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In the face of a rising threat to both church and democracy, “Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism” exposes the undercurrents of a dangerous ideology.

On Monday, the denomination also passed a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Sunday’s Independence Day service at an influential megachurch to better understand the heretical danger of Christian Nationalism and its pervasiveness in our churches and culture.

This issue of A Public Witness conjures up the righteous indignation of Charlton Heston as Moses to look at the dangerous push for the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Dangerous Dogma

Church

On Monday, the denomination also passed a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Sunday’s Independence Day service at an influential megachurch to better understand the heretical danger of Christian Nationalism and its pervasiveness in our churches and culture.

Rowe compared the church’s challenges to the collapse of the steel industry, which had employed his grandparents, when he was growing up.

Nation

'It is wrong for the highest court in the land to criminalize homelessness,' said the Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign.

The required text prescribed in the new law and used on many monuments around the U.S. is a condensed version of Scripture with ties to “The Ten Commandments” movie from 1956 and commonly associated with Protestants.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Trump’s Faith & Freedom Coalition remarks as he framed himself in messianic terms as the only one who can save Christians from the alleged persecution of the Biden administration.

World

The largest ecumenical body in the United States included a panel about the ongoing tragedies in Armenia, Haiti, and Sudan as part of their recent Impact Week.

There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department. The vast majority are Palestinians.

Buildings have sunk into the Atlantic Ocean, an increasingly common image along the vulnerable West African coast.

Editorials

While messengers to last week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention debated how to treat churches with women in pastoral roles, Baptist Women in Ministry showed up to offer a counter witness.

The thinning of the UMC’s conservative ranks makes this week’s conference a perfect time to address the issue.

Missing in all the jokes and news reports about the Trump Bible is that this isn’t the first time a presidential stamp of approval was sought for the Good Book.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Greg Mamula walks through the various biblical, theological, and civic concerns raised by Louisiana’s attempt to mandate display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.

Faithful America’s Rev. Nathan Empsall makes the case that Christian Nationalism poses multiple threats to the common good, but perhaps none are more dangerous than its misuse of Christianity to incite violence.

Christians often hear, share, and remember lies — but the light that exposes these lies doesn’t make their newsfeed. And this can make it difficult to be part of a faith community.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Sunday’s Independence Day service at an influential megachurch to better understand the heretical danger of Christian Nationalism and its pervasiveness in our churches and culture.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Trump’s Faith & Freedom Coalition remarks as he framed himself in messianic terms as the only one who can save Christians from the alleged persecution of the Biden administration.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at an Episcopal Church resolution, a PC(USA) recommendation, and a regional UMC resolution to see how some mainline Protestant groups are wrestling — or not — with their own complicity in spreading Christian Nationalism.

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Podcasts

We had a lot of great podcast conversations this year. So let’s count down the top 10 most-downloaded of episodes of Dangerous Dogma in 2023.

In episode 104 of Dangerous Dogma, Jay Augustine, senior pastor at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, North Carolina, talks about his book When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit. He also discusses preaching about current events,

In episode 103 of Dangerous Dogma, Craig Lamar Brown and Andrea Summer talk with about their movie Between Mercy and Me. They also discuss issues of racism, church worship, and creating music and movies. 

In episode 102 of Dangerous Dogma, Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, talks about attending the ReAwaken America Tour and a Pastors for Trump meeting at Trump Doral in Miami, Florida.

Books

In the face of a rising threat to both church and democracy, “Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism” exposes the undercurrents of a dangerous ideology.

In "The Scandal of Leadership: Unmasking the Powers of Domination in the Church," JR Woodward outlines why church leaders often fail and offers a robust theology of power.

This issue of A Public Witness addresses the ways in which American Christians are part of the problem as explored in “The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith.”

In “Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist,” esteemed New Testament scholar James F. McGrath turns his critical eye to overlooked details in Scripture and long-neglected sources to discover who this influential figure really was.