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‘Our nation must be careful not to allow partisan agendas to undermine institutions built on merit, sacrifice, and service,’ said the president of the historically Black National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.

Rev. Caleb Morell, a Southern Baptist, offered an evangelistic message about the resurrection of Jesus that stopped just short of a formal altar call as he urged government workers to follow Jesus.

L. Daniel Hawk exposes the belief systems and practices that settlers developed to justify the displacement, destruction, and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples, beginning in the early American colonial period and extending to the present day.

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Church

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.

The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg officially established itself in 1776, although parishioners met before then in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating.

‘It is featured in over 40 different Christian hymnals and sung in churches all across America, not just during Black History Month or Juneteenth,’ said musician Theodore Thorpe III.

Nation

Monday’s ruling came just over 24 hours before TPS status was set to expire for some 350,000 Haitians. The U.S. district judge wrote that DHS Secretary Noem’s ‘approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them.’

The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open civil rights investigations into killings by ICE officers.

Like religious leaders in cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and elsewhere, local clergy were quick to muster resistance to the rapid influx of immigration enforcement agents, even as they wrangle with the unusual geography of Maine.

World

An investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

In the last two years, the number of religious activists who are being held as political prisoners has sharply increased — part of a broader escalation of a campaign of repression that has also led to the arrests of journalists and other opposition figures.

Thanks to an automatic function on X, formerly Twitter, the team’s fleur-de-lis emoji is automatically added to the hashtag #Saints.

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

A Jordanian worship band has made it their mission to perform and record hymns composed around the middle of the 20th century that might have otherwise been lost to time.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores how the pilgrimages made by various politicians to Trump’s Manhattan trial are all about religion.

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon of Churches for Middle East Peace argues we need a new foreign policy that stops alienating young people, Muslim and Arab voters, and millions of American Christians committed to justice.

E-Newsletter

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.

This issue of A Public Witness unpacks President Donald Trump’s invoking of God during his speech announcing the U.S. had dropped massive bombs on Iran, thus joining Israel recent war against Iran.

This issue of A Public Witness goes inside the first meeting of the White House Religious Liberty Commission this week to warn about their effort to turn religious freedom upside down.

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Recent Episodes

Books

James L. Gorman’s fresh edition of Richard T. Hughes’s classic work, "Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America," illuminates the influential Stone-Campbell religious movement.

This issue of A Public Witness cues up the soundtrack of American evangelical Christianity as covered in Leah Payne’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music.”

In "Wounded Pastors: Navigating Burnout, Finding Healing, and Discerning the Future of Your Ministry," Carol Howard Merritt and James Fenimore offer guidance for pastors who have been hurt by the church.

In "Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age," Richard Beck argues that modern malaise has profoundly dulled our religious imaginations — but it doesn't have to be this way.