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This issue of A Public Witness gives you an inside look at disgraced former Lt. General Michael Flynn’s latest QAnon crusade called “Get in the Fight” being held in sanctuaries around the country.

The survey found support for Christian Nationalism concentrated in two religious groups: white evangelical Protestants and Hispanic Protestants.

His Cornerstone Baptist Church in the New York City borough of Brooklyn has long been part of the National Baptist Convention, the largest Black denomination in the U.S.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

A large stained-glass depiction of Jesus in a progressive Baptist church in Louisville, Kentucky, shone in the Gothic-style sanctuary on Sunday with a new look. The church had darkened a White image of Jesus to provide a more accurate look.

‘There are churches near, and people near, places where there are no internet carriers at all,’ said the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner.

Faith leaders have increasingly stepped into the frontlines of care for growing mental health distress across the U.S., from college campuses to the military and rural communities.

Nation

These bills are part of a broader Republican push nationwide to target a variety of culture issues in education, including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the type of books allowed in school libraries.

The tour’s personalities and themes are borrowed from 'FlashPoint,' a Christian current-events program that features Trump and his former officials, members of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

Her termination comes as the evangelical, multidenominational seminary is re-visiting its approach to human sexuality.

World

The leaders are writing in response to a letter sent to Congress in June by religious groups and legislators asserting that the funds for the program were financing family planning and reproductive health programs, including abortion.

‘Matters of climate change cannot be politicized, reduced to economies,’ said a Lutheran priest, but instead should be ‘treated as a matter of life and death.’

Editorials

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on the second impeachment of Donald Trump, the role of religion in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and biblical stories of Moses and Jesus that offer a different path.

Houses of worship should not be hit with harsher pandemic rules than similar organizations. But religious gatherings should not be exempt from the same life-saving health rules to which similar gatherings are subjected. Simply put, there shouldn’t be a pandemic privilege for religion.

Editor Brian Kaylor writes that even even as we return to a “normal” in the upcoming months as vaccinations roll out, he hopes churches do so while building on the lessons learned during this time of social distancing and virtual life.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell has watched a generation of young people she worked with over the last two decades walk away from the church and organized religion — and she's not alone. So, what did we do wrong?

May 15, 1948 — 75 years ago — a human rights travesty began. Palestinians and those of us who are in solidarity with their liberation and human rights movement commemorate what is referred to as the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic.

Contributing writer Greg Mamula offers the final entry in a six-part series on the future of the church. In this article, he focuses on the importance of developing multiple revenue streams.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness takes you down the rabbit hole of the latest ReAwaken America Tour event to consider what it means when Bible verses, Christian songs, and holy sacraments are exploited to justify a mad view of the world.

In the wake of the first Republican presidential primary debate, today's issue of A Public Witness takes a look at former and current politicians who believe the path to the Oval Office runs through the death chamber.

Earlier this month, Russian police raided a prominent Baptist minister’s home for criticizing the military. But before they could arrest him, he slipped out of the country. We spoke with him as he recalled his ministry and courageous defiance.

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Podcasts

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. 

In episode 25 of Dangerous Dogma, Randall Balmer, a professor at Dartmouth College, talks about his new book 'Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right.' He also discusses his evangelical upbringing and his ministry as an Episcopal priest.

Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "The Church After Innovation: Questioning Our Obsession With Work, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship" by Andrew Root. This book is a philosophical conversation about whether being innovative and creative is the best way to be faithful as Christians.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "The Scandal of the Gospel: Preaching and the Grotesque" by Charles L. Campbell. This book challenges us to look beyond the safe path and embrace the less orderly and more chaotic realities of the grotesque, which

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "A Gift Grows in the Ghetto: Reimagining the Spiritual Lives of Black Men" by Jay-Paul Michael Hinds. This book reimagines the ghetto, a place of separation and abandonment, in terms of the wilderness that Ishmael experienced

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers" by Miguel A. De La Torre. This book is a strongly worded prophetic statement calling for Christians of color to decolonize their minds, that is, set themselves free from the message