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Securing public money for private education raises issues over church-state separation but fulfills a longstanding goal for Christian Nationalists like Doug Wilson, who founded the Association of Classical Christian Schools.

As a scholar and disability rights advocate, Amy Kenny illuminates aspects of our own lives, our congregations, and our society that continue to harm our neighbors living with disabilities and hold all of us back from enjoying true community.

A survey released Tuesday (Oct. 20) found that Republicans and evangelicals increasingly see empathy as a danger that can lead society away from God. The survey found that more than half of Americans see President Trump as a threat to democracy.

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Videos

Church

The lawsuit, from Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski along with the Archdiocese of St. Louis, accused the Department of Homeland Security and ICE of instituting policies that violate 'core constitutional values.'

This issue of A Public Witness drives over to the opening stop of the 2026 'The Vote Is Sacred Tour' at a Missouri church that’s seen firsthand the efforts this year to distort elections and dilute the voting power of Black communities.

'I am asking for your courage to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every human being, and now, to vote,' Budde says in the new ad, which references her headline-grabbing sermon to President Donald Trump last year.

Nation

While the idea of poll chaplains has been around for several years, 2026 will likely be different because there is widespread concern that the presence of federal immigration agents could create a chilling effect.

This issue of A Public Witness contemplates historical parallels between the Stasi secret police force in East Germany targeting activist Lutheran congregations and DHS agents spying inside ELCA churches today.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday (Oct. 15) that the Pentagon will not livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter, backing away from a proposal that triggered widespread pushback from prominent religious leaders.

World

Radicalized by COVID-19 and anger over immigration, right-wing pastors like Tobias Riemenschneider in Germany hope to gain followers by promoting conservative Christian views and politics. They have looked to religious right leaders and conservative influencers in the US for inspiration.

The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Party scored a pivotal victory for the far-right in Germany, an outcome churches fiercely fought to prevent. Their inability to stop it and the spread of the party’s anti-immigrant agenda expose a deeper rift in communities in which churches were a check on right-wing extremism.

The AfD may gain power on Sept. 6 in Saxony-Anhalt, posing a direct threat to refugees and the German churches that serve them. Inspired by past resistance in East Germany, faith leaders are doing everything they can to stand in the way of the far-right group.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chie Brian Kaylor reflects on a recent violent prayer by Pete Hegseth during a Christian worship service at the Pentagon and Mark Twain’s satirical work “The War Prayer.”

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.

Word&Way Voices

There is a way to interpret Scripture that leaves a person almost permanently reassured — difficult passages become instruments for identifying enemies rather than mirrors for examining the soul. But the Bible consistently resists that reading.

For the second entry in our series on religion and AI, a biblical scholar and ethicist unpacks how technological advances are influencing how her students might choose bullet-pointed information over learning to seek and love the truth.

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.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness considers the claims that ‘the Bible says so’ and the diverse Christian voices opposing the snuff film planned by the Crusader leading the Pentagon.

This issue of A Public Witness pulls back the curtain to explore self-defeating efforts from the religious right in Washington and Iowa.

This issue of A Public Witness drives over to the opening stop of the 2026 'The Vote Is Sacred Tour' at a Missouri church that’s seen firsthand the efforts this year to distort elections and dilute the voting power of Black communities.

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Recent Episodes

Books

Daniel Cooperrider reminds readers that God continues to speak in the context of nature and the ebbs and flows of the seasons. It’s a witness we need to heed, considering the climate challenges we face as human beings.

In this luminous and deeply comforting collection, Fr. Joel W. Huffstetler, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, invites us to see life's upheavals through the steady light of grace.

Bradley Onishi’s new book details the rise of a class of ruling elites who seek to use religion and technology to replace democracy with authoritarian rule.

We're often disconnected from the places we inhabit — cut off from nature, our neighbors, people different from us, and a sense of rootedness. Ben Norquist and Brian Miller show how Christians can develop a redemptive imagination for place.