Author: Shalem John

Jennifer Lyell, an editor and author whose promising career in Christian publishing was derailed when she accused a former Southern Baptist leader of abuse, died Saturday. She was 47. “Jennifer passed gently into the arms of her Redeemer, surrounded by loved ones,” said her friend Rachael Denhollander, who said Lyell had suffered “a series of massive strokes, leading to her becoming unconscious sometime Monday afternoon. She was found Thursday evening after missing a medical appointment.” For much of her adult life, Lyell had been a Southern Baptist success story. She came to faith at 20 at a Billy Graham crusade, went to seminary,…

For the first time in Brazil’s history, evangelical Christians now account for more than a quarter of the population, according to new census figures released Friday. In the 2022 data, published by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), evangelicals numbered 47.4 million people, or 26.9 percent of Brazilians aged 10 and over, up from 21.6 percent in 2010.  The evangelical figures include Pentecostals as well as all other Protestant groups; a denominational breakdown is expected in the coming months.  Meanwhile, the share of Brazil’s historically dominant Catholic population fell from 65.1 percent to 56.7 percent. Those who identified…

American evangelicals, driven by a biblical vision to protect Israel, have long been integral to US. diplomacy in the Holy Land. And now they have another player on the team. Johnnie Moore, the evangelical public relations executive with deep ties in the Middle East, was appointed chairman of the embattled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Tuesday. The Trump administration appointed Mike Huckabee, another prominent evangelical, and a former Southern Baptist pastor who has described himself as a Christian Zionist, as the ambassador to Israel earlier this year. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, created within the past year, is a private group, formed…