Partisan Bible Codes
This issue of A Public Witness opens up the Bible to debunk hidden partisan codes popping up in social media posts and sermons.
Want to Write a Hit Worship Song? Invite a Few Friends to Church.
When the CCLI Top 100 chart first appeared in 1988, most of the songs had one writer. Today, the average hit worship song has at least two writers — who often have ties to the so-called Big Four megachurches.
Review: Hope Restored
In “Hope Restored: Biblical Imagination Against Empire,” Walter Brueggemann points us toward understanding hope not as easy optimism but as an honest facing of the unjust structures that human beings have created and a call to lean into Scripture for an alternative way.
Takeaways From AP’s Report on JD Vance and the Catholic Postliberals in His Circle of Influence
Postliberals share the longstanding conservative Catholic opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights but want a muscular government — one that they control.
National Baptists Hold Annual Meeting As Leadership Questions Continue
The Rev. Jerry Young, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, has been president for two five-year terms and cannot run for a consecutive third term.
When a Dictator Quotes the Bible
This issue of A Public Witness treks to Latin America to consider the dangers arising from the political co-opting of sacred texts.
Egyptian Evangelical Pastor Issues Prophetic Call for Freedom, Equality, and Justice
Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab documents a recent sermon from an influential pastor of the leading Protestant church in Cairo.
Harris-Walz Campaign Hires the Rev. Jen Butler, Longtime Activist, To Lead Faith Outreach
A familiar face among Washington’s faith-based activists, Butler said she brings ‘a broad set of relationships that I think can help, very quickly, pull a broad coalition together’ in a foreshortened Harris campaign.
Why I Wrote a New Book About Preaching
Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy discusses what led him to write “Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit” covering lessons preachers can learn from novelists, poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians.
Church Conversations About Christian Nationalism
The conventions are over and it’s a 10-week political sprint to election day — but many churches don’t know how to talk about political rancor. One constructive way to address this is to focus on Christian Nationalism.