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This issue of A Public Witness takes you to the heart of Texas to consider the promise of public education and church-state separation.

The latest book from Robert D. Cornwall laments how Christians have historically built ‘fences’ around the Eucharist and explores just how radical Jesus’s vision for table fellowship can be.

‘Him,’ the Jordan Peele-produced horror film reaching theaters Friday, is the latest testament to the fact that, in cinema at least, the devil’s offer never goes out of style.

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Church

The election of Varghese, a queer woman of Indian descent, as dean of America’s largest Episcopal church represents a number of historic firsts.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the UCC synod to explore the specific issues that were discussed and how they are relevant to all ecumenical Christians in these troubling times.

This issue of A Public Witness treks to the Cornhusker State to consider a lost scroll that gained widespread news coverage and a denominational gathering that didn’t.

Nation

This comes as several different religious freedom lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration by Christian denominations, organizations, and other faith groups over immigration raids and canceled refugee resettlement.

‘Whatever he may have been in the past, he’s not fringe now,’ said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and Wilson critic who wrote the forthcoming book ‘The Bible According to Christian Nationalists.’

The National Conservatism Conference’s negative focus on Islam makes for a potential preview of what Christian Nationalists will be concerned with in the next year.

World

Christian pilgrimage walks are a way for Berliners and visitors of all ages to engage with their faith without stepping foot in a church.

This issue of A Public Witness explores a monument that upsets the political and historical stories being told (or not told) and challenges the religious claims we often make.

Christian leaders stress that the council and its anniversary still have relevance in the modern day, despite theological divides.

Editorials

For day 1 of our Unsettling Advent devotionals, Brian Kaylor reflects on the importance of learning from those who have lived under authoritarian occupation like what is happening today in Ukraine.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reacts to being called a "Marxist pastor" by political trickster Roger Stone. The incident arose because of Kaylor's critiques of the ReAwaken America Tour at which Stone has spoken.

As the Jan. 6 insurrection showed, our democracy is under attack. And Christian nationalism, which seeks to privilege one faith tradition over others, has fueled the anti-democratic efforts. Rather than serving as a balm for our fractured nation, religion is being used to further divide us.

Word&Way Voices

The event included a keynote presentation by Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, who highlighted the dangers of using religious texts to justify oppression.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on how we can continue to move forward when equality, respect, and truth seem like they are evaporating in front of us.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores the continued relevance of the Jan. 6 insurrection and three active attempts to subvert democracy: threats against the press, attempts to imprison political opponents, and promises to deport 11,000,000 immigrants.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness opens up DHS’s social media in one hand and an actual Bible in the other to consider the competing faiths.

Warren Throckmorton is concerned about the rise in citing pseudo-historian David Barton this year and next as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.

Malcolm Foley makes a bold argument about the ways our historical sins continue to reverberate into the present and how the Church is compelled to respond.

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Books

Our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter also garners two Best in Class awards in the Specialized Writing and Artwork categories, and Unsettling Advent wins top editorial series for the fourth straight year.

A congregational pastor who also serves as the UCC’s Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice, Sarah Griffith Lund has long been a voice helping Christians gently and wisely wrestle with neurodiversity.

“The Church Must Grow or Perish: Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity” examines Schuller's indelible imprint on the American church.

In “Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry,” Beth Allison Barr traces the history of the role, showing how it both helped and hurt women in conservative Protestant traditions.