Home - Word&Way
logo
mobile-logo

Featured

‘Whatever he may have been in the past, he’s not fringe now,’ said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and Wilson critic who wrote the forthcoming book ‘The Bible According to Christian Nationalists.’

Churches across Chicago braced for Trump’s threat of a National Guard deployment and apocalyptic force, even as Chicago’s rates of violent crime have dropped substantially in recent years as part of a national trend.

Somehow, the plan allegedly rooted in faith values to represent Christians means driving out of office one of only three ministers in the U.S. House of Representatives.

No posts were found.

Videos

Church

‘In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,’ the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church said in a letter.

A long-simmering dispute over a proposed homeless shelter at a New Jersey church turned ugly last week, as leaders of Toms River voted to try to seize the church’s property.

The Southern Baptist Convention lost 259,090 members in 2024 — the 18th consecutive year of membership decline — according to the denomination’s Annual Church Profile report, released Wednesday.

Nation

Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, showing its pastors arguing women should not have the right to vote.

With Pete Hegseth resurrecting a Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, this issue of A Public Witness looks back at how prayer was used to bless its White Supremacy ideology.

‘A president with a true Christian agenda would be most concerned with uplifting those in our country who have been cast aside,’ said Rev. Shannon Fleck of Faithful America. ‘The most vulnerable among us are not billionaires. Those most vulnerable among us are not these manipulators of Christianity that are seeking nothing but power.’

World

A letter with more than 200 signatories, organized by Churches for Middle East Peace in the United States and Embrace the Middle East in the United Kingdom, was provided to A Public Witness ahead of its formal release today.

Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of Islamist insurgents.

Travis Timmerman of Urbana, Missouri, said he had gone to Syria on a Christian pilgrimage and was not ill-treated while in Palestine Branch, a notorious detention facility operated by Syrian intelligence.

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

Daoud Kuttab reflects on a gathering that took place as the war in Gaza — where at least 23 Christians have been killed — has alienated many Palestinian Christians, who feel their co-religionists around the globe have abandoned them.

Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab documents a recent sermon from an influential pastor of the leading Protestant church in Cairo.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy discusses what led him to write “Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit” covering lessons preachers can learn from novelists, poets, philosophers, and rhetoricians.

E-Newsletter

Our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter also garners two Best in Class awards in the Specialized Writing and Artwork categories, and Unsettling Advent wins top editorial series for the fourth straight year.

A congregational pastor who also serves as the UCC’s Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice, Sarah Griffith Lund has long been a voice helping Christians gently and wisely wrestle with neurodiversity.

This issue of A Public Witness explores an intra-Catholic Easter weekend as well as multiple Easter sermons from progressive ministers around the United States.

Sign up to receive full essays in your inbox!

Recent Episodes

Books

In "Mornings with Schleiermacher: A Devotional Inspired by the Father of Modern Theology," Chad Bahl seeks to introduce a contemporary audience to the theological ideas of Friedrich Schleiermacher, one of the most important Christian theologians of the nineteenth century.

In "Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation)," New Testament scholar Amy Peeler offers insights into Christology, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and the letter’s canonical resonances.

In "Irreverent Prayers: Talking to God When You’re Seriously Sick," Episcopal priests Elizabeth Felicetti and Samantha Vincent-Alexander offer readers a more candid way of communicating with God.

Theologian and pastor Ross Kane articulates a vision of how Christians can engage in public life that begins with the premise that all politics is local.