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A group including leaders from the World Council of Churches, the Anglican Communion, the World Methodist Council, and the PCUSA recently paid a solidarity visit to Cuba, aimed at highlighting Cuban suffering and condemning U.S. sanctions.

In his new book, acclaimed sociologist Robert Wuthnow seeks to both illuminate what has been hidden and to add complexity where a story has been too simply told.

Set in modern-day Tehran, the new film premiering in Chicago this weekend is both a forbidden love story and a depiction of the steadfast faith of the Baha’i community amidst ongoing oppression.

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Church

During the Faith250 kickoff dinner with fried chicken, mac and cheese, and sweet potato casserole, many congregants said they decided to participate because they felt disillusioned and dismayed at the direction of the country.

‘Throughout both of Trump’s terms, he’s done so many things that I thought were going to be over the line, and it never happens,’ said Matthew Sutton, a scholar of religious history at Washington State University. ‘But this moment, it does feel like a turning point.’

While some view the work of faith-based organizers and groups as part of a surge in activism by a new 'religious left,' others say the Black church and leaders rooted in its traditions don’t fit neatly within one pole or the other.

Nation

The speakers largely advanced the ideas that the U.S. has a religious — and particularly Christian — founding and that its future success depends on prayer.

The two events led by religious leaders aim to organize voters amid Republican efforts to eliminate majority-minority congressional districts in the South.

While the organizing and hosting of monthly government worship services has been paused at DoL, such services continue at the Pentagon — and this trend has now spread to the Small Business Administration.

World

Bolsonaro, who rose to power with the support of Brazilian evangelicals, is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup against current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The Church of England has countered with posters at bus stops and other locations that say ‘Christ has always been in Christmas’ and ‘Outsiders welcome.’

Christmas celebrations are slowly coming back to the traditional birthplace of Jesus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an area shaken by tragedy.

Editorials

In this issue of A Public Witness, Brian Kaylor introduces us to 10 gifts the proud “Christian Nationalist” on your list will love. But please don’t buy these unless you want to end up on the naughty list (and make the baby Jesus cry). Instead, these gift suggestions show us

For day 1 of our Unsettling Advent devotionals, Brian Kaylor reflects on the importance of learning from those who have lived under authoritarian occupation like what is happening today in Ukraine.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reacts to being called a "Marxist pastor" by political trickster Roger Stone. The incident arose because of Kaylor's critiques of the ReAwaken America Tour at which Stone has spoken.

Word&Way Voices

Advent teaches us that a shiny, gilded facade only serves to cover up the other side of the story. If we keep our focus on the child sleeping in an animal feeding trough, we might be unsettled — but the truth we see will compel us to live differently.

Advent reminds us we are called to help bring the empire of God — not of any power or principality — into being. And as the Lord’s Prayer exhorts, resist the temptations and trappings of the unjust.

As we sing Advent hymns, gather in community, light candles, and wait hopefully, may we also embody in our actions our coming Savior’s call — to feed the hungry and to provide compassion, love, and justice for all.

E-Newsletter

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration today as part of their investigation into government worship services.

The defense secretary’s tattoos of the Jerusalem Cross and “Deus Vult” are frequently invoked as literal signs of his Christian Nationalism — and rightly so. But the same symbols on his Bible were overlooked until now.

This issue of A Public Witness heads down to Georgia to consider the devil in the details of the race to determine who will be the next Republican nominee for governor.

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Books

As the world’s attention is on the devastation of Gaza, this book offers a powerful and enlightening perspective through the eyes of Palestinian Christian leaders and thinkers.

With the weaponization of Scripture regularly making headline news, “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists” officially releases today to point to better ways of reading and applying sacred texts.

In this new book, Brian Kaylor exposes the ways Christian Nationalism distorts scripture through seven different problematic approaches to interpreting and applying the biblical text.

Greg Carey, scholar of the New Testament and apocalyptic literature, invites readers to reconsider the Book of Revelation as a text that can speak meaningfully to contemporary resistance movements.