Houses of worship on Martha's Vineyard have long worked together to meet the needs of their neighbors. So they were ready to spring into action when refugees arrived unexpectedly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, escalating
Mastriano’s dispute with his Lutheran constituents shows he’s willing to reject the voices of other Christians, particularly views often expressed by moderate and liberal Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and others known collectively as “mainline” denominations. Although not as dominant as they once were, white mainline Protestants
Given the growing public conversation about Christian Nationalism and divergent understandings of the meaning of the term, in this edition of A Public Witness we learn from scholars studying Christian Nationalism in order to consider what we actually know about this dangerous ideology. Then we
Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that if ever a Bible story reads like our national mythology, it’s Jesus’s story of the rich farmer in Luke 12. In America, we don’t recognize the farmer's actions as greed — we call it a vision, a
In this issue of A Public Witness, we dust off our old Steven Curtis Chapman cassette tapes to consider the different testimony he offers about faith and even Jan. 6 in light of “The Great Adventure” serving as an anthem for Doug Mastriano’s campaign. Then
Fuller Theological Seminary, the nation’s largest interdenominational seminary, has chosen as its new president David Emmanuel Goatley, the first Black person to hold the office. Goatley comes to Fuller from Duke Divinity School, where he was hired in 2018 to direct the Office of Black
Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age" by Dale C. Allison Jr. This book seeks to help those who have had spiritual experiences that are not easily explained by sorting these occurances out instead of demythologizing our faith. This combines
Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn discusses why her congregation felt it was time to revisit the practice of having an American flag in the front of their worship space after the insurrection of January 6, 2021. As a pastor, she has become increasingly convinced that we, as
After a sometimes tense week that included passionate exchanges, the 11th assembly of the World Council of Churches approved a statement regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that denounces the war but does not single out the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who
On this anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Christina Ray Stanton reflects on how traumatic reactions can be a normal part of the grieving process and what this means for how we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. As we approach anniversaries of traumatic events or dates