Today

A Ninth Embassy in Jerusalem Leads the Day's Church News

By The FaithDaily Desk

Good morning. The most consequential news for the churches came from Jerusalem. Charisma News reported that Naoero, a small South Pacific island nation, became the ninth country to establish an embassy in the city. Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, welcomed the move at the opening ceremony and indicated that a tenth was on the way. Charisma News reported the embassy opened on Monday. According to the outlet, Naoero's vice president tied the decision to faith, saying that supporting Israel brings God's blessing. The step matters because it sets a national government's foreign policy beside a religious claim, and because, by the same account, more such moves may follow.

Two stories turned to faith and public life. Religion News Service published a podcast conversation between host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and Congressman Jared Huffman, co-founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Huffman discussed what he describes as authoritarian impulses in government and drew on his new book, "No Prophets." Religion News Service framed the episode as a discussion of Christian nationalism and democracy. That framing is the outlet's own, and readers should weigh it as such.

From England, Charisma News reported that a small village of about 350 residents is weighing a referendum to leave the United Kingdom. The outlet said the villagers reached out to President Trump through what it called backchannel connections, after learning the government planned to house more than 3,500 asylum seekers nearby. The report does not say whether any such vote will take place.

Two further pieces stayed closer to the ground. Christianity Today followed Christina Stanton, who leads a 9/11 walking tour in New York City and offers to make it a prayer walk for Christian and church groups. Writer Kristy Etheridge joined the tour of the World Trade Center memorial site, twenty-five years on from the attacks. It is a reminder that remembrance and prayer can share the same ground.

The Gospel Coalition published a first-person testimony under the title "Everything I Tried Let Me Down. But Jesus Didn't." The writer describes years spent believing that a young, wild and free life was the way to become who they were meant to be, and finding instead a kind of death apart from their Maker. It is one account, told in the writer's own words.