaking cantilever design demanding “worldwide attention.” On its inaugural day, an estimated 10,000 people crossed the bridge, eager to be part of history.

But on December 15, 1967, the bridge collapsed. Eyewitnesses described the collapse as a slithering, buckling chain reaction, claiming dozens of cars and at least three trucks, resulting in the loss of 46 lives.

Unlike traditional suspension bridges like San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which use woven-wire cables, the Silver Bridge was suspended from heat-treated steel eyebar chains resembling elongated links of a bicycle chain. A Popular Mechanics article summarizes the design flaw and its consequences:

When National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered the wreckage, much of what they found was covered in rust. But they homed in on one small piece where the rust ran much deeper, the metal far more corroded: a single eyebar had snapped in two. It was as though a crack had developed over time, a slow corrosive fissure. The initial crack was barely one-quarter-inch long. But once it formed, all it could do was grow. Investigators came to understand that this single, tiny flaw destroyed the entire bridge.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The same is true in the spiritual life of the Christian. One small flaw, a little yielding to temptation, over time can cause the downfall of a person or a ministry.

In March of 2024, aviation manufacturer Boeing announced changes to their internal processes after failing a safety audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The audit followed a string of negative stories involving the safety of its aircrafts, including an incident in January where an Alaska Airlines flight experienced explosive decompression when an insufficiently secured door plug popped out.

The FAA reviewed 89 aspects of production at a plant in Renton, Washington, and found that the company failed at 33 of them. That amounts to a 63% success rate, which in school would normally earn students a letter grade of D.

In a memo to employees, president of Boeing’s commercial division Stan Deal said that the vast majority of failures involved employees not following approved procedures, and promised to provide opportunities for remedial learning. “We’ll be working with each employee noted with a non-compliance during the audit to ensure they fully understand the work instructions and procedures.”

Deal also acknowledged that the problems did not solely rest on the backs of production-level employees, but that many of Boeing’s procedures were confusing and changed too frequently. He said, “Our teams are working to simplify and streamline our processes and address the panel’s recommendations.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Whether in secular work or in ministry, taking hazardous shortcuts in a responsible work position, because of laziness, inexperience, or time pressure, can lead to disastrous results. It is better to speak up and take responsibility to make sure that a trust is fulfilled (1 Cor. 4:2).

First, there was a pop. And then a big bang. Air loudly whooshed out of the side of the airplane, which was flying at 16,000 feet with an emergency exit size gash. A cellphone, a teddy bear, and a passenger’s shirt were sucked out the hole in the cabin. Oxygen masks dropped from overhead compartments.

Passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 1282—which was enroute to Ontario, Calif., from Portland, Oregon—were fearful for their lives. The flight, however, landed back at the Portland airport less than 30 minutes after takeoff, with 171 passengers and six crew members aboard, all of them alive.

One passenger said, “We literally thought we were going to die.” Bolts needed to secure part of an Alaska Airlines jet that blew off in midair appear to have been missing when the plane left the factory.

Boeing and other industry officials increasingly believe the plane maker’s employees failed to put back the bolts when they reinstalled a 737 MAX 9 plug door after opening or removing it during production.

The scenario was based partly on an absence of markings on the Alaska door plug itself that would suggest bolts were not in place when it blew off the jet around 16,000 feet over Oregon. They also pointed to paperwork and process lapses at Boeing’s Renton, Washington factory related to the company’s work on the plug door.

A shocking video captured the moment a fisherman was bitten by a shark that pulled him overboard into the murky waters of Florida’s Everglades—seconds after he shrugged off his friend’s warning.

The frightening ordeal unfolded after the man leaned over the boat to rinse his hands in the water as his pal cautioned him of the dangers. “I wouldn’t put your hands in there,” a person off-camera says.

“Ah, two seconds won’t do anything,” the man replies as he bends over the side of the boat and dips his right hand into the water. Almost instantly, a shark chomps onto the fisherman’s right hand and drags him head-first into the water as he screamed. The shark releases its grip and the man tried to grab onto the boat with his injured hand, leaving a bloody handprint behind.

“Get him! Get him!” the friend screams in a panic. The man was able to get himself back onto the boat with the help of his friends.

His friend, Michael Russo who caught the attack on camera, said the group sped back to the dock and park rangers came to the victim’s aid. “He was airlifted to the hospital and is in the best care possible.”

Russo shared the video as a warning to others. He said, “Today was one of the scariest days on the water I have ever had. After releasing a fish, Nick washed his hands in the water and was immediately bit by a large shark. The sharks are no joke in the Everglades and the warnings about keeping your hands out of the water are not an exaggeration. Please take this as a lesson and keep your hands out of the water because this could have been prevented.”

You can view the terrifying video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Many people also ignore the Bible’s warnings about Satan, who “prowls around seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:7). “Ah, just a moment of yielding to temptation won’t do anything! I’ll be fine.” Sadly, some never escape his clutches.

When Letitia Bishop ordered three Subway sandwiches at her local gas station, she probably expected a four-figure receipt – as long as the last two were after the decimal point. But that’s not at all what happened. After her purchase, she later checked her debit account and found a charge for $1,021.50.

After getting over the sticker shock of her purchase, Bishop said she tried contacting Subway’s corporate offices, but couldn’t get through to an actual human being. And when she went back to the store, she found that the store had been closed down.

It took seven weeks for her to get her money back, during which time she could barely pay for groceries and was forced to live off credit cards. Bishop said, “I had to make sacrifices during these two months. It was very difficult. I have never had to feel like we're going to have to get spaghetti, and that's going to be that.”

Bishop contacted a local news affiliate and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Connecticut (where Subway’s corporate offices are located). That’s when a Subway representative put her in contact with a regional manager that owns the gas station and the Subway franchise. That regional manager opted to give Bishop cash back and made her sign a receipt.

But that wasn’t the end of her headache. Apparently, the irregularity of the large cash deposit caused her local bank to flag the transaction, which meant she couldn’t immediately use the funds to pay her bills, causing further grief for Bishop. She said, "I just honestly don't have the emotional space to deal with this because literally it's stressing me out so much.

Possible Preaching Angle

Mistakes are a part of life, but those who do not own up to them cause a lot of harm to the innocent when justice is delayed.

It’s never a good thing for an airline to send a passenger on the wrong plane, especially when that passenger is a child. The six-year-old was supposed to fly from Philadelphia to visit his grandmother in Fort Myers, Florida, but ended up on a flight to Orlando instead.

Panic set in for Maria Ramos, the child’s grandmother, after the plane her grandson was initially supposed to be on landed and he wasn’t on it. Ramos began asking, “How did that happen? Did they get him off the plane? The flight attendant – after Mom handed them the paperwork – did they let him go by himself? He jumped in the wrong plane by himself?”

Spirit Airlines personnel informed her that Casper had instead landed in Orlando, 160 miles away. Apparently, the gate agent assigned to escort Casper to his departing flight from Philadelphia accidentally put him on the wrong flight. According to Spirit Airlines, that individual is no longer employed by the airline.

In a statement, Spirit Airlines said, “Any individual whose actions resulted in the incorrect boarding will be held accountable for failing to follow our procedures.” It also reiterated that though the boy was transported to the wrong city, he was accompanied by and under the supervision of a Spirit Airlines employee the entire time.

Ramos was eventually reunited with Casper after she drove to Orlando to pick him up. She already had his luggage, as it made it to Fort Myers on the correct flight. Spirit Airlines offered to reimburse her for the trip, but Ramos said all she wants is answers to her questions.

Possible Preaching Angle:

It seems instructive that it happened on Spirit Airlines, because even when the child seemed to be alone, the Holy Spirit was present to protect the child, even in the face of professional incompetence.

Jeopardy fans were furious after the contestants on an episode failed to answer a “simple” question about the Lord's Prayer during the game. Players Joe, Laura, and Suresh were unable to give the correct answer to former host Mayim Bialik's question about filling in the blank: “Matthew 6:9 says, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven, ____ be thy name,’" Bialik said. The group made an error of biblical proportions by not even attempting to guess the correct answer as the stage remained silent until Bialik gave the answer.

But the saddest thing happened over the next day or two on X. Jeopardy fans and lots of former or current church-going people started piling on with anger and shock at the contestants' inability to answer the question. Here are some of the posts:

“That’s ‘hallowed,’ you heathens!”

