Friday’s News & Ideas - 7/18/2025

Christian patriarchs make joint visit to shelled church in Gaza
The Guardian: Israel grants access after ‘stray’ tank round kills three people and wounds Catholic priest.

Newsboys scandals show Christian music has few moral guardrails*
Christianity Today: Michael Tait’s admissions raise questions about industry accountability.
Telegraph: The disturbing underbelly of the Christian music business*

In the birthplace of Christianity, churches and communities are coming under attack from Jewish settlers
NBC News: Israeli settlers “feel that everything belongs to them,” said Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

Condo conversion in former Brooklyn church offers ‘piece of history’*
The New York Times: The 19th-century building, in a historic district in Fort Greene, has 12 condos, starting at $1.195 million, each with touches from the site’s former use.

Encountering art and encountering God*
The Christian Century: For theologian Judith Wolfe, imagination is a necessary part of how we know the Divine.

The Spark

What I inherited from my criminal great-grandparents
In working through the Winter case files,* I often felt pinpricks of déjà vu: an exact turn of phrase, an absurdly specific expenditure, Jessica Winter writes for The New Yorker.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers