2019 News of the Year
Notre Dame on fire ...
Defender of Hong Kong
One pastor’s journey from life on the streets to the head of pro-democracy protests
Sin in the city
An attempt to rank America’s most vice-ridden places provides a flawed but insightful snapshot of modern-day morality
A league of their own
Yale Law School’s response to an LGBT group’s demands raises questions for students concerned about religious liberty
Viral complications
Measles outbreaks have spiked globally amid rising vaccine doubts in Jewish, Christian, and liberal/Buddhist pockets, and a virulent strain has governments resorting to heavier interventions
Voices
The Editors
Mailbag
False convictions, ruined lives ...
Joel Belz
The trouble with formulas
Pity poor Michael Pompeo, our secretary of state. And while you’re at it, pity his boss, President Trump. ...
Andrée Seu Peterson
To tell the truth
What if you always told the truth? Would things work out for you? ...
Mindy Belz
Unbreakable bonds
By one count there are 138 Islamist terror groups in the world specifically targeting Christians and Jews. One hundred thirty-eight. ...
Marvin Olasky
Happy Gravida’s Day!
On June 1, 1977, two people closed their eyes to the existence of babies. I’m thankful for the wink of one and still saddened by the blindness of another. ...
Janie B. Cheaney
Pleasant borders
Years ago, on an episode of Focus on the Family, I heard the story of an experimental school for young children. The school’s founders wanted to challenge the students to tap into their natural...
Notebook
Sports
Speech scrum
Australian rugby star Israel Folau is to rugby what Michael Jordan once was to basketball. “Put simply, no one else in Australian rugby can do what Folau does,” sportswriter Bret Harris wrote in...
Lifestyle
Obeying the clarion call
It was a wet Tuesday morning last year when I arrived in Nigeria’s southern Rivers state, towing a suitcase packed with white T-shirts and shorts, white rubber tennis shoes, and a fanny pack. ...
Journals
Snapshots of China
Drowning in overtime
In China, as the economy slows, wages stagnate, and layoffs increase, workers at Chinese tech companies are pushing back against a grueling work culture known as the “996.” ...
Whirled Views
Transgender tide
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...
Culture
Children's Books
Whimsical words
The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems ...
Books
Books on parenting
Parenting With Words of Grace ...
Books
Unchurched election
Pundits have written abundantly about evangelical support of Donald Trump, but they’ve mostly gotten it wrong. WORLD’s running survey of evangelical leaders in 2015 showed almost zero initial support...
Music
Notable rereleases
The Sweet Primeroses ...
Q&A
Getting the big story
Emma Green covers religion and other spheres for The Atlantic, a venerable magazine that’s probably America’s best center-left publication. Here are edited and tightened excerpts of a Q&A that she...
Documentary
Concocted doctrines
A woman quits her job after hearing her pastor’s prophecy. She falls into financial ruin within two months. Who’s to blame? She is—she probably didn’t have enough faith. A man is born with cerebral...
Movies & TV
Killing a legend
At the 2017 Academy Awards a little over two years ago, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented the biggest prize of the evening, the award for best picture. It was the first time the two actors had...
Movies & TV
Superheroes assembled
Is there any way to grade Avengers: Endgame except on a curve? Nothing on the Avengers franchise’s scale—21 films featuring a rotating cast of dozens of interconnected main characters—had ever been...
Movies & TV
Out of the depths
“Why do you think God chooses to save some and not others?” It’s an honest question, but not one a Christian middle-school teacher, even if recently widowed, should throw in the face of a boy who...
Music
A unique tilt
On April 1, The New York Times published a story titled “‘Blurred Lines’ on Their Minds, Songwriters Create Nervously.” It detailed the anxiety besetting pop composers in the wake of recent...
