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Does it take a big pageant to put the melody of the greatest story in our hearts? We won’t explore this question with three spirits, but we will try three acts. In this issue of A Public Witness, we’ll take you on a visit to big megachurch shows of Christmases past. Then we ponder in the present what it means to give our best to Jesus before offering a vision of what future celebrations could look like.

The new audio drama podcast “Almelem,” set in first-century Palestine, begins with a perfect plan. A con man, a shrewd businesswoman, a would-be prophet, and a true believer team up to save their country from the Roman Empire. They gather believers and create a seamless campaign strategy. Then Jesus shows up and ruins everything, leaving the main characters with no choice but to invent a new religion on the fly.

Over the weekend, red-shirted members of NatSoc Florida, a new white supremacist group, gathered outside a “Celebration of the Arts” event in Lakeland, Florida. There to protest a drag show that was part of the event, the men waved Nazi flags and signs scrawled with hate speech. Later, the men stood for a photograph while giving a Nazi salute. Three of them held a large emblem as they did so: a Christian flag.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority sounded sympathetic Monday to a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for gay couples, the latest collision of religious freedom and gay rights to land at the high court. A looming question during Monday’s arguments: At what point does an objection to serving someone cross the legal line?

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Choosing Hope: The Heritage of Judaism" by David Arnow. This book asserts that hope stands at the center of Jewish theology. That’s understandable since Judaism, historically, has had to navigate tremendous challenges when it comes to its survival. Unfortunately, one of the biggest impediments to the survival of the Jewish community has been people who claim to be Christian.

Here at A Public Witness, it’s an annual tradition to share the best books we’ve read during the last calendar year. The table of contents is as follows: 1. Five books featured on our podcast Dangerous Dogma, 2. Five books recommended by Brian (that haven’t yet led to Dangerous Dogma episodes), 3. Five books recommended by Beau, and 4. A heartwarming conclusion.

Ukraine banned the activities of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia and said it would examine the links between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree imposing personal sanctions against representatives of religious organizations associated with Russia.

The Biden administration on Friday placed a well-known Russian paramilitary organization on a list of religious freedom violators alongside a number of notorious terrorist organizations. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he had designated the Wagner Group as an “entity of particular concern” for its activities in the Central African Republic.

Professional degrees are gaining traction at theological schools across the U.S. and Canada, while the traditional ministerial degree, the master of divinity, is faltering, according to new data released late last month. Master of divinity programs constitute 35% of enrollment at theological schools overall – that’s a significant decline from the 43% of total enrollment for master of divinity degrees a decade ago.

While the meeting at Trump’s club drew national outrage because of Fuentes’ antisemitic and white supremacist views, it was a win for an extreme subset of Christian nationalists who knit together virulent anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ sentiment, opposition to abortion and, in many cases, overt forms of antisemitism and white nationalism.