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.
Pope Opens Asia Odyssey With Stop in Indonesia to Rally Catholics, Hail Religious Freedom Tradition
The first stop is an interfaith meeting with representatives of the six religions that are officially recognized in the world’s largest Muslim country: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.
Some Nonprofit Newspapers Endorse Candidates. So Why Can’t Churches, New Lawsuit Asks.
The federal lawsuit, filed by the National Religious Broadcasters, is the latest challenge to the so-called Johnson Amendment, which bars charitable nonprofits from taking sides in campaigns.
‘Wall of Silence,’ a Podcast About Abuse in ACNA, Was Silenced. Now, It’s Back.
A spokesperson said no one from ACNA’s national office had knowledge of Archbishop Beach or his staff asking for the podcast to stop.
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.
At This Church in Portugal, Parishioners Surf Before They Worship.
Surf Church was established by an ordained Baptist pastor to spread the Gospel in a once-devoutly Catholic country where about half of young people today say they have no religion.