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Featured
Joy Moore Steps Down As Northern Seminary President After Months of Confusion Over Status
School officials say a misunderstanding and distrust led to Moore's departure.
2025 in Review
We’re a small outlet, but we’re having an impact and covering stories that would otherwise not receive the attention they need. Here we count down our most popular pieces and offer some highlights from the year.
Top Podcast Episodes of 2025
Listeners tune in from across the country and around the world to our Dangerous Dogma podcast. So let’s count down the top 10 most-downloaded episodes in 2025.
Church
Meet the Gay Millennial Priest on a Mission to Pull the Episcopal Church out of ‘Free Fall’
The Rev. Charles Graves IV is part of a younger, more diverse generation of Episcopal priests who believes the denomination can thrive — as long as it continues to evolve.
What Church Do You Attend? Maybe More Than One, Survey Finds
Overall, besides worship services, participation in other religious activities and programs has increased or remained the same in the last five years.
California Pastor Says Apparent Immigration Agents Waved a Weapon at Her in Church Parking Lot
The Rev. Tanya Lopez says a masked man pointed a weapon at her while she was filming a group of unidentified men detaining a man in her church's parking lot.
Nation
The Church of the Department of Labor
This issue of A Public Witness looks at the DoL’s use of religion in its recent propaganda posters that push Christianity as part of a vision of a patriarchal, White nation.
Ending Wars
On Veterans Day, we honor and lament the lives lost in violent wars. We cherish the freedoms we have today. We strive to heal those wounded by battles. But we must also pray and work for peace.
Sitting Atop Fridge to Protest SNAP Cuts, Faith Leader Models Jesus’ ‘Proximity’ to the Poor
Nonprofit leader Terence Lester is sitting on a fridge for 42 hours to raise awareness of the 42 million Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
World
Five Centuries of the Radical Reformation
This issue of A Public Witness looks back at Anabaptism and what it still offers for Christians on the 500th anniversary of stirring the waters of a little fountain in Zürich.
1 in 7 Global Christians Faces ‘High-Level’ Persecution: Open Doors Report
Christians around the world are being attacked and killed, forced to flee and driven underground, the annual report finds.
Despite Growing Consensus, Many Jewish and Christian Groups Loath To Admit Genocide in Gaza
A growing list including the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and dozens of Holocaust scholars have concluded that Israel is committing genocide.
Editorials
It’s Ever Given for Greed to Crash
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.
Which Cloud of Witnesses?
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.
We Can’t Massage Away the Scandal of the Gospel
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
Unsettling Advent 2024, Day 15
For the first entry on Advent in a time of violence in Lebanon, Nabil Costa reflects on how Christmas should be about moving out of our comfort zone.
Unsettling Advent 2024, Day 14
For our final entry on Advent in a time of dangerous pregnancies, Sarah Miller reflects on the places where new life feels improbable and suffering surpasses speech.
To Preserve Life, Promote Equity, and Facilitate Redemption, President Biden Should Commute All Federal Death Sentences
This action would ensure that no federal prisoner faces execution despite being intellectually disabled, mentally incompetent, or convicted in proceedings riddled with racial bias.
E-Newsletter
How to Challenge MAGA’s Biblical Authoritarianism
This issue of A Public Witness features a guest essay centered on four creative proposals to disrupt Christian Nationalism within a distinctively Christian vernacular.
Cooperative Baptists Remember Historical Injustices, Confront Contemporary Ones
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.
John Pavlovitz Has Jumped the Shark
This issue of A Public Witness highlights a prominent progressive Christian voice as a case study in the dangers of election denialism festering in anti-Trump circles.
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An Unholy War
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about the Iran war, Christian opposition to the war, and viral claims of military leaders claiming this will bring "Armageddon." It also includes consideration of… -
Rewriting the Ten Commandments (A Trick of State)
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor looks at legislation across the country that purports to want the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. But the version mandated by lawmakers cannot be found in any Bible. Kaylor unpacks where the edited language came from, why such legislation is an attack on religious liberty, and the… -
198. American Christianity Divided in Responses to ICE
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about ICE actions in Minneapolis, how many clergy are leading protests against ICE while others are supporting ICE, and new research worried about the loss… -
197. Anna Piela and Michael Woolf on Confronting Islamophobia in the Church
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with American Baptist ministers Anna Piela and Michael Woolf on Islamophobia, immigration, and how Christians can better engage with interfaith efforts. Anna and Michael are coauthors of the new book, Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice. Watch a video version of this conversation here.… -
196. Martha Bardwell on Faith Communities Responding to ICE in Minneapolis
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Martha Bardwell, pastor of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on how faith communities are responding to ICE violence in the Twin Cities and the ICE killing of Renee Good. Watch a video version of this latest conversation here. The episode includes a discussion on… -
195. Attacking Venezuela & Gambling on Jesus
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of the U.S. attack on Venezuela and how Christians are responding, Pete Hegseth's pledge to change the military chaplaincy program, and how people are now… -
194. Dangers of Faith in the Pentagon & AI in Faith
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of U.S. strikes against Venezuelan boats, Pete Hegseth's Christian prayer services at the Pentagon, the use of AI in churches, and alarms about AI Christian… -
193. News Roundup: Elections, Government Shutdown, & Clergy Challenging ICE
This episode of Dangerous Dogma features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes consideration of religious attacks in elections this week, impacts of the ongoing government shutdown on churches, and clergy protesting against ICE. Watch a video version of… -
192. Hannah Kardon, United Methodist Pastor Arrested During Anti-ICE Protest
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister in the Chicago area. Kardon was violently arrested during a protest outside an ICE facility on Oct. 17. Video of the incident can be viewed here. Other issues discussed in this episode include ICE actions at churches, the legal pushback… -
191. William Stell on Evangelicals & Antigay Christianity
In this episode, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor talks with William Stell, a religious studies professor and author of the forthcoming book, Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity. Kaylor is also joined by guest cohost Jared Burkholder, scholar in residence at Moravian Theological Seminary. This is the…
Books
Review & Giveaway: The Violent Take It By Force
Matthew Taylor makes a compelling case that the New Apostolic Reformation, whose leaders and ideas have migrated from the fringes to the center of American evangelicalism, is a dangerous threat to democracy.
Review: The Quest of the Historical Muhammad
In “The Quest of the Historical Muhammad and Other Studies on Formative Islam,” scholar Stephen J. Shoemaker attempts to approach the figure of Muhammad in a manner comparable to efforts to recover the historical figure of Jesus.
Review: One Lost Soul
In “One Lost Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation,” Daniel Silliman cuts to the heart of Nixon’s tragedy: Nixon wanted to be loved by God but couldn’t figure out how.
Review: The Hero and the Whore
In “The Hero and the Whore: Reclaiming Healing and Liberation Through the Stories of Sexual Exploitation in the Bible,” trauma-informed educator and minister Camille Hernandez dives deep into the Bible’s stories of abuse.