The Unsaved Christian

When Patrick Mead took his father, Bill Mead, to live in a dementia care facility the week after Thanksgiving, he taped a note to his dad’s door. Mead wanted the staff members to know about the new resident in Room 14, even if his father couldn’t tell them himself.

“My name is Bill Mead,” the letter began. “I was born in abject poverty. I became a warrior (U.S. Navy, Korea War era). I then laid aside my weapons and became a minister and missionary. I traveled the world, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. …

When Pastor Zach Keele stood in the pulpit on the Sunday morning after Easter, his opening words spoke of death rather than resurrection. “This is an evil day,” he told the congregation. “A child of our church has gone forth and committed a horrible, wicked act.”

That member of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) is 19-year-old John Earnest, who is also the son of an elder in the congregation.

Like many journalists, WORLD reporters hear a common question: How do you cope with writing about so many difficult things? Thankfully, WORLD aspires to cover both good and bad news, but some days do appear especially dark.

During the last days of April and first week of May, some moments of darkness seemed nearly to swallow the light, but courageous men and women sought to overcome evil with good.

At a springtime reception for students admitted to Yale Law School, a quiet question circulated among some prospective members of next fall’s class: Should I still attend Yale?

Aaron Haviland—a third-year law student slated to graduate in May—answered yes: “But it’s a harder decision than when I made it.”

Haviland doesn’t have an acute case of senioritis. But he and other conservative students at the Ivy League law school say they face another condition: a hostile environment for students who defend religious liberty.

Six days after a massive fire blazed through the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a gang of suicide bombers tore through Easter morning worship services in three churches on the South Asian island of Sri Lanka.

Like many spots in the South, springtime in Georgia sings: The azaleas bloom, the dogwoods burst, and the acres of sprawling peach orchards stand hopeful against the threat of a late-spring freeze.

But as springtime unfurled in early April, a few other threats stalked the Peach State. They didn’t come from the cast of faux zombies filming The Walking Dead in the small town of Senoia, Ga., but they did come from another set of performers.

A little over two years ago, I wrote an article about the growing push to affirm transgenderism in children and teenagers. National Geographic had just published an issue praising the movement, and featured a cover photo of a 9-year-old boy dressed like a girl.

Ken Zucker, a secular psychologist in Canada, had recently lost his longtime position at a mental health center in Toronto for suggesting parents should try to help confused children become secure with their birth sex.