Kissing courtship goodbye // Remembering civil rights history FEBRUARY 17, 2018 0 Picture books, novels, and nonfiction 0 Gender fluidity for preschoolers 0 Diversity and the culture of censorship Medi-Share World Ads5.indd 5 8/30/17 5:55 PM CONTENTS | February 17, 2018 • Volume 33 • Number 3 29 17 40 46 50 FEATURES DISPATCHES 7 News / Human Race / 29 Children’s Books of the Year Quotables / Quick Takes 0 PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR: A psalm-inspired story of classmate reconciliation CULTURE 0 DISSOLVING IDENTITIES: Gender fluidity for preschoolers 0 NOVEL OF THE YEAR: A New York story about a family in Harlem 17 Movies & TV / Books / and a misanthropic landlord Children’s Books / Music 0 AGE OF OUTRAGE: Have diversity police created a culture of censorship? NOTEBOOK 0 MIND BUILDERS: A five-book selection of outstanding nonfiction 0 CATHEDRALS AND VALLEYS: Discovering “the scarred hands of 55 Lifestyle / Science / an unseen Liberator” Sports / Religion 40 Kisses of regret VOICES The influential courtship manifestoI Kissed Dating Goodbye turns 21 this year, but some former fans of the book aren’t celebrating 5 Joel Belz Q&A WITH JOSHUA HARRIS: Lessons learned two decades 26 Mindy Belz after the courtship revolution 61 Mailbag 63 Andrée Seu Peterson 46 Still taking the narrow path Chinese Christian millennials are living out the challenges and 64 Marvin Olasky opportunities of Christian life in the communist country 50 Mississippi turning ON THE COVER: A new civil rights museum reflects a state grappling with history Illustration by Krieg Barrie Give the gift of clarity: wng.org/giftofclarity FOR A lifetime O F more faithful DONALD WHITNEY ASSOCIATE DEAN OF THE service SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY PREVIEW DAY World-renowned faculty train undergraduate students at Boyce College and graduate students at Southern Seminary for a lifetime of more faithful service. Join us and spread the word to those you know who are called to ministry.With fall and spring Preview Days, plus individual visits taking place throughout the year, now is the time to visit Louisville and engage with professors about your future. APRIL 20 MARCH 23 sbts.edu/visit FOR A lifetime O F more faithful DONALD WHITNEY ASSOCIATE DEAN OF THE service SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY PREVIEW DAY World-renowned faculty train undergraduate students at Boyce College and graduate students at Southern Seminary for a lifetime of more faithful service. Join us and spread the word to those you know who are called to ministry.With fall and spring Preview Days, plus individual visits taking place throughout the year, now is the time to visit Louisville and engage with professors about your future. APRIL 20 MARCH 23 sbts.edu/visit Notes from the CEO “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” e all live according to habits: the good ones difficult to —PSALM 24:1 cultivate, the bad ones difficult to break. Daily Bible reading Chief Content Officer Nick Eicher Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky is a good habit, and although it takes effort to maintain, it Senior Editor Mindy Belz W always bears good fruit. Eating chips and salsa, arguably, is a bad habit that if not broken can bring a host of negative Editor Timothy Lamer National Editor Jamie Dean consequences. Believe me, I know. Managing Editor Daniel James Devine Art Director David K. Freeland At WORLD, we’ve been working to create digital news content that’s an easily Associate Art Director Robert L. Patete Reporters Emily Belz • Sophia Lee cultivated daily habit and bears good fruit. WORLD Magazine writers Jamie Dean, East Asia Bureau June Cheng • Angela Lu Fulton Story Coach Susan Olasky Emily Belz, and Sophia Lee produce regular personal online journals. WORLD Senior Writers Janie B. Cheaney Andrée Seu Peterson • John Piper Digital produces weekly roundups on life, education, arts, poverty-fighting, family, Edward E. Plowman • Lynn Vincent Correspondents Sandy Barwick • Megan Basham origins, and religious liberty—as well as Washington policy and politics, and inter- Julie Borg • Anthony Bradley • Bob Brown Michael Cochrane • John Dawson national news. Additionally, we produce a popular daily quick read on the news Juliana Chan Erikson • Katie Gaultney Kim Henderson • Charles Horton • Mary Jackson that we call The Sift. Jill Nelson • Henry Olsen • Arsenio Orteza Jenny Schmitt • Jae Wasson • Emily Whitten In the months since we rolled out all that content online, we’ve begun emailing Mailbag Editor Les Sillars Executive Assistant June McGraw it as well, including a daily email of The Sift. It’s pretty simple to visit the website Editorial Assistants Kristin Chapman Amy Derrick • Mary Ruth Murdoch to consume those stories, but the emails tend to reinforce the habit of doing so. Graphic Designer Rachel Beatty Illustrator Krieg Barrie Much as I hate to admit it, I know that not all WORLD members read every Digital Production Assistant Arla J. Eicher word we write. I get it. We’re all busy. But there’s something nice about being able to skim an email—especially The Sift, because it contains the “big” stories of the Website wng.org Executive Editor Mickey McLean day—and find out if I’m missing anything important. Managing Editor Leigh Jones Assistant Editors Kiley Crossland I’ve already heard from many of you that you appreciate The Sift for its quick Lynde Langdon • Dan Perkins Reporters Onize Ohikere • Evan Wilt update format. If you’ve managed to ignore the email—or worse, you’ve unsub- Correspondents La Shawn Barber • Gaye Clark Laura Finch • Samantha Gobba • Anna K. Poole scribed to it—I encourage you to give it another chance. Make it a habit. I think Bonnie Pritchett • Julia A. Seymour you’ll be glad you did. Editorial Assistant Whitney Williams Website wng.org/radio Executive Producer/Cohost Nick Eicher Managing Editor J.C. 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Albert Mohler Jr. Russell B. Pulliam • David Skeel • David Strassner WORLD occasionally rents subscriber names to carefully screened, like-minded organizations. If you would prefer Ladeine Thompson • Raymon Thompson not to receive these promotions, please call customer service and ask to be placed on our DO NOT RENT list. MISSION STATEMENT Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires. WORLD (ISSN 0888-157X) (USPS 763-010) is published biweekly (24 issues) for $59.95 per year by God’s World Publications, (no mail) 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803; 828.232.5260. Periodical postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. © 2018 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORLD, PO Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998. VOICES Joel Belz market that for a decade or more has been headed toward shrinkage? Thoughtful people may well disagree on the answer to that question. Some are of the opin- ion that such a flat line of no growth probably wouldn’t have happened if the United States had continued to welcome immigrants in recent years in the same way it had for most of Diapers are our country’s history. Such immigrants would not only add to the number of people already living here, but most of them would tend toward demography having bigger-than-average families. More AREN’T YOU CURIOUS TO KNOW WHY market possibilities for Kimberly-Clark. HUGGIES EXECUTIVES ARE WORRIED ABOUT The U.S. Census Bureau, meanwhile, argues that it’s not immigration, but fewer women A DECLINE IN SALES? giving birth that has reduced and shrunk the size of the American A couple of news items grabbed my atten- market. The bureau R tion a few days ago. But it was more for says that babies born what they didn’t report than for what they did. in the United States The first involved a veteran CEO’s report to account for almost the stockholders of his big company. “Times are four times as many net good,” he was able to report truthfully. The new Americans as do consensus in the room was that the economy is first-generation good and that the new tax laws are favorable. immigrants—a claim But then, conceding that there were also a few that obviously rests in dark clouds on the horizon, the executive part on the birthrate stopped short of what seems to me might have among those usually been a very helpful analysis.