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While figures like Franklin Graham and Pete Hegseth bet on a holy war where God is on their side, many Christian leaders in the U.S. and around the world were quick to condemn the so-called ‘Operation Epic Fury.’

'We're going to sing and sing and try to touch the hearts of the ICE agents,' said the Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, senior pastor at Middle Church in New York.

This issue of A Public Witness explores the theology behind viewing the United States as a nation that God asks to perform miracles, as expressed in the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

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Church

Naming a woman to the position is a major milestone for a church that ordained its first female priests in 1994 and its first female bishop in 2015. Mullally follows 105 men who have led Anglicans worldwide.

‘I grieve for his family, friends, and our Divinity community,” said Edgardo Colón-Emeric, dean of Duke Divinity School, where Abbington had planned to teach in the fall.

A medical emergency cut her installation service short, but the Rev. Winnie Varghese’s message of unity and interfaith witness endured.

Nation

A national coalition of Mennonite congregations organized roughly a dozen demonstrations at Target stores across the country, singing and urging Target to publicly call Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Given the importance of promoting religious liberty and addressing religious bigotry, this issue of A Public Witness delves into the debates swirling around the White House’s “Religious Liberty Commission.”

Leon Benjamin, a charismatic preacher who frequently spoke at the ReAwaken America Tour, attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and even walked with the crowd to the Capitol grounds.

World

Attacks from the religious right on Marina Silva, a Pentecostal and longtime environmentalist, expose the rifts within Brazil’s evangelical movement as the Amazon’s future hangs in the balance.

Targeting a holy site ‘is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war,’ the Church said in a statement.

The project has been criticized even by religious leaders in the East African nation.

Editorials

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.

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.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on the connections between jazz, supporting young people, church life, and the kingdom of God.

Unless the international community acts decisively and swiftly, Al-Taybeh risks being overrun by Israeli settlers, its lands confiscated, and its people forcibly displaced.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that Trump has outdone every shyster who ever told a tall tale, every con artist, every swindler, every unscrupulous insurance salesman, and every crooked televangelist.

E-Newsletter

We’re excited to announce this year’s themes for our award-winning Unsettling Advent series, which begins in one month: Advent in a time of religious nationalism, starvation, and soldiers in the streets.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the danger of religious attacks against politicians as MAGA comes after Republicans for non-Christian beliefs or for offering kind words to Americans celebrating a non-Christian religious holiday.

On Saturday (Oct. 18), millions of people attended “No Kings” rallies at about 2,600 locations across the country. Here are the remarks by Brian Kaylor at No Kings rally on the steps of the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.

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Books

Our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter also garners two Best in Class awards in the Specialized Writing and Artwork categories, and Unsettling Advent wins top editorial series for the fourth straight year.

A congregational pastor who also serves as the UCC’s Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice, Sarah Griffith Lund has long been a voice helping Christians gently and wisely wrestle with neurodiversity.

“The Church Must Grow or Perish: Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity” examines Schuller's indelible imprint on the American church.

In “Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry,” Beth Allison Barr traces the history of the role, showing how it both helped and hurt women in conservative Protestant traditions.