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Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a crucial resettlement agency, is in disarray. The organization is waiting on $3.7 million in federal reimbursements for work it has already provided.

The number of nondenominational churches has grown, as have the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated. As a result, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other historic mainline groups have had to do less with less.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the U.S. government coming for a Palestinian student activist for exercising his free speech rights and the Christian and other religious voices speaking out for him.

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Church

This issue of A Public Witness looks at numerous sermons by Episcopal and other mainline preachers across the country as they reflected on Luke 4, Bishop Budde, and showing mercy.

In less than four months, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church has doled out more than $3.5 million in rent support to hundreds of people who have walked through its doors.

Numerous faith leaders across the U.S. say the immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump’s new administration has sown fear within their migrant-friendly congregations.

Nation

As we enter a season of Lent amid the chaos of Elon Musk and an oligarchy-fueled administration, this issue of A Public Witness reads the Bible and the Forbes Billionaire List to decide this day who we will serve.

The Lenten season that began on Wednesday, normally one of introspection and personal spiritual observances, has become a season of resistance this year.

The hearing in the case comes in the wake of a Feb. 25 ruling which sided with Church World Service, HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individual refugees and their families.

World

Travis Timmerman of Urbana, Missouri, said he had gone to Syria on a Christian pilgrimage and was not ill-treated while in Palestine Branch, a notorious detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence.

The pope’s appeal was made for the World Day of Peace, coinciding with the launch of the 2025 Jubilee year.

The pro-Palestinian creche is intended to point out the disconnect between the idealized Bethlehem of most representations and the reality in present-day Gaza and the West Bank.

Editorials

MAGAchurch preaching occurs in sanctuaries across the country. But the prominence of First Baptist in Atlanta and his involvement in an important Senate campaign makes Rev. Anthony George a particularly important case study. So, in this issue of A Public Witness, I introduce you to George and his sermons before

This piece was originally published as the cover story of Word&Way magazine in October 2020, but which has never been published online. Read the piece online in our e-newsletter A Public Witness.

Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on dangers of rhetoric by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican politician misquotes Ephesians 6 to demonize his opponents.

Word&Way Voices

What is the true meaning of the Christmas story for all who claim to believe in and follow Jesus?

Reflecting on Advent in a time of rulers clinging to power, John Sianghio explores the key to understanding biblical leadership and leadership transition.

For this devotional entry, Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood considers how the pursuit of power is often accompanied by significant collateral damage — harm imposed on the most vulnerable communities among us.

E-Newsletter

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s refusal to defend her fellow Lutherans is quite telling for understanding how some politicians are prioritizing politics and religion today.

This issue of A Public Witness explores what Trump’s outburst about taking over the Gaza Strip reveals about the oligarchic values of the new administration as well as the immorality of prominent MAGA Christians.

In a month, the season of Lent will start and run through Easter on April 20. We have the perfect devotional book that calls for unsettling the biblical stories about Jesus’s teachings, ministries, death, and resurrection.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In “The Quest of the Historical Muhammad and Other Studies on Formative Islam,” scholar Stephen J. Shoemaker attempts to approach the figure of Muhammad in a manner comparable to efforts to recover the historical figure of Jesus.

In “One Lost Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation,” Daniel Silliman cuts to the heart of Nixon’s tragedy: Nixon wanted to be loved by God but couldn’t figure out how.

In “The Hero and the Whore: Reclaiming Healing and Liberation Through the Stories of Sexual Exploitation in the Bible,” trauma-informed educator and minister Camille Hernandez dives deep into the Bible’s stories of abuse.

In “Hope Restored: Biblical Imagination Against Empire,” Walter Brueggemann points us toward understanding hope not as easy optimism but as an honest facing of the unjust structures that human beings have created and a call to lean into Scripture for