News

Two significant abolitionists are subjects of a twin set of documentaries, "Becoming Frederick Douglass" and "Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom," co-productions of Maryland Public Television and Firelight Films and released by PBS this month (October).

In this issue of A Public Witness, we introduce you to an effort earlier this month by ministers across the country to preach against Christian Nationalism on World Communion Sunday. We then take you to church to hear excerpts from the sermons before we issue an altar call of our own. 

Pope Francis on Sunday denounced Europe’s indifference toward migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea as he elevated to sainthood an Italian bishop and Italian-born missionary whose work and life paths illustrated the difficulties faced by 19th Century Italian emigrants.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope" by Kelley Nikondeha. This book is an expression of Nikondeha’s attempt to put the biblical Advent stories in a Palestinian context.

A Baptist pastor and his wife remain missing after being kidnapped Sept. 21 from their church in Russian-occupied Mariupol, Forum 18 news service reported Oct. 6. 

A review of Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence by Diana Butler Bass. And information on how to win an autographed copy of it.

Since early last year, the ReAwaken America Tour has carried its message of a country under siege to tens of thousands of people in 15 cities and towns. The tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that's wrapped itself in God, patriotism, and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party.

Reporting from a meeting of the Middle East and North Africa Evangelical National Councils, Daoud Kuttab notes that pressure from Arab governments and other Christian groups has only contributed to evangelicals’ cooperation in the region.

By taking a step back, we can see a critical issue beyond the media’s focus in this latest Herschel Walker controversy. And this story is less about Walker and more about the churches helping him run down the electoral field. So, in this issue of A Public Witness, we look at Walker’s religious campaign strategy and his record of dishonesty to consider the danger of churches fumbling their moral witness.

“A priest, a truck driver, and a grandma walk into a game show.” It’s not the set-up to a joke, but rather to one of the five “Jeopardy!” episodes in which the Rev. David Sibley appeared last week. Sibley, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walla Walla, Washington, appeared on the beloved, long-running trivia competition Sept. 26-30, winning four straight episodes and $79,098.