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On Veterans Day, we honor and lament the lives lost in violent wars. We cherish the freedoms we have today. We strive to heal those wounded by battles. But we must also pray and work for peace.

Scholar Matthew Boedy exposes a dangerous plan driven by prosperity preachers, extremist politicians, and right-wing power brokers to destroy democracy and turn America into a Christian Nationalist state.

Under the new restructuring plan, called 'regionalization,' the denomination's nine regions will be equal partners with greater freedom to tailor church life to their own customs and traditions.

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Church

This issue of A Public Witness features a guest essay centered on four creative proposals to disrupt Christian Nationalism within a distinctively Christian vernacular.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the recent CBF annual gathering to consider how Christians can speak truthfully about the past and speak truth to power today.

The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg officially established itself in 1776, although parishioners met before then in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating.

Nation

The suit was primarily brought by journalists who allege they have been targeted by federal agents, but the list of plaintiffs also included the Rev. David Black, a Chicago-area Presbyterian minister.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at Lance Shockley’s extensive history of Christian leadership while in prison, as well as the role restorative justice should play in our criminal legal system.

Despite potential danger, religious leaders and faith activists have been a visible presence at Chicago-area ICE protests, some waving signs with slogans such as ‘Love thy neighbor’ and ‘Who would Jesus deport?’

World

One theologian said Africa’s celebrations of the Christian framework would exhibit the continent’s rich theological heritage and highlight new ways of thinking about faith unbound by colonial legacies.

Most Greenlanders are proudly Inuit, having survived and thrived in one of the most remote and climatically inhospitable places on Earth. And they’re Lutheran.

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.

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

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that there is more to the recent Pete Hegseth national security breaches than just political blunders — we are experiencing a shift in the moral universe of right and wrong.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell makes the case that the culture of flopping has spread beyond sports. Who are the biggest floppers right now? Christian Nationalists.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy addresses climate denial among a subset of Christians and how this demonstrates a surrender of truth.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness heads to Australia to offer highlights from the Baptist World Congress, where Christians from 130 nations came to worship, fellowship, dialogue, learn, and strategize together.

This issue of A Public Witness opens up the Epstein case to explore the dangers of phony, conspiratorial self-righteousness and how it captured so many conservative Christian figures.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the UCC synod to explore the specific issues that were discussed and how they are relevant to all ecumenical Christians in these troubling times.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In “John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer,” James F. McGrath sheds new light on the historical John the Baptist and his world.

Amanda Tyler draws on her experiences, conversations with pastors and laypeople, research, Scripture, her Baptist convictions, and her work as a constitutional law expert to help us confront Christian Nationalist fervor.

In his latest book “Religion for Realists: Why We All Need the Scientific Study of Religion,” Samuel Perry challenges some of our most cherished assumptions.

In “This Is Going to Hurt: Following Jesus in a Divided America,” Bekah McNeel analyzes the narratives surrounding six hot-button issues — immigration, COVID, abortion, critical race theory, gun violence, and climate change.