November 3, 2026

It's election eve, and the church is being asked to account for itself on two fronts at once: who it votes for, and whether it can be trusted. Russell Moore wrote something yesterday about the limits of vision, the way no voter, no pundit, no pastor can see the whole board. That restraint feels necessary today. Ryan Burge mapped the most religious congressional districts and what they're likely to do tomorrow, and Christianity Today is watching Latino evangelicals as a bloc that refuses to be predicted. Religion News Service adds polling data suggesting religion on the ballot is never quite what campaigns expect. The political picture is complicated. The theological one is more so.

Alongside the election coverage, two abuse stories broke this week that the church cannot file under politics. The former Acts 29 CEO has been charged with rape in the UK, and a South Carolina minister who publicly defended a sex offender is now facing charges of his own. Julie Roys has both stories. We've been watching the question of pastoral authority and who the church protects surface again and again this spring. It hasn't resolved. First Things is running a piece on global Christian martyrs, and a Coptic Christian in Egypt was arrested for objecting to Islamic curriculum in public schools. The church that wants to speak about power in the public square has to reckon with how it uses power internally. Those two things are not separate questions.