World

This edition of A Public Witness looks at the troubling entanglement between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church. For U.S Christians, this close association is a cautionary tale about the dangers of Christian Nationalism for both democracy and the vitality of our Christian witness.

More than a dozen faith leaders offered prayers for a peaceful resolution to the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine during an online vigil Wednesday hosted by the Episcopal Church and the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics, largely under the assumption that the Games would improve civil liberties in the country. There is no such talk now.

Baptists in Western Ukraine have made plans to shelter fellow believers in the case of a Russian invasion at Ukraine’s eastern border, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate who now leads a Baptist seminary in Ukraine told Baptist Press.

Pope Francis denounced fake news about COVID-19 and vaccines Friday, blasting the “distortion of reality based on fear” but also urging that people who believe such lies are helped to understand true scientific facts.