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In 2025, the U.S.-led global fight against AIDS grew more complicated as the Trump administration dismantled most foreign aid and barred State Department employees from commemorating World AIDS Day.

As wannabe tyrants arise and the authoritarian logic of empire finds purchase among Christian Nationalists, sincere followers of Jesus should listen afresh to Mary this Christmastime.

A coalition of Catholic, mainline Protestant, historic peace church, and advocacy groups want Christians in the U.S. to remember Palestinian Christians this Advent by lighting a red candle.

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Church

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.

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.

Nation

At least one other religious leader, Muslim hospital chaplain Ayman Soliman, had been detained earlier by ICE as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation effort.

‘We will not retreat, and we will use every nonviolent tool at our disposal, to call this nation, this Congress, to stop all of this partisan fighting and get down to the business of the people,’ said the Rev. William Barber II.

Johnson initially claimed he was not aware of the instances, despite having been directly asked about one of the incidents in a press conference earlier this month.

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

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.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on recent violence between Israel and Hamas to argue that a ceasefire will not actually bring peace and justice to the people living in Gaza. Kaylor adds insights learned from Arab and Palestinian Christians.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on legislation pushing the teaching of the Bible in public schools. He explores significant church-state problems that would arise from such efforts.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores the continued relevance of the Jan. 6 insurrection and three active attempts to subvert democracy: threats against the press, attempts to imprison political opponents, and promises to deport 11,000,000 immigrants.

What can we say about Divine hope and love when the mountains of western North Carolina tremble?

It’s not too late for Christians to see that those who lead us into violence, greed, dehumanization, and Earth destruction are not leading us on good and fruitful paths.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness heads to Australia to offer highlights from the Baptist World Congress, where Christians from 130 nations came to worship, fellowship, dialogue, learn, and strategize together.

This issue of A Public Witness opens up the Epstein case to explore the dangers of phony, conspiratorial self-righteousness and how it captured so many conservative Christian figures.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the UCC synod to explore the specific issues that were discussed and how they are relevant to all ecumenical Christians in these troubling times.

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Recent Episodes

Books

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.

In “American Christian Nationalism: Neither American nor Christian,” Michael W. Austin offers us a better form of civic engagement.