WORLD Magazine Founder Joel Belz Has Passed Away
Pic by Jeff Wales
WORLD Magazine founder Joel Belz passed away at his home on Sunday, the result of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 82.
An obituary published in World Magazine recounts, “Those who knew Belz esteemed him as an exemplary son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, elder, teacher, journalist, and publisher. He saw himself as nothing more than a great sinner who had received great mercy.”
Belkz spent his twenties working in Christian education, helping to found Lookout Mountain Christian School. In 1977, Belz, armed with a journalism and mass communications degree, started working for the Presbyterian Journal, eventually becoming interim editor.
He helped launch World Magazine in 1986, which later morphed into World News Group (WNG). The group made a reputation for itself for hard-hitting news stories and investigative journalism:
It reported on the horrors of abortion, the failures of public welfare programs, abuse scandals in churches, and theological drift in religious institutions. In 1997, WORLD reported on planned revisions to the New International Version of the Bible that would make the text more gender-inclusive. The publisher of the NIV filed an ethics complaint against WORLD with the Evangelical Press Association, of which Belz was president at the time. Belz responded to the publisher’s accusations with a column subtitled, “We stand by our story.” As he wrote later, “For those of us interested in the direction of our culture, few issues are more basic than how the Bible gets translated.” The EPA board later unanimously voted not to pursue any further action against WORLD.
Belz stepped down as CEO of WNG in 2005 but remained an active columnist until the day he died, watching as the once-fledging endeavor grew to have over 80 employees now creating print, audio, and video content for Christian kids, teens, and adults, reaching nearly 500,000 unique viewers every month.
Belz is survived by Carol Esther, his wife of 49 years, five daughters—Jenny, Katrina, Alice, Elizabeth, and Esther—16 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
About Author
I extend my sympathy to Joel Belz’s family and friends. As for World Magazine, it did report on many important issues, but to my knowledge, it never covered the covid/vaccine issues. I wrote to the editorial staff, urging them to report on these issues, but they declined. I had been a subscriber for many years, but cancelled my subscription when it became clear they were going to ignore the carnage we’ve suffered since 2020.