Cross Purposes

During a 2020 sailboat trip to spread his mother's ashes, Bob Welch-that rare blend of journalist and evangelical-committed to telling a story he knew could rankle some of his fellow believers but he felt had to be told. Because, he realized, we become what we tolerate. So, amid the insidious shoals of Trump, COVID, and race, he plied the cultural currents to answer a question theologian Henri Nouwen so eloquently asked: "To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?" At stake with the answer, Welch believes, is an evangelical faith that has drifted deep into troubled waters-and whose hope lies not in presidents, political parties, or patriotism, but in the One who's been overlooked amid the rancor and the rage.




"Will speak to many hearts as it is meant to, not as an attack but as encouragement."

-Jane Kirkpatrick, New York Times Best-Selling Author




"Wonderful. Deeply researched, brilliantly written, and fearless."

- Faris Cassell, award-winning author of "The Unanswered Letter"