Nation

In July, the Biden administration established the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council, inviting a group of 25 faith leaders and law enforcement experts to help guide the administration’s efforts to address violent attacks on faith institutions. The council, which will make recommendations to the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, convened for the first time in early October.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we sing a song of lament for how some Christians are helping to dismantle democracy. By looking at Kari Lake, a candidate who represents the threat, we explore her use of religious rhetoric and practices before offering a pro-democracy chorus ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

Anti-Catholic rhetoric has long been a theme in nativist American thought, which includes some forms of extremist Protestant Christian agitators such as the Ku Klux Klan. But in the current Christian nationalist surge that fuels the ReAwaken gatherings and others like it, the ideology has served more as a glue holding together a wide range of right-wing coalitions.

In one of the most closely watched races in one of the most contested of battleground states, both gubernatorial candidates bring up religion. But in starkly different ways.

Three-quarters of Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction, and the majority of many religious groups agree with that sentiment, a new report shows. But they don’t all agree on what, exactly, has gone wrong. The 2022 American Values Survey by Public Religion Research Institute addressed questions of race, sexuality, abortion and immigration as well as sentiments about the country’s origins.

Forty-five percent of Americans believe the U.S. should be a “Christian nation,” one of several striking findings from a sweeping new Pew Research Center survey examining Christian nationalism. But researchers say respondents differed greatly when it came to outlining what a Christian nation should look like, suggesting a wide spectrum of beliefs.

Historian Thomas Lecaque argues that how the various scandals surrounding Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker are understood by many evangelicals is based on a bad reading of Biblical narrative. The sins of Walker’s past are forgiven, regardless of the hypocrisy – and, in fact, they are an important component of what makes him important. Because beyond his utility, he gets to play the David card.

For this issue of A Public Witness, we tuned into the latest ReAwaken America Tour event so you wouldn’t have to watch. We’ll show you how Lahmeyer and others are trying to push Christians to accept Christian Nationalism as the only alternative other than atheism. Then we’ll look at the madness of their false gospel and the response needed from Christians outraged by such cynical logic.

In just a couple weeks, voters in five states will consider proposed amendments to their state constitutions that would remove the slavery exception for prisons. In this issue of A Public Witness, we look at state-level efforts to undo the slavery exception with a focus on clergy in Tennessee who are speaking out. Additionally, we consider how Christians elsewhere can also advocate for prison reform.

Welcome to Branson, Missouri, where the holy trinity of faith, flag, and family reign supreme and where an inspirational, God-and-country style of Christian nationalism serves as comfort food for the American soul. For more than a century, weary pilgrims have sought spiritual renewal and rest from the troubles of modern life here in the heart of the Ozarks — hoping to find a nostalgic vision of a beautiful America.