News

A group of parents and students are suing a West Virginia school district for allowing an evangelical preacher to hold a religious revival assembly during the school day earlier this month that some students were required to attend.

The path that led to Southwest Baptist University’s accreditation woes in many ways started just across the street. Yet, this weekend the school in Bolivar, Missouri, will partner with that neighboring church — Southern Hills Baptist Church — for a conference already sparking controversy and plans for a protest.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we take you inside the Unification Church, its unusual religious teachings, and its quest for political influence. Then we listen to what U.S. politicians said at the most recent event to offer a word of warning about this heretical movement. 

Part of the “freedom convoy” occupying Ottawa are White Christian Nationalists. White Christian Nationalists are people who combine American-style White evangelicalism with Canadian Nationalism to declare themselves as the only authentic Canadians.

The United Church of Christ has now paid off more than $100 million in medical debt for people across the United States. The UCC announced Monday that it used $200,000 from one of its annual Giving Tuesday campaigns to purchase and pay off $33 million in medical debt for residents of Ohio, where the mainline Protestant denomination is based.

Religious leaders and members of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States are growing increasingly concerned over the threat of a dramatic escalation of the nearly decade-old conflict and have stepped up efforts to show support for family members and their Eastern European homeland.

Religious exemptions are increasingly becoming a workaround for unvaccinated hospital and nursing home workers who want to keep their jobs in the face of federal mandates that are going into effect nationwide this week.

We highlight the spiritual, physical, and legal trials facing minority religious groups in both Russia and Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. We then urge politicians, pundits, and preachers to recognize the extent of the Russian threat as Putin’s troops amass on Ukraine’s borders.

A West Virginia school superintendent is investigating a Feb. 2 religious revival event that occurred at Huntington High School, saying he believes some students’ rights have been violated.

Egypt’s president on Wednesday swore in the first-ever Coptic Christian to head the country’s highest court. Judge Boulos Fahmy is the 19th person to preside over the Supreme Constitutional Court since it was established in 1969.