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This updated edition includes a chapter on the intersections between LGBTQIA identity and neurodivergence and extra attention to how churches can respond to the assault on diversity and transgender rights in the current political climate.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a recent conference that celebrated America’s heritage of religious freedom, with a special Seventh-day Adventist flavor.

Youssef discussed his 52 years of ministry, Christians in the Middle East, and preparation for a major commemoration in 2030: the 2,000th anniversary of the baptism of Jesus at Bethany Beyond the Jordan.

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Videos

Church

For years, the Rev. Eduardo Fabian Arias, a Lutheran pastor in Manhattan, has ministered to immigrants. Now, much of his work takes place inside and around Federal Plaza immigration court in Midtown Manhattan.

'When I go to their house, they have to make sure it's me before they even go to the door,' Pastor Jean-Daniel Berard, who leads Passionate LightHouse of God, said of his church members. 'The fear is real.'

Faith groups suing President Donald Trump’s administration filed a motion Thursday (Aug. 20) alleging the Department of Homeland Security committed “multiple egregious violations” of a court order that largely barred warrantless surveillance at their churches. 

Nation

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a recent conference that celebrated America’s heritage of religious freedom, with a special Seventh-day Adventist flavor.

As the Trump administration claims ‘anti-Christian bias’ under Biden, activists and mainline Protestant denominations are pushing back against ‘church invasions by ICE.’

In the past 100 years, only the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta has accomplished what Methodist pastor and Kansas Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton aspires to do: serve in the Senate while continuing to lead his congregation.

World

Franklin Graham, one of President Trump’s most stalwart evangelical allies, did not offer any reasons for rejecting the federal funds, which would have been used for ‘immediate life-saving assistance to people affected by natural disasters.’

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built over the spots where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.

As Israeli settler violence escalates in Taybeh, church leaders and organizations are working to give Palestinian Christians security, jobs, and community support to remain in the Holy Land.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to Doug Wilson’s defense of Pete Hegseth holding Christian worship services in the Pentagon, including the one Wilson preached at earlier this month.

After President Donald Trump rambled, lied, and cursed for 77 minutes at the National Prayer Breakfast, a prominent Christian musician went to the piano to bless it.

In 1845, a group of pro-slavery Baptists created the Southern Baptist Convention to defend enslavers serving as missionaries. One hundred and eighty years later, SBC leaders defend a pastor serving as an ICE leader. Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on this through line.

Word&Way Voices

Rodney Kennedy writes about religious issues and character matters in the the U.S. Senate race in Texas between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.

Across rural America, the same pattern repeats: high church density, persistent poverty, substance abuse crises, and the absence of systems capable of addressing problems at scale. Why do individual Christians often appear more effective than the organizations built in Christianity’s name?

Education should open minds to facts, science, and our history — not close doors to them. Regressive-thinking adults prefer to hide facts and truth from students, as exhibited in the recent order from President Trump adding warning signs to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

E-Newsletter

The Department of Homeland Security insists its surveillance at University Baptist Church and other houses of worship was only about alleged criminal violations unrelated to immigration.

In this forthcoming new release, journalist and author Sarah Stankorb puts women’s voices and experiences of American Christianity front and center.

The leader of Pete Hegseth’s denomination recently said at a book promotion that ‘if America is a creedal nation, then you have to have creedal standards.’

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Recent Episodes

Books

Having a biography of an Episcopal Church nun, especially an African American Episcopal nun, is worth taking note of.

In this compelling study, renowned scholar John J. Collins shows that apocalyptic concerns extend beyond specific historical crises to fundamental questions of human mortality and limitation.

Written from a Christian perspective, this comparative theological exercise puts Muslims and Christians in a dialogue over faith and doctrines.

Philosopher Kent Dunnington invites us to move beyond pop psychology and reclaim a robustly biblical understanding of thanksgiving, one that transforms how we experience life, suffering, and God's generosity.