INDIANAPOLIS—Nearly 20 years ago, WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky put Indianapolis on the map with a chapter about the city in his book Compassionate Conservatism, endorsed by then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas.

In 2009, Maverick Books published John R. Erickson’s Story Craft: Reflections of Faith, Culture and Writing from the Author of Hank of the Cowdog. With permission from the publisher, we’re posting in our Saturday Series a chapter each month through January. Here’s a chapter titled “Eight Keys to Good Writing,” which starts with a quotation from Gene Edward Veith’s Reading Between the Lines: “The answer to bad books is good books.” —Marvin Olasky

I will not buy a smartphone for my children because …

1. The assorted evils in all of world history await them in seconds.

Every wicked thought of man is waiting to be uncovered by a child on a smartphone in isolation. The perversion of every goodness lies twisted for youthful minds like a lion in blood-thirsty stalk. In the history of mankind, this is unprecedented, immediate access to both good and evil.

May 1946 found C.S. Lewis tired of answering what had become a ceaseless stream of letters—mostly from Americans, the majority from women, and often about theology. A previously unpublished letter held at the British Library illustrates the commitment Lewis showed in private to serving those who taxed his time, energy, and, often, his nerves.

John S. Dickerson is a journalist-turned-pastor and the author of a new book, Hope of Nations: Standing Strong in a Post-Truth, Post-Christian World (Zondervan, 2018). He should not be confused with the John F. Dickerson who co-hosts CBS This Morning, but F is the rare fair reporter in big-time media and S is also an excellent writer.

In 2009, Maverick Books published John R. Erickson’s Story Craft: Reflections of Faith, Culture and Writing from the Author of Hank of the Cowdog. With permission from the publisher, we’re posting in our Saturday Series a chapter each month through January. Here’s a chapter titled “The Christian Writer,” which starts with a quotation from Philip Ryken’s Art for God’s Sake: “Christian art is redemptive, and this is its highest purpose.” —Marvin Olasky

C.S. Lewis famously dismissed the journalism of his day. “I never read the papers. Why does anyone?” he wrote. “They’re nearly all lies, and one has to wade thru’ such reams of verbiage and ‘write up’ to find out even what they’re saying.” The notion, he quipped elsewhere, that journalists “can be saved is a doctrine, if not contrary to, yet certainly above, reason!”