Home - Word&Way
logo
mobile-logo

Featured

Historic Christian churches representing the predominantly Arab Christian community and mostly U.S. evangelicals who support Israel are at odds with each other.

Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, called having an ICE official serve as a pastor ‘a serious moral failure.’

Minneapolis-area AME Church officials stated Renee Good’s death ‘never should have happened’ and listed more than a dozen ways they have tried to meet community needs there.

No posts were found.

Videos

Church

Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, is best known as the church where former President Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School for decades. The church’s new pastor recently moved the U.S. and Christian flags out of the sanctuary.

They reject climate science but accept medical science, according to the National Survey of Religious Leaders published this week.

The number of nondenominational churches has grown, as have the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated. As a result, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other historic mainline groups have had to do less with less.

Nation

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.

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

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.

World

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.

The letter comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the U.S., where he is expected to address Congress on Wednesday and meet with President Joe Biden on Thursday.

Editorials

As the U.S. Supreme Court today (Jan. 22) hears arguments in a critical church-state case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, one problematic phrase the justices will likely hear a lot is “Blaine amendments." The problem? The phrase tells an inaccurate story.

Across the country, state lawmakers recently returned to their chambers to pass important matters like putting up little signs in schools to magically make our society better. We should post this phrase everywhere and watch the miraculous transformation!

At the Christmas Eve service I attended recently, the Christ candle in the Advent wreath wouldn’t light. The pastor tried and tried. Eventually, as giggles worked their way down the crowded pews, he said everyone should just pretend it was lit.

Word&Way Voices

Rev. Janna Louie, chief of staff for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, reflects on Psalm 80 and how anxieties can be transformed by collective grief and lament.

Word&Way trustee and scholar of American evangelicalism William Trollinger argues that Johnson’s association with Ark Encounter makes sense given the strong connection between Young Earth Creationism and Christian Right politics.

Many churches hold Blue Christmas services that allow people a sacred space for mourning. Perhaps the laments that come from political loss also need to be acknowledged in this season of anticipation.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the U.S. government coming for a Palestinian student activist for exercising his free speech rights and the Christian and other religious voices speaking out for him.

Historian David Swartz unpacks his new seven-episode narrative podcast series on conversations in his Kentucky community about a local Confederate statue.

This issue of A Public Witness mounts a bully pulpit to warn about the dangerous Christian Nationalistic targeting of public schools.

Sign up to receive full essays in your inbox!

Recent Episodes

Books

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.

In "The Word Made Fresh: Preaching God's Love for Every Body," George A. Mason offers us a collection of progressive sermons preached during his thirty-year ministry at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

Ryan Burge’s "The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going" shines new light on our transformational moment in American religious life.

The book "Theology and Star Trek" explores how creator Gene Roddenberry may not have wanted to include God-talk in his franchise, but the rich science fiction universe still provides numerous opportunities for theological reflection.