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For the second time in six weeks, a pastor was struck in the head with a pepper round fired by a US immigration agent as faith leaders protested the arrival of more than 100 US Customs and Border Patrol agents.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is being phased out, said Samaritan's Purse CEO Franklin Graham. Johnnie Moore, the evangelical PR guru who has served as GHF chairman, recently stepped down.

On Saturday (Oct. 18), millions of people attended “No Kings” rallies at about 2,600 locations across the country. Here are the remarks by Brian Kaylor at No Kings rally on the steps of the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.

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Videos

Church

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s refusal to defend her fellow Lutherans is quite telling for understanding how some politicians are prioritizing politics and religion today.

Spearheaded by Dr. Atasha Jordan, a Christian psychiatrist, the Christian Mental Health Initiative provides free mental health first aid trainings to churches.

The report was conducted by the investigative firm Firefly but overseen by Tikkun Global, a Messianic Jewish network that had previous ties to the International House of Prayer, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nation

On Thursday, a delegation of religious leaders from Arkansas gathered at the state capitol in Little Rock to implore Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders not to resume state-sanctioned executions — specifically those using the method of gas asphyxiation.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the need for those who oppose Christian Nationalism to fight not just with lawsuits but also in the court of public opinion, so we can effectively protect religious liberty.

Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice.

World

During the annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance, members of the body’s general council unanimously passed a resolution on religious nationalism that specifically denounced Christian Nationalism. Two other unanimous resolutions addressed issues of world hunger and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Many who opposed Daniil, the new Patriarch of All Bulgaria, worry that his election represents a sharp turn away from the policies of his predecessor, Neophyte I, who is remembered as a unifier.

This comes nearly a year after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the country.

Editorials

There’s a famous line in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where a character laments that because of the White Witch’s rule over the land of Narnia, it is “always Winter but never Christmas.” But, what about a Spring without Easter?

In the disorienting last few days, it feels our society is reading Exodus 32 backward. We’ve started with a plague, moved to inappropriate revelry, and now seek to worship a statue of a cow.

Despite people hoarding toilet paper as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, I see hopeful signs that suggest deep down we know we’ve not been doing right as a society. We might call these moments of Jubilee.

Word&Way Voices

Former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church Rev. Hanna Massad writes that we find solace in knowing that, like Mary and Joseph, we have a place of refuge — the “ark of the cross.”

Rev. Alex Awad, a retired minister who served as pastor at East Jerusalem Baptist Church and a professor at Bethlehem Bible College, reflects on modern-day Herods and how the Christmas story gives oppressed people around the world hope.

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, offers this first entry in our week exploring the theme of Advent during a time of bloodshed in Israel.

E-Newsletter

In light of President Trump’s imperialistic rhetoric and the potential negative consequences for both nations, Rev. Jean-Daniel Ó Donncada, the national pastor for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada, released an open letter.

As Trump claims he’s creating a task force to fight ‘anti-Christian bias,’ it is worth examining the various legal challenges that major Christian denominations have filed seeking protection from Trump’s administration.

When Christian Nationalism scholar and sociology doctoral fellow Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood saw that Feucht would be leading a Christian Nationalistic rally in her city, she decided to blow the whistle at him — literally.

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Recent Episodes

Books

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.

In "Multiracial Cosmotheandrism: A Practical Theology of Multiracial Experiences," Aizaiah G. Yong considers how the lives and spiritual experiences of mixed-race people can transform efforts for racial justice.

In "Jesus the Refugee: Ancient Injustice and Modern Solidarity," D. Glenn Butner Jr. draws on scripture, theology, and legal analysis to provide a compelling and important look at one of the major crises of our time.