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Featured
Christian Leaders Urge Protecting Worshippers’ Rights After Protesters Interrupt Service
Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, called having an ICE official serve as a pastor ‘a serious moral failure.’
Black Church Leaders Aid Minneapolis, Seek Laws Curtailing Federal Agents’ Mask Usage
Minneapolis-area AME Church officials stated Renee Good’s death ‘never should have happened’ and listed more than a dozen ways they have tried to meet community needs there.
Protesters Disrupt Southern Baptist Church of Pastor Who Leads ICE Office in Minnesota
‘Jesus — who they claim to worship — went into the so-called houses of God, he flipped over tables. … So that’s what we did today,’ said minister and organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong.
Church
Morris Chapman, Longtime SBC Executive Committee Leader, Dead at 84
Morris Chapman, a longtime leader of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, died Monday. He was 84.
As Willow Creek Turns 50, the Onetime ‘Church of the Future’ Redefines Success
In the mid-1970s, a group of high schoolers and their former youth pastor started a church in a movie theater and named it Willow Creek. American religion hasn’t been the same since. The church celebrates its 50th anniversary Oct. 11-12.
Franklin Graham Quits Membership in Financial Accountability Group
Graham said the standards mandating a leader care plan ‘puts ECFA into the role of trying to be the moral police of the evangelical world.’
Nation
US Faith Leaders Supporting Targeted Immigrants Brace for a Tough Year Ahead
President Trump has become harsher with his contemptuous rhetoric and policy proposals, blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”
Department of Herod Security’s War on Christmas
The fake ‘war on Christmas’ examples ginned up by culture war talk show hosts in recent years are nothing compared to misusing the birth of Jesus — and Christmas celebrations in general — to justify anti-immigrant policies.
First Turning Point USA Conference Without Charlie Kirk Exposes Rifts in Christian Right
At AmericaFest — where ICE merch is sold beside ‘Jesus Won’ T-shirts — the idea that conservative values are God-ordained may be the biggest unifying factor.
World
The Oldest Pipe Organ in the Christian World Sounds After 800 Years of Silence
Composed of original pipes from the 11th century, the instrument emitted a full, hearty sound as musician David Catalunya played a liturgical chant.
Pope Leo and Vatican Insist on 2-State Solution to End Gaza War During Meeting With Israel President
The audience marked the first by history’s first American pope with the Israeli head of state. Leo spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July after an Israeli shell slammed into the only Catholic church in Gaza.
A Historic Swedish Church Embraces Inclusion With Minority Languages
The Lutheran church, called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish, moved 3.1 miles east on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of Kiruna's relocation because the world’s largest underground iron-ore mine is threatening to swallow the town.
Editorials
Reading Genesis Literally … in Texas
Lawmakers are arguing that if the federal government can restrict structures in the Rio Grande, then they could use the same Act everywhere because of Noah’s flood. Putting aside the legal silliness of the appeal to Genesis, this issue of A Public Witness joins the 22 Republican representatives in their
Some Baptists Debate About Women Preaching, Others Listen to Women Preach
Focusing almost entirely on the SBC not only minimizes the theological (and political and racial) diversity of Baptists, but it also privileges a patriarchal body over others.
Cracks in Our History
Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on two memorials to an enslaved man on the campus of Samford University, and what this could teach us about telling the truth about the histories of our institutions and churches.
Word&Way Voices
Unsettling Advent 2025, Day 2
As wannabe tyrants arise and the authoritarian logic of empire finds purchase among Christian Nationalists, sincere followers of Jesus should listen afresh to Mary this Christmastime.
Would Jesus Belong to MAGA?
Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that the best approach to this question is investigating how Jesus interacted with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots throughout the Gospels.
Two Tales of One City
Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on the tragic juxtaposition of running in the beautiful Charlotte Marathon while ICE agents racially profiled and terrorized neighbors over the weekend.
E-Newsletter
The Finger of Suspicion
This issue of A Public Witness looks at the danger of religious attacks against politicians as MAGA comes after Republicans for non-Christian beliefs or for offering kind words to Americans celebrating a non-Christian religious holiday.
No Kings, No Christian Nationalism
On Saturday (Oct. 18), millions of people attended “No Kings” rallies at about 2,600 locations across the country. Here are the remarks by Brian Kaylor at No Kings rally on the steps of the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.
Review & Giveaway: The Seven Mountains Mandate
Beau Underwood reviews The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy, which Matthew Boedy wrote to alert those who were ignorant or complacent about what was going on and what was at stake.
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198. American Christianity Divided in Responses to ICE
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about ICE actions in Minneapolis, how many clergy are leading protests against ICE while others are supporting ICE, and new research worried about the loss… -
197. Anna Piela and Michael Woolf on Confronting Islamophobia in the Church
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with American Baptist ministers Anna Piela and Michael Woolf on Islamophobia, immigration, and how Christians can better engage with interfaith efforts. Anna and Michael are coauthors of the new book, Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice. Watch a video version of this conversation here.… -
196. Martha Bardwell on Faith Communities Responding to ICE in Minneapolis
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Martha Bardwell, pastor of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on how faith communities are responding to ICE violence in the Twin Cities and the ICE killing of Renee Good. Watch a video version of this latest conversation here. The episode includes a discussion on… -
195. Attacking Venezuela & Gambling on Jesus
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of the U.S. attack on Venezuela and how Christians are responding, Pete Hegseth's pledge to change the military chaplaincy program, and how people are now… -
194. Dangers of Faith in the Pentagon & AI in Faith
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of U.S. strikes against Venezuelan boats, Pete Hegseth's Christian prayer services at the Pentagon, the use of AI in churches, and alarms about AI Christian… -
193. News Roundup: Elections, Government Shutdown, & Clergy Challenging ICE
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of religious attacks in elections this week, impacts of the ongoing government shutdown on churches, and clergy protesting against ICE. Watch a video version of… -
192. Hannah Kardon, United Methodist Pastor Arrested During Anti-ICE Protest
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister in the Chicago area. Kardon was violently arrested during a protest outside an ICE facility on Oct. 17. Video of the incident can be viewed here. Other issues discussed in this episode include ICE actions at churches, the legal pushback… -
191. William Stell on Evangelicals & Antigay Christianity
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with William Stell, a religious studies professor and author of the forthcoming book, Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity. Kaylor is also joined by guest cohost Jared Burkholder, scholar in residence at Moravian Theological Seminary. This is the… -
190. Angela Parker on Evangelicals, Biblical Interpretation, & White Supremacy
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Angela Parker, an associate professor of New Testament and Greek at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, the author of If God Still Breathes, Why Can't I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority, and coauthor of the Unsettling Lent devotional. This is the second… -
189. Randall Balmer on Evangelicals & Church-State Separation
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Randall Balmer, a historian of American religion and author of the new book, America's Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State. Kaylor is also joined by guest cohost Jared Burkholder, scholar in residence at Moravian Theological Seminary. This is the first in a three-part series…
Books
Molly Worthen Reveals the Hidden Truths Behind American Charismatic Leaders
In her new book, ‘Spellbound,’ the historian of religion traces the mysterious force that is charisma from the Puritans to Donald Trump.
Review & Giveaway: The Anti-Greed Gospel
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.
Review: Sister, Sinner
Claire Hoffman chronicles the dramatic rise, mysterious disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s most famous woman evangelist.
Review: Christology in Early Christianity
In this collection of essays, leading historical theologian Brian E. Daley, SJ, surveys the early Church’s profound thinking about Christ.