By Melissa Wuske

Why Francis Chan Left His Church

In 2010, Francis Chan left the megachurch he founded. In a recent talk, he shared with Facebook employees about his decision. “According to the Bible, every single one of these people has a supernatural gift that’s meant to be used for the body,” Chan said. “5,000 people show up every week to hear my gift, see my gift. . . . So I’m wasting the human resource of these people that according to Scripture have a miraculous gift that they could contribute to the body but they’re just sitting there quietly.”

Now Chan helps lead a network of house churches. “We’ve got a few hundred people now and it costs nothing,” Chan said. “And everyone’s growing and everyone’s having to read [the Bible] for themselves and people are actually caring for one another. I don’t even preach. They just meet in their homes, they study, they pray, they care for one another. They’re becoming the church and I’m just loving it.”

Christian College Grads Face Debt

Three-quarters of graduates of private colleges, including Christian schools, leave school with loan debt, and most students with debt owe about $30,000. Debt makes it harder for graduates to buy homes, save, and meet other financial milestones.

“How we’ll be able to afford a house and children is something we’re greatly concerned about,” said Danae Parker. She and her husband have a combined $129,000 in debt from attending a private Christian school. With a $2,000 monthly payment, the couple will be in debt until their 50s. In order to pay their loans, Parker works as a nanny because it pays better than the career paths she majored in, writing and social work. “Honestly, we frequently bemoan our choices to attend a private Christian college solely because of the financial hole it’s put us in.”

“I don’t feel swindled,” said Ashley Abramson, another Christian college graduate with $50,000 in debt. “I needed the nourishment I received from my professors and the community I found there. But I’m still paying the price almost 10 years later, and it’s affecting my marriage and now, even my kids.”

Older People Commit Adultery More

While the overall rate of adultery in America has remained fairly steady for years, a survey has found that in the last decade or so older people are cheating at increasing levels and young people are cheating less. “By 2016, 20 percent of older respondents indicated that their marriages were nominally adulterous, compared to 14 percent for people under 55,” said Nicholas Wolfinger, a professor of family and consumer sciences and sociology at the University of Utah. Some speculate that those over 55 were influenced by their coming of age during the sexual revolution, and that younger Americans “are watching the adults around them and concluding that sex without limits is not making people happy,” said Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of Ruth Institute.

Jewish Nurse Feeds Palestinian Baby

Nine-month-old Yaman Abu Ramila, a Palestinian, cried from hunger in the emergency room after an accident killed his father and left his mother in serious condition. Hospital staff tried to get the boy to take a bottle, but he refused. Finally, Ula Ostrowski-Zak, a Jewish nurse, came in for her shift and agreed to breastfeed the boy. “His aunts were surprised that a Jew agreed to breastfeed him, but I told them that any mother would do it,” said Ostrowski-Zak.

Melissa Wuske is a freelance editor and writer. She and her husband, Shawn, live and minister in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Find her work online (melissaannewuske.com).