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Given Pete Hegseth’s insistence on co-opting a biblical term and employing it out of context as an insult against reporters doing their job, this issue of A Public Witness takes a look at the real Pharisees and the lesson the ‘secretary of war’ is missing.

Join us as we celebrate five years of our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter and highlight the best from the 115 pieces we’ve published over the past 12 months exploring the intersection of faith, culture, and politics.

‘Most — nearly all — serious historians agree that America was not founded as a Christian nation in any meaningful legal, philosophical, or constitutional sense,’ says the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Church

Over a year since Donald Trump and JD Vance spread falsehoods about the city’s migrants eating pets, Haitians’ temporary protected status is set to run out Feb. 3.

An American Baptist church is just one block from where nurse Alex Pretti was executed Saturday by federal agents in the street. The church held a joint worship service the next morning elsewhere, but opened up its own building to serve those coming or leaving the memorial to Pretti.

Minneapolis-area AME Church officials stated Renee Good’s death ‘never should have happened’ and listed more than a dozen ways they have tried to meet community needs there.

Nation

‘Our nation must be careful not to allow partisan agendas to undermine institutions built on merit, sacrifice, and service,’ said the president of the historically Black National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.

Rev. Caleb Morell, a Southern Baptist, offered an evangelistic message about the resurrection of Jesus that stopped just short of a formal altar call as he urged government workers to follow Jesus.

Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public school students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.

World

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is being phased out, said Samaritan's Purse CEO Franklin Graham. Johnnie Moore, the evangelical PR guru who has served as GHF chairman, recently stepped down.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been trying to rally fellow evangelical Christians and urge Congress to designate Nigeria as a violator of religious freedom with unfounded claims.

Anyone trying to build a bridge between faiths is liable to invoke Abraham — revered as a founding figure in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — as someone they hold in common.

Editorials

As the Jan. 6 insurrection showed, our democracy is under attack. And Christian nationalism, which seeks to privilege one faith tradition over others, has fueled the anti-democratic efforts. Rather than serving as a balm for our fractured nation, religion is being used to further divide us.

With the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference beginning this coming Sunday in Egypt, we are offering a piece originally published as the cover story of Word&Way magazine in October 2019 but which has never been published online. In addition to making an argument for why Christians should care about

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

Word&Way Voices

As wannabe tyrants arise and the authoritarian logic of empire finds purchase among Christian Nationalists, sincere followers of Jesus should listen afresh to Mary this Christmastime.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that the best approach to this question is investigating how Jesus interacted with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots throughout the Gospels.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on the tragic juxtaposition of running in the beautiful Charlotte Marathon while ICE agents racially profiled and terrorized neighbors over the weekend.

E-Newsletter

Coverage of Thursday’s event has largely focused on Trump’s rambling remarks — but the much more problematic and dangerous comments actually came later from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

This issue of A Public Witness explores biblical ‘peacemaker’ rhetoric from the Trump administration and how it wildly misrepresents what Jesus actually taught.

This issue of A Public Witness explores what the Foursquare Church, a Pentecostal denomination, could learn from how United Methodists, Southern Baptists, and Catholics have spoken out against immoral politicians who sit in their pews.

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Recent Episodes

Books

This book from Rev. Terri Hord Owens, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), serves as something of an encyclical for mainline Protestants.

Old Testament scholar Michael B. Shepherd explores the world of ancient exegesis, focusing on how early Jewish and Christian readers understood the Hebrew Bible’s prophetic literature.

This book is ideal for Jews, Christians, and Muslims who wrestle with the moral dilemmas of our time while drawing wisdom from the most challenging and inspiring stories in the Bible’s first five books.

Longtime pastor Austin Carty makes the case that the power of a sermon is found not in novelty, but in the mandate it gives preachers to collect their thoughts every week and put them down in a succinct, coherent fashion.