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The ruling sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue in the future. Arkansas and Louisiana have passed similar laws, which have also been challenged in courts.

The choice of ‘Two Chronicles’ is not a coincidence.

‘If they wanted this to be a unifying American project, there would have been a whole lot more attention to getting political diversity and ideological diversity,’ added Brian Kaylor of Word&Way.

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Church

While some view the work of faith-based organizers and groups as part of a surge in activism by a new 'religious left,' others say the Black church and leaders rooted in its traditions don’t fit neatly within one pole or the other.

‘Just as Christ’s work on the cross was countercultural, this service is a counternarrative,’ said Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, who leads the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Episcopal Area.

New York Episcopalians profited from the transatlantic slave trade and were 'uniquely implicated in the odious institution and in anti-Black policies and practices that extend through generations,' according to a new report.

Nation

The story about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reading a prayer based on a scene in a Quentin Tarantino film really did go viral in the U.S. and elsewhere. And it all started with our newsletter A Public Witness.

The state of Colorado said that faith-based schools are welcome to participate, but they must comply with nondiscrimination laws.

The bill is now heading to the Senate, and President Donald Trump announced he would veto it if it reached his desk.

World

The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement Sunday that it had recorded 2,299 ceasefire violations by 7 a.m., including assaults, shelling, and small drone launches.

The increase in faith-fueled militaristic rhetoric is pitting the president against a growing list of faith leaders, ranging from local clergy to the pope.

Both Apollo 8 and Artemis II missions included public references to religion, but astronauts aboard the Artemis’ Orion spacecraft struck a broader, more global tone.

Editorials

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.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reacts to a Calvinist pastor in Minnesota to offered a blessing for ICE after the killing of Renee Good. Each generation has preachers excited to stand up as chaplains for the empire.

Word&Way Voices

When Christianity becomes publicly associated with nationalist aggression and eagerness for war, it presents a face to the world that is, by any honest reading of the New Testament, a misrepresentation of the faith.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell explores the importance of ‘theodiversity’ on college campuses, where student ministries are often dominated by conservative evangelicals.

Rev. Dr. James Ellis III reflects on the often contentious issue of ordination in the Black Church — particularly the rift that can exist between women who feel called to vocational ministry and women who do not.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness considers some dangerous voices against climate action and then the Christians working to love their neighbors and the Creator by addressing our pressing environmental crisis.

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.

This issue of A Public Witness considers how the military chaplain who authored a war prayer and the secretary of defense who appropriated it for himself performed violence against Scripture to justify violence against people.

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Recent Episodes

Books

If HGTV decided to cast a show about fixing up your old religion, few could compete with James McGrath to be the star who transforms outdated edifices into contemporary spiritual structures.

Writing in a personal, conversational style, New Testament scholar James McGrath shares his experiences of outgrowing a narrowly defined Christianity and learning how to inhabit a more dynamic Christian faith.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been historically revered throughout the Islamic tradition. This began in the Qur'an, where she is called by the name ‘Maryam.’

Kelley Nikondeha uncovers recent scholarship that points to Jubilee’s robust capabilities for resetting just economic systems — much more than the framing it typically receives as being impractical and aspirational.