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The shape-note tradition emerged from New England’s 18th-century singing school movement that aimed to improve Protestant church music and expanded into a social activity.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that if our democracy has a chance to return to a vibrant life in the future, its ambiguous and messy universal principles will need to be in fighting form.

Rollins, who had long suffered from health issues, accused SBC leader and GOP activist Paul Pressler of years of abuse.

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Videos

Church

There is so much history between the walls of Metropolitan AME, which has hosted funerals for Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and opened its pews to American presidents. It made history again this year.

Sociologist Ruth Braunstein recently decided to try a different way of analyzing religion, politics, and money: a documentary podcast exploring divergent evangelical responses to Christian Nationalism.

One claim, about an allegedly defamatory tweet by another former denominational president, is still live. The SBC has spent more than $3 million in legal fees on the Hunt case.

Nation

While arrests of protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic: After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press.

President Donald Trump ran on a campaign promise to ‘bring back religion.’ The NEH grants he canceled include several that advance understanding of Judaism and Christianity.

The Supreme Court is deciding a case brought by parents who say books taught in school violate their religious rights.

World

Travis Timmerman of Urbana, Missouri, said he had gone to Syria on a Christian pilgrimage and was not ill-treated while in Palestine Branch, a notorious detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence.

The pope’s appeal was made for the World Day of Peace, coinciding with the launch of the 2025 Jubilee year.

The pro-Palestinian creche is intended to point out the disconnect between the idealized Bethlehem of most representations and the reality in present-day Gaza and the West Bank.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on the call to “never forget” 9/11, as well as the ways we seem to struggle to even remember or acknowledge deaths today.

Now that the trustees at Southwest Baptist University dropped their push for new governing documents, Brian Kaylor offers six next steps that leaders of the school and the Missouri Baptist Convention should take.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to critics of a Word&Way clergy statement urging Christians to get a COVID-19 vaccine. And Kaylor challenges the anti-vaxxer message of “faith over fear.”

Word&Way Voices

Faithful America’s executive director argues that since Trump and the religious right distort faith for their own gain, calling them out is not an attack on religion but rather a necessary democratic and Christian action.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that MAGA evangelicals have basically accepted the conclusion that Trump is not a good person — but this doesn’t change their vote due to the power of figurative language.

Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab documents how a leading evangelical group recently took a bold step away from pro-Trump American evangelicals.

E-Newsletter

A Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem — yes, that Bethlehem — Rev. Munther Isaac denounced Trump’s recent Gaza proposal as “evil” on this week’s episode of Dangerous Dogma.

This issue of A Public Witness cracks opens the books to study problems with the new social studies standards where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.

Joe Blosser’s recent book is challenging because it takes seriously the idea that the only way to love God well is to love our neighbors more by re-evaluating how much we’ve fallen in love with ourselves.

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Recent Episodes

Books

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.

In "Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right," Scott Coley trains a critical eye on the fusion of evangelicalism and right-wing politics.

In "Mornings with Schleiermacher: A Devotional Inspired by the Father of Modern Theology," Chad Bahl seeks to introduce a contemporary audience to the theological ideas of Friedrich Schleiermacher, one of the most important Christian theologians of the nineteenth century.

In "Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation)," New Testament scholar Amy Peeler offers insights into Christology, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and the letter’s canonical resonances.