Friday's News & Ideas - 2/12/2021

Ravi Zacharias hid hundreds of pictures of women, abuse during massages, and a rape allegation
Christianity Today: His ministry, preparing to downsize in the wake of a new investigation, expresses regret for “misplaced trust” in a leader who used his esteem to conceal his sexual misconduct.

Christian prophets are on the rise. What happens when they’re wrong?*
The New York Times: They are stars within one of the fastest-growing corners of American Christianity. Now, their movement is in crisis.

Carl Lentz and the trouble at Hillsong*
Vanity Fair: When a cheating scandal blew up the pastor’s life, some Hillsong congregants were left to question their relationship with a church that cultivated its own kind of fame -- and the double standards that often came with it.

When Christian media peddle lies
Sojourners: Over 70 percent of Republican voters still believe the election was stolen. More prominent conservative Christian leaders and Christian media could have spoken out against the lie and reported the truth. Instead, many of them fanned the flames that led to this tragedy.

Survey: More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory
Religion News Service: There was also significant support among white evangelicals for the claim that members of antifa, or anti-fascist activists, were ‘mostly responsible’ for the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the survey conducted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The Spark

Grief’s anatomy: Hope awaits organizers like a trap
The present can be reduced to an era, but history is harder to reckon with, The Baffler says.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers

Want to get News & Ideas in your inbox every weekday?
Subscribe to our News & Ideas newsletter or receive our RSS feed in your RSS reader.