Nation

Appeals to Christian identity were common during the Trump administration, but with Trump out of office and hundreds of Jan. 6 insurrectionists now facing federal charges, hard-line Christian Nationalists are increasingly fueling their movement with opposition to COVID-19 vaccines and mask mandates.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we take a shot at exploring Biden’s new vaccine rules not as partisans, or even as citizens, but as followers of Jesus. Although we’ve advocated for Christians to voluntarily get vaccinated, government mandates raise additional moral issues warranting our consideration.

Douglas Laycock argues that under the general law of religious liberty — including the Constitution and state and federal religious freedom laws — the government has an easy case to refuse religious exemptions from vaccines against infectious disease.

Pope Francis said Wednesday that Catholic bishops must minister to politicians who back abortion with “compassion and tenderness,” not condemnation, and warned that they shouldn’t let politics enter into questions about receiving Communion.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged Friday that he is “a bit” frustrated with fellow evangelicals who have hesitated or refused to get the vaccine, even as the delta variant has led to an average of more than 1,000 U.S. deaths a day.

We look back at Sept. 11 in horror at what occurred and at the resultant damage done to the principle of religious liberty. Giving into fear caused us to compromise one of our foundational convictions.

A Texas death row inmate won a reprieve Wednesday (Sept. 8) evening from execution for killing a convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery that garnered $1.25 after claiming the state was violating his religious freedom by not letting his pastor lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection.

The name Substack may be unfamiliar to you at the moment, but it holds the potential to be the next Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube: a once strange, slightly confusing platform that is now part of our daily routines and cultural lexicon.

Red Letter Christians, a movement of left-leaning evangelicals, will lead a diverse group of faith leaders in a two-day rally against gun violence in Houston this weekend.

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday (Aug. 30) that he stands by remarks he made at a political fundraising event last week — that he believes Christians are “a little less scared” of COVID-19 because of their belief in eternal life.