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The fast-evolving list was met with blowback from critics who suggested its changes were an attempt to impose Christian Nationalism on the military.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor unpacks a significant problem with a proposed resolution for consideration at the 2026 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

We live in an era saturated with more means of communication than ever before, and yet we also face unprecedented threats to our genuine human connections.

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Videos

Church

Over a year since Donald Trump and JD Vance spread falsehoods about the city’s migrants eating pets, Haitians’ temporary protected status is set to run out Feb. 3.

An American Baptist church is just one block from where nurse Alex Pretti was executed Saturday by federal agents in the street. The church held a joint worship service the next morning elsewhere, but opened up its own building to serve those coming or leaving the memorial to Pretti.

Minneapolis-area AME Church officials stated Renee Good’s death ‘never should have happened’ and listed more than a dozen ways they have tried to meet community needs there.

Nation

The ruling sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue in the future. Arkansas and Louisiana have passed similar laws, which have also been challenged in courts.

‘If they wanted this to be a unifying American project, there would have been a whole lot more attention to getting political diversity and ideological diversity,’ added Brian Kaylor of Word&Way.

The story about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reading a prayer based on a scene in a Quentin Tarantino film really did go viral in the U.S. and elsewhere. And it all started with our newsletter A Public Witness.

World

Attacks from the religious right on Marina Silva, a Pentecostal and longtime environmentalist, expose the rifts within Brazil’s evangelical movement as the Amazon’s future hangs in the balance.

Targeting a holy site ‘is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war,’ the Church said in a statement.

The project has been criticized even by religious leaders in the East African nation.

Editorials

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.

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.

Word&Way Voices

In her new book, ‘Spellbound,’ the historian of religion traces the mysterious force that is charisma from the Puritans to Donald Trump.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell reflects on the connections between jazz, supporting young people, church life, and the kingdom of God.

Unless the international community acts decisively and swiftly, Al-Taybeh risks being overrun by Israeli settlers, its lands confiscated, and its people forcibly displaced.

E-Newsletter

C.W. Howell’s book documents what transpired, unpacks the broader meaning, and illuminates the effects of the “Intelligent Design” movement that sought to shake the foundations of the scientific establishment.

With the growth of worship services by leaders in a Christian Nationalist administration, it’s worth revisiting the most significant previous effort to craft religion within the federal government: the church of Nixon.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at criticism of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela by various Christian denominations and organizations, as well as pleas for peace by Venezuelan Christian leaders.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In “Evangelism in an Age of Despair: Hope Beyond the Failed Promise of Happiness,” Andrew Root contextualizes evangelism for our times and reimagines what the call to outreach means in today’s world.

In “Braving Difficult Decisions: What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do,” Rev. Dr. Angela Williams Gorrell maps out a process for working through the most challenging aspects of complex choices.

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.