Baptist Pastor & Wife Kidnapped in Ukraine
A Baptist pastor and his wife remain missing after being kidnapped Sept. 21 from their church in Russian-occupied Mariupol, Forum 18 news service reported Oct. 6.
Growing Pains for Arab Evangelical Christians in the Middle East
Reporting from a meeting of the Middle East and North Africa Evangelical National Councils, Daoud Kuttab notes that pressure from Arab governments and other Christian groups has only contributed to evangelicals’ cooperation in the region.
Embracing a Spiritual Discipline of Reparations
Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer offers his thoughts on how American followers of Jesus should come to grips with the reality and implications of our country’s historical record of racist actions and structures. He determines that although offering reparations is certainly a societal collective responsibility
Sacrifices on an Altar of Christian Nationalism
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has co-opted the vision of the sacrifice of Jesus to bless a false rite of military sacrifice. In this bloody vision of Christian Nationalism, we find many warnings. So, in this issue of A Public Witness, we
Gathering in Latvia, European Baptists Focus on War
Brian Kaylor reports from the 2022 general council of the European Baptist Federation in Riga, Latvia. A focus of the gathering is the war on Ukraine and how to support believers in the nation and refugees fleeing to other countries.
Is Pope Francis’ Diplomacy of Dialogue Failing?
With the pope surrounded by empty seats in Kazakhstan, critics questioned the efficacy of his diplomacy of encounter and his strategy of silence when it comes to outright condemning human rights violations in China, Russia and Nicaragua. But Vatican diplomacy insiders urge patience, arguing that
At World Council of Churches Gathering, Russian Church Keeps Its Membership
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 Colombia’s San Andres, a Historic Baptist Church’s Roots Run Deep
First Baptist Church is so crucial to the history of the Colombian island of San Andres that detailed record of births and deaths are kept here in crumbling books that date back nearly two centuries.
UN Cites Possible Crimes vs. Humanity in China’s Xinjiang
China’s discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, the U.N. human rights office said in a long-awaited report Wednesday, which cited “serious” rights violations and patterns of torture in recent years.
Living Stones in Cana of Galilee
Botrus Mansour describes the work it took to transform his grandparents' 140-year-old house into a wedding chapel for those who want to tie the knot in the town where Jesus turned water into wine performing his first miracle in Galilee. This symbol of rich Palestinian