Home - Word&Way
logo
mobile-logo

Featured

This issue of A Public Witness attends the initial conversation about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "School Choice Sunday" — an effort to direct what pastors say from the pulpit — before offering a short homily about the politics of preaching.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court last week, Falwell Jr. alleged several board members diverted university funds to private causes and overlooked sexual misconduct by former leaders.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of several mainline denominations reckoning with the role they played in the federal boarding school system.

This issue of A Public Witness heads deep into the heart of Texas to review the saga of state Attorney General Ken Paxton and what his various scandals — including his upcoming impeachment trial — say about Christian political engagement.

Dangerous Dogma

Church

Bishop Minerva Carcaño, the first Latina bishop in the denomination and a prominent voice on behalf of immigrants, faced four charges of violating church law.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of several mainline denominations reckoning with the role they played in the federal boarding school system.

The conservative denomination has in recent years expelled churches for various reasons — most prominently Saddleback Church for having women pastors.

Nation

This issue of A Public Witness attends the initial conversation about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "School Choice Sunday" — an effort to direct what pastors say from the pulpit — before offering a short homily about the politics of preaching.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court last week, Falwell Jr. alleged several board members diverted university funds to private causes and overlooked sexual misconduct by former leaders.

'Instead of focusing on and addressing the real issues, you spend time promoting hate and division, contrary to our deepest religious values,' reads a letter from activists addressed to Florida lawmakers.

World

The U.S. continues to not only ignore the Convention on Cluster Munitions but also to ship the weapons to Ukraine. So this issue of A Public Witness uncovers the history of cluster bombs and the moral failure of nations that continue to utilize them.

The leaders are writing in response to a letter sent to Congress in June by religious groups and legislators asserting that the funds for the program were financing family planning and reproductive health programs, including abortion.

Pope Francis and Ukraine have a different vision for peace in the region.

Editorials

Lawmakers are arguing that if the federal government can restrict structures in the Rio Grande, then they could use the same Act everywhere because of Noah’s flood. Putting aside the legal silliness of the appeal to Genesis, this issue of A Public Witness joins the 22 Republican representatives in their

Focusing almost entirely on the SBC not only minimizes the theological (and political and racial) diversity of Baptists, but it also privileges a patriarchal body over others.

Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on two memorials to an enslaved man on the campus of Samford University, and what this could teach us about telling the truth about the histories of our institutions and churches.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell makes the case that children are walking around each day speaking the language of the world, so it is powerful when we can take those stories and translate them into our own religious language.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that Rev. Mark Burns abused the Bible for secular political purposes during a recent ReAwaken America Tour event in order to foment violence and promote insurrection.

Russell Jackson makes the case that the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Executive Director, John Yeats, and its Executive Board have presided over the ruination of two of the three remaining universities affiliated with the MBC.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness attends the initial conversation about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "School Choice Sunday" — an effort to direct what pastors say from the pulpit — before offering a short homily about the politics of preaching.

The U.S. continues to not only ignore the Convention on Cluster Munitions but also to ship the weapons to Ukraine. So this issue of A Public Witness uncovers the history of cluster bombs and the moral failure of nations that continue to utilize them.

Sixty years ago Friday (Sept. 15), four Ku Klux Klan members planted 19 sticks of dynamite next to a Black church in Birmingham, Alabama. Inside 16th Street Baptist Church, people gathered for Sunday worship. Then an apocalypse came.

Sign up to receive full essays in your inbox!

Podcasts

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.

In episode 101 of Dangerous Dogma, Nijay Gupta, a professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, talks about his book Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church. He also discusses issues related biblical translations,

Books

In "After Botham: Healing From My Brother's Murder by a Police Officer," Allisa Charles-Findley challenges us to listen to the cries of those who have experienced grief and to puts forth a call to join the struggle for justice.

In "Eucharist and Unity: A Theological Memoir," Keith Watkins offers a personal angle on the interrelated themes of ecumenism, modern American religious history, practical theology, and communion.

In "Saving Faith: How American Christianity Can Reclaim Its Prophetic Voice," Randall Balmer argues that any attempt to arrest the decline of Christianity in America must first reckon with the past.

In "Religious Liberty in a Polarized Age," author Thomas C. Berg makes the case that religious freedom for all is part of the cure for our political division.