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The question of offering pastoral care to immigrant detainees has become a theological and legal flashpoint since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation effort last year.

C.W. Howell’s book documents what transpired, unpacks the broader meaning, and illuminates the effects of the “Intelligent Design” movement that sought to shake the foundations of the scientific establishment.

Worshippers took a moment to pause, mourn, and sing, even as they continued to organize resistance efforts against ICE's escalated presence in Minneapolis.

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Church

There is so much history between the walls of Metropolitan AME, which has hosted funerals for Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and opened its pews to American presidents. It made history again this year.

Sociologist Ruth Braunstein recently decided to try a different way of analyzing religion, politics, and money: a documentary podcast exploring divergent evangelical responses to Christian Nationalism.

One claim, about an allegedly defamatory tweet by another former denominational president, is still live. The SBC has spent more than $3 million in legal fees on the Hunt case.

Nation

‘We will not retreat, and we will use every nonviolent tool at our disposal, to call this nation, this Congress, to stop all of this partisan fighting and get down to the business of the people,’ said the Rev. William Barber II.

Johnson initially claimed he was not aware of the instances, despite having been directly asked about one of the incidents in a press conference earlier this month.

Paul Ostapa, an HVAC technician, says he told his bosses the Bible will not let him work alone with women. When he refused to work alone with a female co-worker, he was fired. He’s suing in federal court for religious discrimination.

World

This issue of A Public Witness treks to Latin America to consider the dangers arising from the political co-opting of sacred texts.

Surf Church was established by an ordained Baptist pastor to spread the Gospel in a once-devoutly Catholic country where about half of young people today say they have no religion.

The Salvation Army is exploiting a connection to the Beatles to draw more visitors to fund its mission and encourage people who would never consider stepping inside a church to find out about Christianity.

Editorials

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.

In a time of a national census and a deadly epidemic, a ruler who cares more about himself than the people can be dangerous. At least that’s the lesson in the biblical texts from the end of King David’s rule.

Word&Way Voices

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.

Christmas reminds us it is precisely in the midst of the darkness of hatred that it is time for love to be born.

What does it mean to enter the Christmas story anew in these moments, as so many are desperate for God’s saving presence? To wrestle with this question is to live into this sacred season.

E-Newsletter

The letter follows a contentious hearing over Senate Bill 594 last week that several ministers attended to testify against the proposal.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a contentious hearing in the Missouri Senate, offers context for Ten Commandments mandates spreading across the country, and highlights the strong Christian opposition to an attempted Christian Nationalist power grab.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a recent academic gathering to hear from some of the nation’s leading scholars as they offer ways to push back against a dangerous ideology.

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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.