Visit a crisis pregnancy center

The majority of people who die in the US this year will be cremated, a dramatic shift in burial norms. Most pastors don’t oppose cremation, though they worry about how a lack of funerals disrupts traditional opportunities to grieve in community.

Laundromat ministries are not as popular as Christian coffee shops, but churches big and small are using them to serve their neighbors, one load of clean clothes at a time.

After federal conscience protections proposed under the previous administration were never enacted, three states passed their own laws to protect doctors who decline procedures on religious grounds, with South Carolina signing its bill into law in June.

Jesus’ command to “turn the other cheek” applies to the expected uptick in political violence in the US, writes columnist Bonnie Kristian.

Behind the story

From Kate Shellnutt: One of my favorite parts of reporting and editing for Christianity Today is hearing the kinds of “small world” connections that turn up among our readers across the big evangelical world. People message to say, “That’s my pastor” or “You talked to my old Sunday school teacher.” Once, I had a commenter recognize their friend in a photo we used to depict a story about baptism. Last week, a Twitter follower shared that she knew the missionary who mentored the Christian pilot featured in our story about efforts to save gazelles in Chad.

When I first read the laundromat ministry story from our July/August issue, I got to have my own “small world” moment. I’d walked by one of the churches in the story—Belmont Baptist in Charlottesville, Virginia—weeks before when visiting my sister, who lives in the same neighborhood. I’m going to send her the link.

This summer, CT is continuing to add editors to expand our coverage of the global church, specifically in Asia. I’m excited when I think about more of our readers outside the US recognizing the issues, churches, and names we feature and getting to have their “small world” moments too.

In other news

A survey of more than 1,000 pregnancy help centers found each convinced an average of 53 women not have an abortion in 2020. CT previously reported on another study that said about 13 percent of women who are considering an abortion visit a crisis pregnancy center.

In the two months since a Christian student in Nigeria was killed over remarks made in a WhatsApp group, Christian leaders are speaking up to condemn “mob justice” as a response to alleged blasphemy against Islam.

In a new Lifeway survey, more non-Christians in the US agree that Christians face intolerance due to their faith.

A Dutch man known as the “Indiana Jones of Art” discovered a stolen Catholic relic said to contain the blood of Jesus on his front step.