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Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of White Protestants and 61% of White Catholics said they voted for Trump.

Church members are seeking ways to respond to family members, friends, and neighbors taken up with Christian Nationalism. Ecumenical and interfaith groups on the state level are offering some tips.

While Donald Trump’s win understandingly dominates the headlines, it’s also important to consider the results in the numerous other federal, state, and local races.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

On Monday, the denomination also passed a resolution denouncing Christian Zionism.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Sunday’s Independence Day service at an influential megachurch to better understand the heretical danger of Christian Nationalism and its pervasiveness in our churches and culture.

Rowe compared the church’s challenges to the collapse of the steel industry, which had employed his grandparents, when he was growing up.

Nation

While emergency officials continue to search for victims of Hurricane Helene, faith-based groups start the long, slow cleanup efforts.

Before Tim Walz and J.D. Vance took the debate stage on Tuesday, Faith for Harris-Walz held a vice presidential pre-show event featuring several influential religious leaders.

This issue of A Public Witness explores alarming new moves to implement Christian Nationalistic ideas in Indiana and Oklahoma before considering a glimmer of hope in Texas.

World

‘A core practice of nonviolent resistance, including within our tradition, is economic non-cooperation with injustice,’ the Christian organizations wrote.

The incident underscored how the church’s official teaching bumps against the reality that there are gay priests and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

As the world’s eyes turn to France, host of the summer games in two months, their unique approach to the role of religious symbols in the public realm is getting more scrutiny.

Editorials

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on the Ever Given container ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal. And he connects this modern parable to biblical stories about Egyptian pharaohs and other rulers seeking more wealth and power.

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on the painting behind Georgia Governor Brian Kemp during the signing ceremony for a new law making it harder for people to exercise their right to vote.

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on the quick move by a Baptist church in Georgia to kick out the man who killed eight people at three massage parlors. And Kaylor wonders where Jesus would have instead shown up in Atlanta on Sunday.

Word&Way Voices

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, offers this first entry in our week exploring the theme of Advent during a time of bloodshed in Israel.

Rev. Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, writes that we begin to calm our anxieties only when we learn to accept the presence of divine mystery in our lives.

Rev. Janna Louie, chief of staff for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, reflects on Psalm 80 and how anxieties can be transformed by collective grief and lament.

E-Newsletter

This edition of A Public Witness looks at how denying the problem of Christian Nationalism or putting the blame on the shoulders of others avoids the discomfort of identifying our own complicity and having to alter our practices.

This issue of A Public Witness explores what it was like to edit the forthcoming book “Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism” from the perspective of a lifelong mainliner.

Given recent claims about how the Bible should guide U.S. policy decisions when it comes to Israel, this issue of A Public Witness reads through Scripture to determine how political leaders should treat various nations.

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Podcasts

In episode 29 of Dangerous Dogma, Kevin Cosby, president of Simmons College of Kentucky and senior pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, talks about his new book Getting to the Promised Land: Black America and the Unfinished Work of the Civil Rights Movement.

In episode 28 of Dangerous Dogma, Rodney Kennedy, a longtime Baptist pastor, talks about his new book The Immaculate Mistake: How Evangelicals Gave Birth to Donald Trump. He also discusses preaching, Southern culture, and Will Campbell.

In episode 27 of Dangerous Dogma, Bill Trollinger, a professor of history at the University of Dayton, talks about fundamentalism, higher education, and exvangelicals. He also discusses his book Righting America at the Creation Museum and his website Righting America.

In episode 26 of Dangerous Dogma, Nancy Ammerman, professor emerita of sociology of religion at Boston University, talks about Southern Baptist conflicts, fundamentalism, sociology of religion, and her new book Studying Lived Religion. 

Books

In "bell hooks' Spiritual Vision: Buddhist, Christian, and Feminist," Nadra Nittle offers readers a window into religion's role throughout the prominent social critic's writings.

In "My Body, Their Baby: A Progressive Christian Vision for Surrogacy," Grace Kao assesses the ethics of surrogacy from a feminist perspective, concluding that certain kinds of arrangements should be embraced.

In "Songs I Love to Sing: The Billy Graham Crusades and the Shaping of Modern Worship," Edith L. Blumhofer explores the stories behind some of the most beloved modern hymns.

In his new book "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future," Robert Jones argues that truly understanding the sordid racial history of the United States requires reckoning with the Doctrine of Discovery.