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Highland Park United Methodist Church is locked in a bitter battle with the denomination’s regional body over issues of governance, not theological differences.

Retired Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann's office said, 'The bishops were assured that no photographs would be made public. They came to have a discussion on important policy matters.'

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall is a longtime mainline Protestant. But on Sunday, he joined numerous rightwing evangelical pastors in attacking the United Methodist Church.

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Videos

Church

‘We have to try to make it so big it can't be rigged,’ Michigan Baptist leader the Rev. James C. Perkins said of voter turnout efforts.

Hundreds of residents gathered for a community-wide re-dedication of the original First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, which was established in 1776 by enslaved and free African Americans in defiance of laws that prevented them from congregating.

The lawsuit, from Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski along with the Archdiocese of St. Louis, accused the Department of Homeland Security and ICE of instituting policies that violate 'core constitutional values.'

Nation

Conservative influencers have rallied to support Sey, who is being held for ICE in an Ohio jail, blaming his arrest on a clerical mix-up.

With the midterm elections less than two weeks away, Pete Hegseth’s job security is increasingly uncertain — meaning this could be the final Pentagon worship service.

Securing public money for private education raises issues over church-state separation but fulfills a longstanding goal for Christian Nationalists like Doug Wilson, who founded the Association of Classical Christian Schools.

World

Franklin Graham, one of President Trump’s most stalwart evangelical allies, did not offer any reasons for rejecting the federal funds, which would have been used for ‘immediate life-saving assistance to people affected by natural disasters.’

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built over the spots where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.

As Israeli settler violence escalates in Taybeh, church leaders and organizations are working to give Palestinian Christians security, jobs, and community support to remain in the Holy Land.

Editorials

We should all be concerned about government officials anointing themselves as the arbiters of what a Nativity scene should look like. Sadly, too many Christians today willingly side with Herod.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on the Christmas narrative in the Gospel of Matthew and an upcoming Christmas program at the Kennedy Center in the aftermath of Donald Trump taking it over.

The remarkable part of the Christmas story is that God decided to come as one of us. The incarnation means Jesus cried out at birth, announcing the breath of life in the one who breathes life into us.

Word&Way Voices

Rodney Kennedy writes about religious issues and character matters in the the U.S. Senate race in Texas between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.

Across rural America, the same pattern repeats: high church density, persistent poverty, substance abuse crises, and the absence of systems capable of addressing problems at scale. Why do individual Christians often appear more effective than the organizations built in Christianity’s name?

Education should open minds to facts, science, and our history — not close doors to them. Regressive-thinking adults prefer to hide facts and truth from students, as exhibited in the recent order from President Trump adding warning signs to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness drives over to the opening stop of the 2026 'The Vote Is Sacred Tour' at a Missouri church that’s seen firsthand the efforts this year to distort elections and dilute the voting power of Black communities.

The defense secretary’s conscription of Isaiah 6:8’s ‘send me’ to promote military recruitment has also drawn rebukes from Christian Nationalist figures such as pastor/commentator Joel Webbon and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

A federal judge recently ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to report about any protected church where it has conducted an immigration enforcement action. But the agency told the court it had no idea how many incidents there may be, insisting it had no reasonable way to check its

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Recent Episodes

Books

Tony Jones has crafted a sweeping work of literary historical fiction that follows Constantine the Great from boyhood to his father’s deathbed — not the saint of legend, but the morally compromised, spiritually restless, utterly human man.

In this forthcoming new release, journalist and author Sarah Stankorb puts women’s voices and experiences of American Christianity front and center.

Having a biography of an Episcopal Church nun, especially an African American Episcopal nun, is worth taking note of.

In this compelling study, renowned scholar John J. Collins shows that apocalyptic concerns extend beyond specific historical crises to fundamental questions of human mortality and limitation.