Sales increased at 79 percent of Christian bookstores last year

The latest victim to speak out against IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle said he sexually abused her at age 14, when she was his family’s babysitter at a former church.

Most evangelicals want to see improved border security and a solution to the migrant crisis. Why did Senator James Lankford’s efforts to negotiate a bipartisan immigration bill get squashed last week?

World magazine founder Joel Belz has died. A “newspaper man at heart,” he believed Christians needed news even when it was challenging.

Despite the Buddhism-infused rituals that come with the holiday, Christians see Mongolian New Year as an opportunity to evangelize.

Vladimir Putin told news anchor Tucker Carlson that he does not see God at work over the course of Russia’s history. Ukrainian evangelicals told CT they refused to watch or comment on the interview.

After singing along to hits from “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” to “I Love This Bar,” Russell Moore compares Toby Keith lyrics to the angry psalms.

Behind the story

From Harvest Prude: I knew I wanted to get a Democratic senator to weigh in on Senator James Lankford, the lead GOP negotiator of the failed border deal.

One lawmaker instantly came to mind. In my Hill reporting over the years, I’ve pestered Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, a number of times. Even in brief hallway interviews as he’s hurried to votes, he’s been a patient, detail-oriented responder.

So I jumped at the chance to do a sit-down in his office last week. It was also the perfect opportunity to ask him about Lankford.

Coons and Lankford are both faithful Protestants, and they’ve served as counterparts on a number of things: the National Prayer Breakfast, the Senate Ethics Committee, and the Senate Prayer Breakfast—a weekly gathering attended by a couple dozen religious lawmakers. It’s closed to press and staff, and the only other person than lawmakers is the chamber’s chaplain. That’s given participants time to know each other as more than just policy opponents.

Sure enough, Coons was willing to talk about his relationship with Lankford: “We’ve spent years getting to know each other. Our wives have worked together on the First Lady luncheon. I invited him to come to Delaware; he invited me to come to Oklahoma. That has to be intentional. So in the last couple of weeks, I’ve just been trying to encourage James personally.”

In other news

Sales increased at 79 percent of Christian bookstores last year, according to a new survey. The most popular categories were Christian living, devotionals, fiction, and Bible studies. In 2021, CT reported that retailers came out of the pandemic feeling optimistic.

A house church in Laos was attacked by a mob.

An appeals court in Armenia ruled against a 20-year-old Baptist who says his faith forbids him to fight in the military.

How did people make the papyrus rolls that Scripture was originally written on? And how did they store them?