In the email newsletter today: All the things that had to happen for Watergate to actually matter
Daniel Silliman
@danielsilliman.bsky.social
Journalist. Historian. Church deacon. Raising cats, chickens, and bees in Appalachia.
I spent a few weeks reporting at rural mission hospitals in Africa to see how they're doing after our big cuts to humanitarian aid. Rural health institutions are adapting, but they've lost a lot of staff and it's chaotic. more to come www.christianitytoday.com/2026/07/hiv-...
After US Aid Cuts, the Sick Wonder Who Will Visit Them - Christianity Today
One year after the US shuttered USAID and cut HIV funding, faith-based institutions struggle to stay in touch with rural patients who might fall through the cracks.
christianitytoday.com
Charismatics getting ready for UFOs / alien invasion
Sometimes when I describe my job now, I say "I'm like a crime reporter, but where all the accused criminals are pastors." A story that's like that from this week: roysreport.com/former-youth...
Former youth minister facing murder charges dies in Las Vegas police custody | The Roys Report
A former youth pastor died by suicide as he faced charges he pushed his wife off Angels Landing in 2006 and staged it as a hiking accident.
roysreport.com
The green algae growing in the reflecting pool in Washington D.C. was first examined under a microscope by a French soldier in the Napoleonic era who learned botany while stationed in Haiti. Pierre Jean François Turpin became famous for his illustrations of plants.
The Episcopal Church is selling its 12-story headquarters in Manhattan. According to a top leader, though, it's not about the money but the optics
A pastor in Texas has uncovered evidence the Passion Bible — more than 1 million sold! — was extensively plagiarized. “Smoking gun after smoking gun after smoking gun.”
36% of Americans say culture grounded in Christian beliefs is very important to American national identity, per new AP poll. 80% say freedom of religion is core to US identity.
I'm not a lawyer, but interesting legal arguments from Sean Feucht in this fraud case roysreport.com/sean-feucht-...
Sean Feucht claims donor who gave $250,000 does not have right to sue for fraud | The Roys Report
Sean Feucht seeks dismissal of a fraud lawsuit filed by a donor who claims $250,000 intended for a worship tour was misused, citing donor-advised fund rules and religious freedom protections.
roysreport.com
Northview elders spoke for 10 minutes Sunday about sudden firing of megachurch pastor CJ Johnson. Said "can't answer all your questions" and "we're not able to discuss the details" three times But the terms of the third-party investigation EXPLICITLY SAY they can make it public.
Orange youth group curricula is used by an estimated one million kids every week. A summary of a third-party investigation (released very quietly) confirmed that the founder sexually abused six women.
Northview, an Indiana megachurch, didn't fire its minister last year when he was accused of propositioning a woman during counseling (he said it was a "pressure test"). Then, this week, C. J. Johnson is suddenly fired.
“What was time to me? It was a gift.” John Basinger, probably the only human who ever memorized all of Paradise Lost, died in South Dakota at 92.
An Acts 29 church in NC is maybe considering changing doctrine, along with leadership structure and culture, after another sex scandal brought down the co-founder.
10 succinct scriptural argument for women in Christian leadership, from an Asbury professor firebrandmag.com/articles/10-...
10 Scriptural Truths about Women in Leadership [Firebrand Big Read] — Firebrand Magazine
Cultural tides regularly beat against the shores of Scripture, slowly working to erode the truths God has entrusted to the church. In response, the people of God must continually build and repair the ...
firebrandmag.com
Not sure what I expected "Kanye's pastor" to do after Kanye moved on from "Jesus is King," but showing an elder nude photos of the elder's daughter ... was not it.
Charismatic leader Ché Ahn isn't going to be the next governor of California. Is it worth paying attention to his political aspirations anyway? Maybe:
Why are people still joining Mark Driscoll's church? “The whole thing is about men and masculinity,” a former member said. “They have an obsession with Mark and like being close to him. Mark is always going to have people he can attract. He could kill someone and still have people follow him.”
An ecclesiastic court in the UK ruled that chairs — 35 of them, upholstered — are not allowed in a church in Buckinghamshire. And the 25 already acquired by the churchwarden are not allowed either. They are "not appropriate."
If I'm reading this correctly, a Catholic priest was convicted of sexual assault in part for pressuring / manipulation a woman into having sex with her husband. The husband, incidentally, worked at Baylor.
We went and saw the synchronous fireflies again. Makes you just feel awe to be on this planet.
The curious contract at the heart of a new $1.75 million lawsuit against Liberty University: signed by Jerrys Falwell, and promising the younger of the two could continue collecting a salary through 2030, even if he was fired.
It's wild how varied access to public documents is in different courts across America. In Houston Texas, everything's available free online. Johnson City, Tennessee, I have to upload my license to prove I live in the state. Lynchburg, Virginia, "public" documents are only available in person.
An abuse case is back in court in Houston today. Survivors are fighting the Assemblies of God over disclosure of evidence, who has to give a deposition, and legal jurisdiction. As the case drags on into year three, is it worth it? I asked their lawyer:
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly is accusing a Pentecostal bishop, two pastors and an elder of $250 million fraud. roysreport.com/pentecostal-...
Pentecostal leaders accused of conspiracy to steal $250 million from drug manufacturer
Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly has accused four Church of God in Christ leaders of orchestrating a $250 million fraud scheme.
roysreport.com
Hillsdale College has had a steady flow of Catholic converts over the years. But recently a surge, according to the student newspaper.
