What is Truth?
This piece was originally published as the cover story of Word&Way magazine in October 2020, but which has never been published online. Read the piece online in our e-newsletter A Public Witness.
Review: Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue
Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue" by Anantanand Rambachan. This book provides an accessible foundation for Hindu-Christian relations that are often underdeveloped. Rambachan outlines barriers to relationships and understanding that both communities present to the other which can potentially be overcome through trust
Review & Giveaway: Red State Christians
Denker’s tales are of misguided, though sincere, followers of Jesus replacing the gospel’s message with poor substitutes. Like John the baptizer proclaimed long ago, she offers a prophetic message about our individual and collective need for repentance. In a new preface, she describes right-wing media
Back in the Boat: Thoughts on a Church Set Adrift
Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell offers her thoughts on how the church's model of the larger group tending to the few in need was swept away during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our pastors were like skippers left on ships trying to throw out as many lifelines as
How St. Louis Churches Are Revealing the Disparities in the Air We Breathe
The community-based air quality monitoring initiative, AirWatch St. Louis, has been keeping track of what’s in the city’s air since December 2021. Low-cost sensors are placed on the roofs of Metropolitan Congregations United churches spread throughout the city to measure particulate matter, a mixture of
Little Churches Still Matter, Says Martha’s Vineyard Pastor of Church That Took In Migrants
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
How Doug Mastriano Uses Faith to Fend Off Criticism — Even From Other Christians
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
Christian Nationalism 101
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
The Fading All-American Story
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
Mastriano’s “Great Adventure”
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