Curry succeeds the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for 12 years and was the first woman to lead the mainline Protestant denomination.

Naming a woman to the position is a major milestone for a church that ordained its first female priests in 1994 and its first female bishop in 2015. Mullally follows 105 men who have led Anglicans worldwide.

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.

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.

Critics say the meeting conferred legitimacy on Putin, on top of his being hosted by Trump on U.S. soil despite an arrest warrant issued in 2023 from the International Criminal Court, accusing Putin of war crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This issue of A Public Witness heads to Australia to offer highlights from the Baptist World Congress, where Christians from 130 nations came to worship, fellowship, dialogue, learn, and strategize together.

Brian Kaylor reflects on the 1914 “Christmas truce” during World War I and why it he does not find it to be an inspiring take on what “peace on Earth” could look like today.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on Russian pro-war propaganda dressed up like a Christmas decoration, which he calls a sacrilegious assault on celebrations of the birth of the Prince of Peace.

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.

This issue of A Public Witness hits the streets to consider what some recent creative protests can teach us about how to prophetically resist authoritarianism.