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This issue of A Public Witness looks at the danger of religious attacks against politicians as MAGA comes after Republicans for non-Christian beliefs or for offering kind words to Americans celebrating a non-Christian religious holiday.

In this book, Baptist theologian Myles Werntz explores the landscape of twentieth-century ecclesiology and shows how the four marks of the church were remade, contested, and reaffirmed in surprising ways.

Latino Christian leaders meeting in Southern California discussed how best to pastor congregations newly traumatized by the Trump mass deportation policy.

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Videos

Church

The ministers, mostly from Grand Rapids, are no longer willing to abide the denomination’s increasingly rigid stance on sexuality.

‘We are actively exploring other venues where we can continue to share our witness of the birth of Jesus Christ in the excellence and prophetic tradition of the Black Church,’ said Alfred Street Baptist Church.

The proposed database has been derailed by denominational apathy, legal worries, and a desire to protect donations to the Southern Baptist Convention’s mission programs.

Nation

This issue of A Public Witness heads to Florida with the zeal of Moses descending from the mountain to scrutinize the Christian Nationalist attempt to desacralize the Decalogue.

At Delaney Hall, the East Coast’s largest immigrant detention facility, families and volunteers say harsh conditions and shifting rules have urged the need for spiritual care.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has become a pariah in the eyes of the United Nations and established humanitarian groups, who accuse it of violating humanitarian standards while endangering civilians.

World

As painful as it is, many survivors remain committed to remembrance. They are willing to reopen their wounds year after year, hoping that no genocide is ever committed again.

False charges of forced conversion are used to target Christians, who cite attacks on church properties and institutions, the harassment of pastors, and raids on private parties.

Rev. Hkalam Samson, a human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority, was first arrested in December 2022.

Editorials

As a child, I imagined the bandits who beat and robbed the man in Jesus’s parable about being a good neighbor wore masks. Now, I’m pretty sure the Samaritan who helped the man was the one really covering his face.

As states across the country shut down non-essential businesses in March and April, debates started about what should count as essential. But one unessential business apparently remained open as “essential” across the country: state lotteries.

Governors across the country recently started lifting coronavirus restrictions even as health experts warn it’s too soon to reopen. With the rashness of the biblical Judge Jephthah, many governors push ahead with their plans even though it means sacrificing lives.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores how recent rhetoric from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas surrounding 'illegitimacy' reveals broader stakes for democratic deliberation.

For the final day of Advent, contributing writer Sarah Blackwell ponders what we should focus on as we watch the Christ Candle lit once again this year.

Azar Ajaj, president of Nazareth Evangelical College, brings our attention to overlooked Middle Eastern Christians as instruments that God is using to bring peace to the region.

E-Newsletter

A religious coalition won the first round of faith-based litigation against the Trump administration — but the scope of the preliminary injunction is limited.

On this somber anniversary, many are remembering the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians who have been killed in fighting over the last three years. But the president of the United States is instead trying to rewrite the facts of the war.

This issue of A Public Witness heads to the city that never sleeps to combat a zombie version of a famous biblical story.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In "My Body, Their Baby: A Progressive Christian Vision for Surrogacy," Grace Kao assesses the ethics of surrogacy from a feminist perspective, concluding that certain kinds of arrangements should be embraced.

In "Songs I Love to Sing: The Billy Graham Crusades and the Shaping of Modern Worship," Edith L. Blumhofer explores the stories behind some of the most beloved modern hymns.

In his new book "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future," Robert Jones argues that truly understanding the sordid racial history of the United States requires reckoning with the Doctrine of Discovery.

In "Disobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning," journalist Sarah Stankorb outlines how access to the internet allowed women to begin dismantling patriarchal authority.