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This issue of A Public Witness looks at the U.S. government coming for a Palestinian student activist for exercising his free speech rights and the Christian and other religious voices speaking out for him.

The rift over religion in public school classrooms has never fully been put to rest, and questions over how students should be taught about life’s origins still spark debate among educators, lawmakers, and the public.

In a status report sought by a federal judge, the Trump administration’s lawyers argued the State Department is not required by law to provide reception and placement benefits to refugees when they arrive in the U.S.

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Church

The new denomination, with 4,715 congregations, will meet to adopt a constitution and iron out its governance structure.

Brittany Packnett-Cunningham’s rise to be one of her generation’s best-known racial justice activists reflects the promise and power of the ministry of her late father, who was senior pastor of St. Louis’ historic Central Baptist Church.

Less than two months after the Southern Baptists’ policy arm issued an embarrassing retraction of an announcement of its leader’s firing, it gave him a strong vote of confidence this week.

Nation

Airport chaplain Nace Lanier, among the first to respond to the midair collision near Washington's airport, joined a team ‘to holistically care for the hurting and confused.’

A small but influential group of evangelicals argues that enforcing the law is as important as mercy, and has come to see Christian charities as the enemy.

Few people have thought as much about faith and politics as Danforth, who served as Missouri’s attorney general, special counsel for the DOJ, special envoy to Sudan, and ambassador to the UN for George W. Bush.

World

He offered an ethical take on an issue that is increasingly on the agenda of international summits, government policy, and corporate boards alike.

Ordained and lay representatives from the five major global religions — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism — have been working together for months to set up a shared hall in the Olympic village.

He recalled that Saturday marked the 10-year anniversary of a peace prayer he hosted in the Vatican gardens, attended by then-Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Editorials

Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on Christmas (yes, he thinks it is too early to celebrate) and the news that our country can’t find the parents of 545 children that our government separated from their parents at the border.

Trustees for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary followed the request of SBTS President Al Mohler and voted against renaming buildings that honor the school’s enslaver founders. But while Mohler and SBTS insist names are important, they keep ignoring some names: those enslaved by the founders.

Editor Brian Kaylor looks at the recent litigation filed by LifeWay Christian Resources and asks how they could have decided to take such an action. The sad case is yet another example of Christians hurting our witness with lawsuits.

Word&Way Voices

Many things have changed since ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’ was written, but not who receives the harshest punishments: those with the least social power.

Rev. Angela Denker explores the phenomenon of non-ordained men married to women who are pastors. So simple. So revolutionary. So threatening to many American Christians.

Pastor and hospice chaplain Melissa Bowers reminds us that in the long, horrifying legacy of state-sanctioned murder in the United States, a tiny pinprick of light has broken through.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the origins of the unbiblical phrase ‘Jezebel Spirit’ and the danger it poses in today’s politics.

This issue of A Public Witness unpacks the devotion to Saint Michael the Archangel, why Donald Trump recently posted about him, and what it means for our politics today.

This issue of A Public Witness explores alarming new moves to implement Christian Nationalistic ideas in Indiana and Oklahoma before considering a glimmer of hope in Texas.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In "Saving Faith: How American Christianity Can Reclaim Its Prophetic Voice," Randall Balmer argues that any attempt to arrest the decline of Christianity in America must first reckon with the past.

In "Religious Liberty in a Polarized Age," author Thomas C. Berg makes the case that religious freedom for all is part of the cure for our political division.

This issue of A Public Witness explores Andrew Whitehead’s compelling new book "American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church."

In "Theology without Deception: God, the Poor, and Reality in El Salvador — Conversations with Charo Marmol," Jesuit Jon Sobrino explores faithful discipleship in a world marked by injustice.