October 31, 2026

Today the church is asking who it can trust, and what it does when the answer keeps coming back: not who we thought. The Roys Report broke the story that Stephen Timmis, former Acts 29 CEO, and his wife Janet now face eight rape charges in the UK. A separate Roys investigation found that Compassion International has no clear path to remove sponsors accused of grooming vulnerable children. Two institutions. Two different kinds of failure. The same question underneath: what accountability actually looks like when the people harmed are the least powerful in the room. That question has been sitting in the feed for weeks. On March 24 the conversation was about suffering and whether the church believes God works through it. This week the question is sharper: whether the church protects the people it claims to serve.

Christian blogger Samuel Sey was arrested by ICE and has now been removed to Canada, according to Religion News Service. His family says danger remains. A Sudanese pastor's son was freed from prison under similar pressure. The Christian Post notes the danger there hasn't lifted either. Relevant Magazine reports that 388 million Christians face high persecution levels, with a global prayer call this Sunday. Meanwhile a New Mexico megachurch openly endorsed Republican candidates, testing the federal prohibition on political endorsement by tax-exempt churches, per The Guardian. Christianity Today ran letters debating ground rules for religion in the public square. The church is not short of opinions about politics. It is short of agreement on what faithfulness to the persecuted actually costs the comfortable.