From staff writer Emily Belz: Sometimes when you start reporting a story, the reporting takes you down a very different path than you expect. Last year we noticed a movie that was topping the box office and popular with Christian audiences: Sound of Freedom. We decided to report a story from people fighting trafficking about how the movie depicted their work.
But soon I was reporting on the allegations that the hero depicted in the movie, Tim Ballard, had himself committed sexual assault against multiple women. Then fast-forward to today, and some of the anti-trafficking experts I interviewed for the story on Sound of Freedom were sources for our story about
the nomination of former congressman Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.
Gaetz would be the top law enforcement officer in the US who fights trafficking, but is himself accused of engaging in sex trafficking. I certainly didn’t expect that reporting on a Jim Caviezel movie would help prepare me to report on a cabinet nomination, and I’m certain my sources weren’t anticipating that either.
November 19, 1861: At the suggestion of her minister, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe wrote "some good words to that tune" of the popular song "John Brown's Body." In February, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in the Atlantic Monthly and became very popular, especially after the Civil War (see issue 33: Christianity and the Civil War).
Campton Baptist Church used to have an annual fundraiser to pay the power bill. Heating the eastern Kentucky church building cost thousands of dollars every winter, and the small Southern…
"Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." This pithy saying, attributed to the famed British writer C. S. Lewis, has widely circulated the internet…
At church services across the country this Christmas, wiggly kids will take the stage and stand in crooked lines to sing "Away in a Manger" and "Joy to the World"…
How can Christians know if they are managing their relationships in a healthy way? What does it look like to treat people with mental health disorders lovingly and respectfully? When…
in the magazine
As this issue hits your mailboxes after the US election and as you prepare for the holidays, it can be easy to feel lost in darkness. In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt shows us how art surprises, delights, and retools our imagination for the Incarnation, while Jeremy Treat reminds us of an ancient African bishop's teachings about Immanuel. Finally, may you be surprised by the nearness of the "Winter Child," whom poet Malcolm Guite guides us enticingly toward. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas.
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