News

A new survey of 15,278 religious congregations across the United States confirms trends sociologists have documented for several decades: Congregational life across the country is shrinking. 

While conservative evangelicals are the group most often criticized for equating American identity with adherence to Christianity, White progressive Christians have work to do to address their own Christian Nationalism, experts said at an ecumenical gathering this week.

In this edition of A Public Witness, we’ll brief you on Michael Farris’s career within the conservative Christian Right after stunning details emerged last week about his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

In Exodus 13, the Israelites carried the bones of Joseph as they left Egypt toward the promised land. This can be seen today as Jews in Poland buried the remains of a Jew who died during World War II.

Apostolic groups that infuse traditional beliefs into a Pentecostal doctrine are among the most skeptical in Zimbabwe when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, with an already strong mistrust of modern medicine. But some members are trying to change that.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we turn our spotlight on the race in Virginia to again plead for preserving the sacredness of sanctuaries. We will take you inside church services featuring Glenn Youngkin or Terry McAuliffe, and analyze the mini “sermons” they’re preaching.  

Three Black men — Pete Vinegar, George Robertson, and Isaac King — were lynched in Lawrence, Kansas, on June 10, 1882. On Saturday, soil was taken from the area of the lynching and placed in jars bound for the the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

The brick foundation of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches has been unearthed at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum in Virginia that continues to reckon with its past storytelling about the country’s origins and the role of Black Americans.

In this edition of A Public Witness, we review the public careers of two well-known Christian figures in the public square — Pat Robertson and Francis Collins — who both announced their retirements in recent days. We will explore the lessons they taught and the spirits with which they led. 

While many congregations have been back to worship for weeks and months, often masked and socially distant, some African American clergy continue to hold off on in-person services.