As evangelical Christians and others toss around the latest stories about whatever is happening at Christianity Today, something just doesn’t add up for me.
I’ve been in the religious journalism business off and on for 43 years, and it is obvious we do not have all the facts. Because the facts we have do not make sense.
Mark Wingfield
Here’s what’s public:
- In seven years, the flagship evangelical magazine has had six editors in chief: Mark Galli, Daniel Harrell, Tim Dalrymple, Russell Moore, Marvin Olasky and now Erik Petrik.
- As of Oct. 13, the Christianity Today website listed 84 employees. Some untold number of those employees reportedly have been laid off or quit, including some high-profile folks.
- By some accounts, there are no reporters left on the staff, only editors.
- The organization’s newish president makes it sound like all this is about financial rightsizing, yet the organization just completed a successful capital campaign and according to IRS Form 990 filed for tax year 2024, took in $10.5 million through contributions and grants and had total income of $22.9 million.
- At least three former staff journalists have gone public with stories about their integrity being challenged by the organization’s leadership.
- Bonnie Kristian, Christianity Today’s deputy editor until last week, told Ruth Graham of The New York Times CT’s new leaders are driven “by fear, by the kind of anxiety about reputational and financial loss that makes bold, interesting, principled journalism very difficult.”
- The magazine has been under attack from the far right for several years, with allegations that it has become “woke” — mirroring common talking points of the TheoBros and Calvinists of evangelicalism.
- The respected publisher of another evangelical online publication said CT is “in chaos.”
That chaos is increasingly being confirmed by report after report, but the cause of the chaos remains ambiguous. I find it hard to believe money is the main problem. Yes, all news publications face economic challenges these days — don’t I know it!
CT is not cash poor. They may have been overstaffed, but that’s a different story.
“What appears to be emerging here is a chaotic attempt to placate critics on the right while not embracing the center or the left.”
What appears to be emerging here is a chaotic attempt to placate critics on the right while not embracing the center or the left. Whoever is in charge seems to be playing to the lowest common denominator and knows professional journalists won’t play that game.
The most important section of Ruth Graham’s New York Times article is this:
(Daniel) Silliman was suspended last fall by the outlet’s editor in chief at the time, Mr. Olasky, formerly of World, over a news article about a lawsuit against a California megachurch and its high-profile pastor, Greg Laurie.
It soon became clear to the reporter that it was (Interim President Thomas) Addington who had initiated the punishment. Mr. Addington told Mr. Silliman and his editor, Kate Shellnutt, that he was going to fly to California to personally apologize to Mr. Laurie for the article, which he described as unfair. … At one point, Mr. Silliman recalled, Mr. Addington wondered out loud why so many of his friends said Christianity Today was “feminine” and “woke.”
The article about Greg Laurie wasn’t wrong. It was about a publicly known lawsuit. It was news reporting.
As with so many things in modern-day evangelicalism, many of the criticisms of CT are convoluted and hard to follow unless you’re a conspiracy theorist. The latest evidence is a huge kerfuffle over an article about the sexuality of missionary and author Elisabeth Elliot. Facing intense criticism, the new editor took down the article, made revisions, then reposted it. And the internet is ablaze with people parsing every word.
This kind of thing would not happen if Christianity Today were staffed with seasoned journalists. But most of them seem to have bailed or been pushed overboard.
The important question is why.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global.
Related:
Staff layoffs and resignations reported at Christianity Today