Author: Shalem John

A customer service representative can be central to carrying out a religious organization’s mission in the same way a pastor is, a federal appeals court ruled, shielding the employer from federal nondiscrimination statutes. World Vision had rescinded a customer service job offer to a woman, Aubry McMahon, after learning she was in a same-sex marriage, and she sued over discrimination. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that World Vision was exempt from the woman’s bias suit, reversing a district judge’s ruling in 2023. Customer service reps “are World Vision’s ‘voice,’” the court ruled. The three-judge panel,…

Colby Barrett was at his home in Telluride, Colorado, last year when a friend called with an invitation. He wanted Barrett to join a convoy delivering aid to Ukraine.  “Absolutely not,” Barrett told him. “There’s a war there.”  He was also tied up at home. He was in the process of selling his construction business, the peaches at his organic orchard needed harvesting, and his four kids had packed schedules. Barrett, an evangelical Christian, didn’t know much about Ukraine other than what he saw on the news. But as he did some research, he saw statistics about Christian fatalities in…

The close-knit camp community in the Texas Hill Country will never be the same. Early morning on the Fourth of July, record-setting flash floods swept away 27 girls at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, and washed through campgrounds where generations of young Texans have spent their summers along the Guadalupe River. Christians across the state and the country prayed as rescue teams navigated the flooded roads Friday and Saturday to retrieve hundreds of campers in disaster areas, which had lost power, internet, and road access when water levels rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, per state officials. By Saturday evening,…