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Donald Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20, after which the US policy of admitting refugees is expected to be cut back, if not entirely eliminated.

New Hope Presbyterian Church started a string orchestra in April, welcoming students — including those who may have trouble getting into and paying for music programs.

Exploring Advent in a time of rulers clinging to power, Andrew Whitehead reflects on how Jesus taught us to reject the promise of earthly authority focused on only serving ‘us’ at the expense of others.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

The guidelines surfaced even as the denomination, over the past decade-plus, has tried to stake out a more compassionate approach on LGBTQ+ issues.

Almost half of US Orthodox churches remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to only 12% of all religious congregations.

Some 2,900 people have joined an ‘AMEs for Reform’ Facebook group and others have issued open letters as part of ‘AMEs for Justice and Accountability.’

Nation

After interrogating their beliefs, some onetime CCM artists are revisiting faith, trying on elements they’d previously discarded and writing music for listeners who might be more spiritual than religious.

This issue of A Public Witness journeys to the Big Apple to consider two coincidentally timed appeals: Rev. William Barber II at Riverside Church and the Trump campaign at Madison Square Garden.

Archbishop Roberto O. González Nieves was echoed by the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, who heads the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

World

The Salvation Army is exploiting a connection to the Beatles to draw more visitors to fund its mission and encourage people who would never consider stepping inside a church to find out about Christianity.

A large majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox, but they are divided between two main groups with similar names: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

US migrants are much more likely to have a religious identity than the American-born population.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor offers some seasonal advice to the music director at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, ahead of Sunday’s worship service that will include former President Donald Trump.

In day 18 of our Unsettling Advent devotional series, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on violent insurrections during the time of Jesus’s birth and what that can teach us today.

In day 9 of our Unsettling Advent devotional series, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on racial injustices in the U.S. and how this helps us understand the birth of Jesus.

Word&Way Voices

A Jordanian worship band has made it their mission to perform and record hymns composed around the middle of the 20th century that might have otherwise been lost to time.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores how the pilgrimages made by various politicians to Trump’s Manhattan trial are all about religion.

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon of Churches for Middle East Peace argues we need a new foreign policy that stops alienating young people, Muslim and Arab voters, and millions of American Christians committed to justice.

E-Newsletter

Some public figures also regularly tweet a random Bible verse on Sundays. And sometimes that creates an incongruity with the news. So this issue of A Public Witness gets biblical online to look inside this practice of tweeting the Bible.

This issue of A Public Witness shows up like a hotdish with, dontcha know, a look at Minnesota Nice Lutherans and why, gosh darn it, the attacks on Walz’s church are worse than Wisconsin.

This issue of A Public Witness grabs some tinsel and some lights to unwrap some recent seasonally inappropriate “War on Christmas” rhetoric and rake the problematic attacks over the coals.

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Podcasts

In episode 61 of Dangerous Dogma, Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, talks about advocacy and Christian witness. He also discusses the dangerous and heretical ReAwaken America Tour, which has been covered at A Public Witness.

In episode 59 of Dangerous Dogma, Diana Butler Bass, author of Freeing Jesus, talks about her writings on religion, history, and fundamentalism. She also discusses her Substack newsletter The Cottage.

In episode 58 of Dangerous Dogma, Max Finberg, president and CEO of Growing Hope Globally, talks about the organization he leads. He also discusses advocacy, working in government, and ending global hunger.

Marcia Pally, a professor at New York University and guest professor at Humboldt University-Berlin, talks with Word&Way President Brian Kaylor about her new book White Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism: How Did We Get Here? She also discusses Jan. 6, political history, and economics.  

Books

In "Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China," Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the surprising history of the early Eastern church — referred to as Jingjiao, or the Luminous Teaching.

In "God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music," Leah Payne traces the history and trajectory of CCM and how it has shaped evangelicals.

This issue of A Public Witness unpacks the unique angle explored in the latest Mike Graves book “Jesus’ Vision for Your One Wild and Precious Life: (on Things Like Poverty, Hunger, Polarization, Inclusion, and More).”

In "Reckoning With Power: Why the Church Fails When It's on the Wrong Side of Power," David E. Fitch argues that the church should cooperate with God's power through presence among the least powerful.