Church

Two years after a schism led 7,600 churches to leave the United Methodist fold, its reverberations are now being felt in a battle between one of its most elite churches and a Texas conference.

For years, the Rev. Eduardo Fabian Arias, a Lutheran pastor in Manhattan, has ministered to immigrants. Now, much of his work takes place inside and around Federal Plaza immigration court in Midtown Manhattan.

'When I go to their house, they have to make sure it's me before they even go to the door,' Pastor Jean-Daniel Berard, who leads Passionate LightHouse of God, said of his church members. 'The fear is real.'

Faith groups suing President Donald Trump’s administration filed a motion Thursday (Aug. 20) alleging the Department of Homeland Security committed “multiple egregious violations” of a court order that largely barred warrantless surveillance at their churches. 

During a gathering in Nashville, scholars looked at the theology, money, and music reshaping how Americans worship and experience God.

This issue of A Public Witness reports on how pastors are responding to news that undercover federal agents secretly spied on them, and includes updates about more incidents revealed at a Baptist church that is covered by a federal injunction blocking such warrantless DHS actions.

On the first day in 16 years that three death row inmates were scheduled to be executed on the same day, faith groups in Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Iowa tolled their bells as part of a campaign.

The former Southern Baptist President's lawyers had argued he was a private figure and his misconduct was nobody's business. He also claimed a tweet criticizing him was defamatory.

'We too can have rough patches in our marriage,' said the Rev. Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch where is wife is an executive pastor.

Like other Haitians losing protection, they face an agonizing choice: try to stay in the U.S. and find underground work, constantly fearful of being caught by ICE. Or return to a nation so overwhelmed by gang violence and poverty that deportation is tantamount to a death sentence.