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After decades of fierce controversies over sexuality and theology, some leaders of a conservative coalition say it's time to make a final break from what has long been one of the world's largest Protestant church families.

The Center on Faith & Justice at Georgetown University recently launched a campaign encouraging people to pledge not to shop on Amazon during this Advent season — and A Public Witness is one of the official partners.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on the tragic juxtaposition of running in the beautiful Charlotte Marathon while ICE agents racially profiled and terrorized neighbors over the weekend.

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Church

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.

‘It is featured in over 40 different Christian hymnals and sung in churches all across America, not just during Black History Month or Juneteenth,’ said musician Theodore Thorpe III.

As survivors gathered Tuesday, they invited another congregation that knows the pain of murderous hatred to join them: members of the Tree of Life synagogue.

Nation

The ‘Share the Arrows’ conference founded by commentator Allie Beth Stuckey emboldened women to carry on Charlie Kirk’s conservative fight.

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.

World

On this somber anniversary, many are remembering the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians who have been killed in fighting over the last three years. But the president of the United States is instead trying to rewrite the facts of the war.

Pro-Israel evangelicals and some members of Congress want to use the biblical names Judea and Samaria for what is now known as the West Bank.

Adding to the many voices in the U.S. and around the world criticizing President Trump’s proposal, the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem issued a powerful joint statement on Friday.

Editorials

In a guest piece for Americans United, Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor writes why on the Fourth of July, which falls on a Sunday this year, he won’t be attending church.

Russell Moore deserves many of the accolades he received recently, but Brian Kaylor argues the hagiographers miss the real lesson of this morality tale. As Southern Baptists gather this week for their annual meeting in Nashville, it is important to see there is more to the story.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to Paige Patterson claiming during a sermon that a “lynch mob” was out to get him. Kaylor notes that not only is Patterson inaccurately using the metaphor, but Patterson’s words are an injustice to real victims.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that the story of Titus in Crete is the best metaphor for what has happened to America since Donald Trump was elected again.

The event included a keynote presentation by Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, who highlighted the dangers of using religious texts to justify oppression.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on how we can continue to move forward when equality, respect, and truth seem like they are evaporating in front of us.

E-Newsletter

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.

This issue of A Public Witness highlights a prominent progressive Christian voice as a case study in the dangers of election denialism festering in anti-Trump circles.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In "Simplicity, Spirituality, Service: The Timeless Wisdom of Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure," Bruce Epperly shows us how the lives of three saints from the thirteenth century offer wisdom, insight, and practical solutions to our challenges.

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty’s Amanda Tyler has reshaped the intersection of religion, politics, and law in recent years. And now she has a vital new book.

In "Imitating Christ: The Disputed Character of Christian Discipleship," New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson reorients Christian living toward pursuing sainthood.

In “A Visible Unity: Cecil Robeck and the Work of Ecumenism,” Josiah Baker explores the efforts of Pentecostals towards reconciliation as something significant for how we understand the church.