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Siddiqui lives in Atlanta and attends St. John’s Lutheran Church, but he grew up in New Jersey and was raised Muslim — like a “Christmas and Easter Muslim,” he joked. By the time he graduated college, he considered himself an atheist. Siddiqui said he doesn’t always get all the ELCA’s “in” jokes about hot dishes and Garrison Keillor but he hopes he’ll bring a different perspective that will be good to have at the table.

More than four decades after sexual abuse claims against a Catholic priest first made national headlines, spurring accusations, lawsuits, a series of newspaper investigations and billions in settlements, the DOJ is investigating a religious group’s handling of sexual crimes by clergy and church staff. This time, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is under investigation.

About 400 Ukrainian Baptist congregations have been lost in Russia’s war on Ukraine, said Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary President Yaroslav Pyzh, who is working to restore pastoral leadership to impacted cities.

An Arkansas state senator will be required to unblock critics from his social media accounts under a settlement a national atheists’ group said it reached with the state on Wednesday.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we look at what’s known about the new DOJ investigation, how people are responding in divergent ways, and what these responses illuminate about how Christians are thinking about issues of politics and legal accountability.

Symbolically and spiritually, the river is of mighty significance to many. Physically, the Lower Jordan River of today is a lot more meager than mighty. By the time it reaches the baptismal site, its dwindling water looks sluggish, a dull brownish green shade. Its decline is intertwined with the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict and rivalry over precious water in a valley where so much is contested.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association is calling for churches to stop paying dues to regional annual conferences it believes are making disaffiliation for churches difficult to impossible amid the United Methodist Church’s slow-moving schism, largely over the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ members. Those apportionments fund bishops’ salaries and support the work of the mainline Protestant denomination around the world.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we look at politicians citing Ephesians 6 in ways that don’t fit with the meaning of the passage. Then we consider how this rhetoric adds to a political environment already filled with violence.

Last year, the U.S. branch of the Jesuits pledged to raise $100 million for a reconciliation initiative in partnership with descendants of people once enslaved by the Catholic order. On Tuesday, a leader of those descendants expressed deep dissatisfaction with the order’s lack of progress since then.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging by Keri Day. The book explores how the Azusa Street Revival that began in Los Angeles in 1906 served as the foundation of Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement. Revisiting this history helps us understand, and possibly embrace, its critique of American religion and culture.