Why Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting

It’s not summer yet, but here’s a preview of what to expect from this year’s denominational meetings, from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Anglican Church in North America.

Why Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting, according to former diplomat Knox Thames.

Political commentator Charlie Sykes joins The Bulletin for a jam-packed episode analyzing the Iran war and the Supreme Court’s recent transgender ruling.

Churches that urgently render verdicts on every controversy are complying with the speed of the algorithm rather than the timeline of God’s eternity, writes pastor Thomas Anderson.

As rents have been rising in the Research Triangle, North Carolina churches are backing a nonprofit that provides long-term affordable housing in a unique partnership with local government.

Andrew Wilson’s theology books column looks at a new book on why teaching children theology matters.

Behind the Story

From senior staff writer Emily Belz: Today we have an overview from CT contributor Megan Fowler of what’s coming in this summer’s denominational meetings. Covering those meetings can present a logistical challenge.

In 1988, CT associate editor Rodney Clapp traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to cover the Southern Baptist Convention. It was a standard reporting trip, except he had to stay at a hotel 116 miles away because everything was booked up near the convention.

The SBC still presents a unique lodging problem due to its size, as CT staff has experienced in the years since 1988, but reporting travel can often lead you on those kinds of housing adventures. When I covered the East Palestine train derailment back in 2023, locals told me there was only one place I could stay nearby—a Best Western. It had a room available.

I didn’t take it for granted, since the local population was displaced too. Whether it’s denominational meetings or disasters, lodging for reporters is not always easy to come by. The situation worked in my favor because displaced locals staying at the Best Western wanted to talk. In years of reporting I’ve found that obstacles, including finding a place to lay your head, make better stories.  After years of litigation, Southern Methodist University and the United Methodist Church have reconciled and said they have an agreement to continue their relationship. The war in Iran is roiling President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, with one Muslim adviser resigning.  Police said a man at last week’s Prestonwood Baptist Church service was removed because he was "agreeing loudly with what the pastor was talking about and was animated in doing so, making other churchgoers uncomfortable." Today in Christian History March 20, 1852: Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of famous Congregational minister Lyman Beecher, publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin (which had been serialized in an antislavery newspaper).