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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.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the unexpected revolution of the printed word and how journalism has changed since Word&Way started over 128 years ago.

In “Budding Lotus in the West: Buddhism From an Immigrant's Feminist Perspective,” author Nhi Yến Đỗ Trần unveils the complexities of Buddhist teachings woven into the American fabric.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

In a joint address, AME bishops called for the creation of ‘accountability measures for every elected and appointed leader within our church.’

The conventions are over and it’s a 10-week political sprint to election day — but many churches don’t know how to talk about political rancor. One constructive way to address this is to focus on Christian Nationalism.

‘Church employees who served their community for years deserve the retirement funds they were promised,’ responded a lawyer involved in the litigation.

Nation

Since 2020, TPUSA chapters have appeared at over 45 Christian colleges or universities, though only 21 of those chapters appear currently active.

This issue of A Public Witness hops on a cross-country bus to sightsee the pluralist resistance to Christian Nationalism — and picks up some religious hope for our divided country along the way.

Nostalgia for a ‘Christian America’ overlooks the realities of religion in the founding era — which included taxes, jail time, exile, and even public hangings for anyone who defied state-run churches.

World

The first stop is an interfaith meeting with representatives of the six religions that are officially recognized in the world’s largest Muslim country: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.

This issue of A Public Witness treks to Latin America to consider the dangers arising from the political co-opting of sacred texts.

Surf Church was established by an ordained Baptist pastor to spread the Gospel in a once-devoutly Catholic country where about half of young people today say they have no religion.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on comments made about school prayer as the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a significant church-state case. Some conservative Christian groups are wrongly calling public prayer just a “private” act.

As a Jewish legal advocate and a Baptist minister, we support the arguments of Boston in this critical First Amendment case that Supreme Court justices will hear on Jan. 18. Read the Boston Globe op-ed by Rachel Laser (president/CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State) and Brian

In day 18 of our Unsettling Advent devotional series, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on the news of a camel escaping from a live nativity in Kansas.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Greg Mamula walks through the various biblical, theological, and civic concerns raised by Louisiana’s attempt to mandate display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.

Faithful America’s Rev. Nathan Empsall makes the case that Christian Nationalism poses multiple threats to the common good, but perhaps none are more dangerous than its misuse of Christianity to incite violence.

Christians often hear, share, and remember lies — but the light that exposes these lies doesn’t make their newsfeed. And this can make it difficult to be part of a faith community.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness explores the religious ethics behind the Golden Rule and why it matters when Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz declares that it means “mind your own damn business.”

Sociologist Jason Shelton’s new book explains what has happened — and is happening — in ways that call for revising how we perceive the Black Church as an institution and social force.

This issue of A Public Witness tracks which denominations Lutheran congressional members are part of to consider what that reveals about Lutheran life and the broader Christian witness.

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Podcasts

In episode 64 of Dangerous Dogma, Bob Smietana, a national reporter for Religion News Service, talks about his new book Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why it Matters.

In episode 63 of Dangerous Dogma, Greg Carey, a professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary, talks about issues of biblical interpretation and current events. He also discusses the book of Revelation and his book, Using Our Outside Voice: Public

In episode 62 of Dangerous Dogma, Thomas Lecaque, professor of history at Grand View University, talks about alarming issues of religious and political support for violence. He also discusses the importance of studying history.

We published two new episodes of Baptist Without an Adjective featuring conversations with Polish Baptist pastors talking about their nation and efforts to minister to Ukrainian refugees. Episode 161 is with Mateusz Wichary of Warsaw, and episode 162 is with

Books

In "Review: Gospel As Work of Art: Imaginative Truth and the Open Text," David Brown challenges us to expand our understanding of scripture past source criticism and historical Jesus studies to include works of imagination.

In "A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity," Debie Thomas takes readers on a deeply personal and profoundly theological odyssey.

This issue of A Public Witness explores what Scott Coley’s forthcoming book “Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right” reveals about the antidote to Christo-authoritarianism.

In "A Quilted Life: Reflections of a Sharecropper’s Daughter," Catherine Meeks describes the adventures and adversity she encountered on her path to becoming an empowered voice for change.