THE TORCH LEADER
Global News for All People, Under the Light of Truth
HOLDING FORTH THE GOSPEL LIGHT
Southern Baptists will join believers worldwide on Sunday, November 1, for the annual Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, remembering an estimated 388 million Christians who suffer extreme persecution for their faith in Jesus — and answering the one request persecuted Christians make more than any other: prayer.
Churchome pastor Judah Smith said on the Miracle Mentality podcast that a person can keep another religious identity, such as Hindu, while following Jesus, saying, "You've got to meet Jesus" and "the point is to follow Jesus." The remarks, reported October 29, have renewed debate over what it truly means to follow Christ.
After new voting maps split and eliminated majority-Black districts across the South, Black churches in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi are leaning on a long tradition — voter registration drives, civics workshops, rides to the polls, and “Souls to the Polls” — to make sure their congregations are heard, even as some Christian leaders urge churches to keep partisan politics at arm's length.
Southern Baptists will join believers worldwide on Sunday, November 1, for the annual Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, remembering an estimated 388 million Christians who suffer extreme persecution for their faith in Jesus — and answering the one request persecuted Christians make more than any other: prayer.
Everett Public Schools in Washington has agreed to pay $275,000 in attorney's fees, revise its policies, require religious liberty training for board members, and post a public apology for six months to settle a lawsuit over its treatment of LifeWise Academy, an off-campus Bible education program.
A Texas A&M student's $11,000 parlay win opens a Christianity Today report on the explosion of sports betting among young men since the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling — with an estimated 52 percent of men ages 18 to 49 holding active betting accounts. Campus ministers say betting now carries no stigma among students, even as gambling disorder diagnoses among 18-to-29-year-olds have doubled, and they are urging young men to seek community without the wager.
Bill Gothard, 91, remains in a coma more than four months after a serious heart attack in late June, and his family is asking for prayer as he approaches his 92nd birthday on November 2. Gothard founded the Institute in Basic Life Principles in 1961 and stepped down in 2014 after women came forward with misconduct allegations.