“Hey, Jeopardy geniuses … It's HALLOWED. Sheesh, what a sad world we live in.”

“OOF. Watching @Jeopardy tonight, and none of the contestants knew the words 'hallowed be thy name' in the Lord's Prayer,” one user lamented.

“You gotta be kidding me no one knew ‘hallowed.’”

“Screaming Hallowed! They didn't know the ‘Our Father.’ #Jeopardy,” wrote another.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Condemnation; Mocking - Rather than mock and condemn, it would have been much more fruitful to gently instruct those who don’t know the content, context, or relevance of the Lord’s Prayer. 2) Bible; Morality; Knowledge - Is it any wonder that the world is in the moral state that it is? People are perishing and being misled because of an ignorance of God’s Word (Hos. 4:6).

Your brain is planning to remind you of the stupid thing you did 15 years ago in the early hours of tomorrow morning. It reckons on waking you up with a jolt after only three hours of sleep. Then it will spend much of the rest of the night replaying a list your greatest (mistakes).

The spongy grey lump which sits between your ears is planning a real “greatest hits” retrospective which will include every dumb thing you’ve ever said. That time you got it completely wrong with the person you really fancied and doomed yourself to a life of regret and loneliness. Every stupid … choice you’ve ever made and how people are only your friends because they pity you.

It expects this will be complete by about 6:30am, by which time you’ll have to get up and go to work and pretend you’re just fine. When asked, your brain said it intends to do this randomly at intervals for the rest of your life.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Since no one is without sin (Ps. 143:2; Rom. 3:10), you will have many regrets, shameful memories, and sins to ponder late at night (Ps. 32:1-6). Only in Christ can we find true forgiveness, release from a guilty conscience, and the promise that “God’s mercy is new every morning” (Lam. 3:23-24).

NFL lineman Jim Marshall was part of the revered “Purple People Eater” Minnesota Viking defensive line. For twenty seasons he never missed a game, earning a reputation for toughness and reliability. On October 25, 1964, playing against the San Francisco 49ers, Marshall recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter and ran untouched for sixty-six yards to the end zone.

After crossing the goal line, he tossed the ball away and began celebrating. Imagine his surprise when an opposing player trotted up, patted him on the back, and thanked him. Marshall suddenly realized that he was standing in the wrong end zone. He had just scored a safety, giving two points to the 49ers. The Vikings still won that day, thanks to eight total turnovers from the 49ers.

On the return flight to Minnesota, teammates ribbed Marshall, who said he simply got confused. “They kept telling me to get up in the cockpit and fly the plane. That way we'd end up in Hawaii instead of Minnesota.”

In football, as in much of life, it doesn’t matter that you’re doing something earnestly if you aren’t doing the right thing.

As part of a push to "sinicize" religion (to make it Chinese in character), the Chinese Communist Party has embarked on a 10-year project to rewrite the Bible and other religious texts. In the Gospel of John, Jesus famously confronts the accusers of a woman caught committing adultery, saying "let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her." The chastened accusers slink away and Jesus says to the woman, "‘Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more.'"

A beautiful story of forgiveness and mercy. Unless you’re a CCP official. Then it's a story of a dissident challenging the authority of the state. A possible sneak preview of what a Bible with socialist characteristics might look like appeared in a Chinese university textbook in 2020. The rewritten Gospel of John excerpt ends, not with mercy, but with Jesus himself stoning the adulterous woman to death.

The 10-year project to rewrite the Bible, Quran, and other sacred texts is all part of Xi Jinping’s quest to make the faithful serve the party rather than God. At the 19th Party Congress, Chairman Xi declared "We will … insist on the sinicization of Chinese religions, and provide active guidance for religion and socialism to coexist." In other words, Xi Jinping has no problem with the first commandment, just so long as he and the CCP are playing the role of God.

Yet, even under intense persecution, faith persists throughout China and the number of faithful grows. There are accounts of underground churches, brave clergy, and steadfast believers every bit as courageous as saints of the early-church.

The CCP wishes for there to be nothing higher than their authority, and views love for anything besides their Marxist-Leninist regime with vicious jealousy. In an interview the pastor of one Chinese church stated, "In this war … the rulers have chosen an enemy that can never be imprisoned – the soul of man." The pastor ended with an assessment "[The PRC rulers] are doomed to lose."