Nation

This issue of A Public Witness offers a quick class on the history of our national motto “In God We Trust” and recent Christian Nationalistic efforts to display it in public schools before considering the elementary flaw with such legislation.

Religious leaders with the Iowa Catholic Conference, Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, and United Church of Christ of Iowa, argued the death penalty is immoral in all circumstances and underlined that we can deter and prevent horrific crimes without ending a person’s life.

Latino Christian leaders, as part of their faith-led effort dubbed “Evangélicos for Justice,” are urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who signed Dillbeck’s death warrant on Jan. 23 — to consider his disability and to offer him clemency.

The first Black woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church, who was also a trailblazing lawyer, civil rights activist, and writer, will be honored on the U.S. quarter next year. Pauli Murray has been chosen as one of five honorees for the American Women Quarters Program.

This issue of A Public Witness explores how Leonard “Raheem” Taylor was killed without a spiritual advisor at his side, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent record of requiring states to allow clergy in the death chamber, and the advocates who were pushing Missouri’s leaders to do better on Tuesday.

A new Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution survey finds that 10% of Americans are avowed Christian nationalists and an additional 19% are sympathetic to its ideals. Among both groups combined, nearly two-thirds are white evangelicals.

The Democratic National Committee has passed a resolution condemning “white religious nationalism,” declaring that “theocracy is incompatible with democracy and religious freedom.”

Sabrina E. Dent and Obery Hendricks, two of the foremost experts on race, religion, and American politics, gathered on Tuesday for a virtual “kitchen table-style conversation” about the state of White Christian Nationalism.

This issue of A Public Witness looks back into history to consider a balloon disaster in 1945 and how survivors reacted to bring healing to the world — a far cry from what many public figures offered when a balloon floated over the U.S. last week.

For decades, Missouri executions played out in similar fashion. But that is changing now as spiritual advisors are present in the room, like Rev. Darryl Gray in November and Rev. Lauren Bennett in January.