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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.

In this edition of A Public Witness, Brian and Beau highlight the ugly connection between the religious views and antisemitism of Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. Then they issue an explicit call for Christians to be vigilant in loudly rejecting the sinful perpetuation of antisemitism that seems a more common occurrence in our national politics.

In Trump’s 2016 run for the White House and throughout his failed 2020 campaign, white evangelicals were his most stalwart supporters, with about 80% of white evangelicals voting for him. In the weeks since Trump announced he is running for election again in 2024, however, it appears something has changed.

 “I would permanently ‘defrock’ Johnny Hunt if I had the authority to do so,” Bart Barber, sitting president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said in a statement released Tuesday. Hunt, who served as president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination from 2008 to 2010, stepped aside from public ministry in May after allegations that he had sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife were made public.

Juliet Vedral makes the case that the life and faithfulness of Mary Magdalene are a witness in this Advent season of light breaking through darkness and hope appearing where it’s least expected. Vedral spoke to Elizabeth Tabish, an actress from the television show The Chosen who plays Mary as a woman recovering from sexual assault and mental illness.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "You Never Step into the Same Pulpit Twice: Preaching from a Perspective of Process Theology" by Ronald J. Allen. This book seeks to offer guidance to preachers who approach questions from a particular vantage point: Process Theology. Over the past century, this perspective has found a home within Mainline Protestantism. The question is, how might this influence how one preaches?

Disgraced former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt plans a return to ministry after completing a restoration process overseen by four pastors, according to a video released last week. Hunt, a longtime megachurch pastor in Georgia, was named earlier this year in the Guidepost Solutions report on sexual abuse in the SBC, which alleged that Hunt had sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife.