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The invite is the latest move by the Congressional Freethought Caucus to elevate criticism of Christian Nationalism.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the Poor People’s Campaign and its recent rallies around the country hoping to put issues of poverty on the public agenda in this election year.

The fine is by far the largest ever levied under a law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to collect data on campus crime and notify students of threats.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

While historian Jemar Tisby has been canceled from many conservative White Christian spaces, other Christians are willing to listen. So this issue of A Public Witness takes you to a special class session to learn about the need for churches to fight institutional racism.

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.

Nation

The only requirements for a chaplain participating in a school program would be a background check and having their name and religious affiliation listed on the school website.

This issue of A Public Witness examines how numerous states are considering bills to limit or ban marriage for minors, which has garnered opposition from several conservative Christian ministers and activists.

Legalized sports gambling now represents billions of dollars. Faith leaders in the few holdout states know the odds are against stopping it.

World

AI is a growing interest for the U.N., as for national governments, multinational groups, tech companies, and others.

The U.S. continues to not only ignore the Convention on Cluster Munitions but also to ship the weapons to Ukraine. So this issue of A Public Witness uncovers the history of cluster bombs and the moral failure of nations that continue to utilize them.

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.

Editorials

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on the deaths of two individuals he listened to as a teenager: Christian singer Carman and talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh. And Kaylor considers what those formative voices mean for him today.

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.

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

In the wake of Greg Locke destroying a Barbie Dreamhouse playset with a “biblebat,” today’s issue of A Public Witness opens up the book on examples in faith, business, and politics of profaning the Bible by treating it like a prop.

This issue of A Public Witness heads deep into the heart of Texas to review the saga of state Attorney General Ken Paxton and what his various scandals — including his upcoming impeachment trial — say about Christian political engagement.

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.

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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 "Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President" by Allen C. Guelzo. This new book, an updated version of the 1999 first edition, offers one of the best portrayals of Lincoln the thinker, politician, and war-time leader.

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