May 15, 2026 — Kyiv Mourns, The Pope Warns of AI War, and 'Christian Nationalism' Goes Mainstream

This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. Today... a Russian missile finds an apartment building in Kyiv. The Pope warns the world about machines that kill on their own. And Pew Research says "Christian nationalism" is now a household term — but almost nobody agrees on what it means. Headlines... Heartbeat... Hope. Let's get into it. [TRANSITION] We start in Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed this morning that the death toll from Thursday's Russian missile strike on a Kyiv apartment building has risen to twenty-four. Three of the dead are children. Rescue crews are still pulling people from the rubble as I'm recording this. It was an apartment building. People asleep. A Thursday night in May. Russia has been escalating these strikes for weeks now. The pattern is grim and familiar — military targets are claimed, civilian homes are hit. And the world has, frankly, gotten used to it. That's the part I want to sit with for a moment. We've gotten used to it. Scripture refuses to let us get used to it. Proverbs 24:11 says, "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." That's not a suggestion to politicians. That's a command to God's people about how to see suffering — to see it, to name it, to refuse the comfort of numbness. I'm not telling you what policy fixes this war. Thoughtful Christians disagree about what the United States should do, what NATO should do, how this ends. But before we get to any of that — before the policy debate even starts — we have to refuse to look away. Twenty-four neighbors. Three of them children. A God who counts every one of them. Pray for Kyiv tonight. Pray specifically. Pray by name if you know one. [TRANSITION] Story two takes us to the Vatican. Pope Leo the Fourteenth delivered a striking address this week denouncing what he called a "spiral of annihilation" — the rising tide of investment in artificial intelligence and autonomous weaponry. He called for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East and warned that machines now make decisions that used to require a human conscience. Now — a quick word. Protestants and Catholics do not agree on the office of the papacy, and this show operates from a Protestant confessional framework. But on the question of AI-directed warfare, the Pope is pointing at something the whole church should be paying attention to. Here's what's actually happening. Militaries around the world — including ours — are deploying systems that can identify, track, and in some cases engage targets with shrinking human oversight. The Pentagon has a policy requiring a human in the loop. That policy is under pressure from speed, cost, and competition with China. The biblical category here is the image of God. Genesis 1:27. Every human being — combatant, civilian, friend, enemy — bears the image of the living God. To take a human life is the most serious moral act a person can perform. Scripture treats it with overwhelming gravity. Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Sermon on the Mount — all of it assumes that the weight of a life rests on a human conscience before God. When you offload that decision to an algorithm, you don't remove the moral weight. You just hide it. This is one of the most important ethical conversations of our generation, and the church has been mostly silent. Time to wake up. [TRANSITION] Story three comes from Pew Research, by way of Christianity Today. Pew released a new study this week showing that "Christian nationalism" is now a household term in the United States. A significant uptick in adults who say they've heard at least a little about it. The problem — and Pew acknowledges this — is that almost nobody agrees on what the phrase actually means. For some people, Christian nationalism means believing that America was founded on Christian principles and that Christians should be politically engaged. For other people, it means the fusion of national identity and Christian identity in a way that confuses the flag with the cross. Those are two very different things. And they are getting smashed together in survey data and in dinner-table arguments. Here's what I keep coming back to. Christians are dual citizens. Philippians 3:20 says, "Our citizenship is in heaven." First Peter 2:11 calls us "sojourners and exiles." We belong to a kingdom that does not have a flag, an army, or a border. And we also live in a real country, with real responsibilities to love our neighbors, vote thoughtfully, and seek the good of the city. Both things are true. The danger is collapsing them. When the cross gets wrapped in any flag — American, Russian, Chinese, ancient Roman — the cross loses. Jesus did not die to make a nation great. He died to make a people holy, drawn from every tribe and tongue and nation. That doesn't mean don't love your country. Love it. Pray for it. Serve it. Just don't confuse it with the kingdom that is coming. [TRANSITION] Now your quick briefs. The Supreme Court ruled this week to maintain access to the abortion pill mifepristone, declining to revisit a lower court decision. Pro-life Christians will grieve this. Psalm 139 still tells us that God knits every life together in the womb — and the pro-life calling is not won or lost at the Supreme Court. It's won in homes, churches, and pregnancy centers, one mother at a time. CIA Director John Ratcliffe quietly visited Havana this week, meeting with Cuban officials including Raul Castro's grandson. Details are thin. Diplomacy with hostile regimes is complicated, and Christians can disagree on the approach — but Proverbs 25:2 reminds us that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out. Pray for wisdom for those in authority. A new report shows Gen Z homeowners are now outpacing millennials at the same age. More are buying in their twenties, more are single, fewer are getting help from parents. Some good news. A small reminder that the doom narrative about young Americans isn't the whole story. And tensions are flaring near the Strait of Hormuz — one ship seized and taken toward Iran, another attacked and sunk near Oman. Watch this one. Twenty percent of the world's oil passes through that strait. If it closes, you'll feel it at the gas pump within a week. [TRANSITION] In a moment you'll hear today's verse. What you do with it after — that's where Bible Copilot comes in. It's an inductive Bible study app — open any verse, ask anything about it, and it walks you through it: observe, interpret, apply. One rule: Scripture interprets Scripture. No outside commentary. No agenda. Free — no ads, no account, no data collection. Pro is five dollars a month for unlimited studies and guided reading plans. Search "Bible Copilot" in the App Store. Link's in the show notes. Today's verse is Psalm 46:9. "He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire." Notice who does the breaking. Not a treaty. Not a drone. Not a president. Him. The God who counts the children of Kyiv, who sees through every algorithm, who is not confused about which kingdom is His — He will, in His time, end every war forever. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you, send it to one friend who needs to hear that the news doesn't get the last word. We'll be back Monday. Until then — keep your eyes on the King who is coming.