Johnny Hunt, Disgraced Former SBC Pastor, Sues Denomination He Once Led
A disgraced former Southern Baptist president is suing the denomination he once led, saying he was defamed by allegations he assaulted another pastor’s wife.
For United Methodists’ Top Court, 2024 Is the New 2020
The United Methodist Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, ruled again on the question of leaving the denomination in a decision released last week as the church goes through a slow-moving split over the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.
Since the 1880s, Southern Baptists Have Argued Over the Role of Women
Since 2000, official Southern Baptist doctrine limits the role of pastor to men. But that doctrine had never been enforced at the national level until recently.
A Moral Reckoning 20 Years in the Making
This edition of A Public Witness revisits how too many American Christians decided to support an unjust war and considers what lessons the American Church can learn two decades later in the hopes of not repeating a sin of such consequence.
Technical Foul for Biblical Interpretation
This issue of A Public Witness will coach you up about a recent controversy regarding women in ministry at Saddleback Church and then consider how moments like that are connected to the same way of reading the Bible that got the whistle blown at Texas
Baptist Joint Committee Gains Faith and Justice Center, Grows Religious Liberty Work
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is acquiring the Center for Faith, Justice, and Reconciliation in a move its leaders say will help them broaden efforts to support a more universal range of religious freedoms in the country.
For Many Congregations, Wiping Out Medical Debt Has Become a Popular Calling
Helping ease medical debt, especially for people of color, is an increasingly popular social justice project among liberal Christian, Jewish, and Muslim congregations. Over the past few years some 800 U.S. congregations have partnered with RIP Medical Debt to do so.
Saddleback Church Doubles Down on Support for Female Pastors
The woman pastor at the center of the SBC’s decision to oust Saddleback Church — the California megachurch founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren — says she will continue to serve as a ministry leader despite her longstanding ties to the nation’s largest
How Did Saddleback Get Kicked Out of the SBC? It’s Complicated.
The issue of who gets to be a Southern Baptist made international headlines last week after the denomination’s Executive Committee voted to oust one of the nation’s largest and best-known churches for having a woman preaching pastor.
Unsettling Ash Wednesdays
This issue of A Public Witness reports on three unconventional Ash Wednesday services focused on environmentalism, death penalty abolition, and slavery reparations. Each one serves as a glimpse into how this season of spiritual reflection can inspire public action.