Home - Word&Way
logo
mobile-logo

Featured

Among corporate America’s most persistent shareholder activists are 80 nuns in a monastery outside Kansas City. The Benedictine sisters of Mount St. Scholastica have taken on the likes of Google, Target, and Citigroup.

A dispute over weekend parking in bike lanes has left a group of inner-city congregations — four churches, a pair of synagogues and the Philadelphia Ethical Society — in Philadelphia dealing with a tricky urban dilemma.

In "Mornings with Schleiermacher: A Devotional Inspired by the Father of Modern Theology," Chad Bahl seeks to introduce a contemporary audience to the theological ideas of Friedrich Schleiermacher, one of the most important Christian theologians of the nineteenth century.

No posts were found.

Dangerous Dogma

Church

Two years after being placed on probation by its accrediting body, Southwest Baptist University’s accreditation status has been reaffirmed. The probation period for the school in Bolivar, Missouri, came after years of conflict over theology and control.

ABCUSA’s new leader stands out, as only 13% of ABCUSA churches are pastored by women, and 86% of women in Baptist churches still report facing obstacles in their ministry because of their gender.

In 2015, Tim Carey was appointed lead artist for a stained-glass window more than 90 feet long and nearly 40 feet high for the largest United Methodist congregation in the U.S.

Nation

“Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism” has officially launched — check out the conversation we had to celebrate with Dr. Diana Butler Bass, Rev. Adriene Thorne, and Dr. Andrew Whitehead.

Conservatives are elevating long-controversial Idaho pastor Doug Wilson, framing him as a champion of a relatively moderate form of Christian Nationalism — but critics says his ideas remain extreme.

They would become the first state to require the religious text to be displayed in every public school classroom — in another expansion of Christianity into day-to-day life by a Republican-dominated legislature.

World

With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic records in Barcelona and across southern Europe, iconic sacred sites are struggling to accommodate the faithful who come to pray and the millions of visitors who often pay to view the art and architecture.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the modern debate about public baptisms in Switzerland to consider what this can teach us about balancing church and state.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Biden would meet with Zuppi on Tuesday to “discuss the widespread suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine."

Editorials

Finding the moral courage to be first can be difficult. We need more Deborahs, Jaels, and Jackies.

In the book The Last Week, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that on that Palm Sunday there were actually two processions entering Jerusalem. "The two processions, they state, "embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’s crucifixion.”

Last week, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to flip to a calendar in their quest to discover truth. Well, they didn’t admit that, but that’s essentially what they did in the case of the 94-year-old cross in Bladensburg, Md.

Word&Way Voices

Angela Denker writes that "Love is Blind" is the reality television show she loves to hate. The premise of the show is that they’re going to prove if love can be grounded in things other than appearance. But she argues this idea that we can escape and transcend our bodies

Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, writes that rather than ascending to a place of power through brute strength, wealth, or status, the life and mission of Jesus are enacted through humility, presence, and connection. As he is with all of us, we too are called to

Joy Martinez-Marshall, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, writes that the Christ child knows what it is like to be born in a place not his own to a world that did not value his humanity and dignity. Today, innocent lives are caught in the middle of political

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside Ryan Binkley’s longshot presidential campaign to hear about his decision to run and how he’s managing his dual roles as candidate and pastor.

As the temperatures rise and vacations approach, this issue of A Public Witness includes some of our recommendations for great summer reads. Whether you find yourself on the beach, in a secluded cabin, or just in your own backyard, we hope you’ll find the perfect book to curl up with.

This issue of A Public Witness tastes the newest corporate controversy being fried up on social media and then digests the warning this “anti-woke” effort should signal for Christians.

Sign up to receive full essays in your inbox!

Podcasts

No posts were found.

Books

Before passing away last July, famed civil rights activist C.T. Vivian started working on his autobiography, which will be released next week. In the book, he reflected on his role in key civil rights moments. And he suggested the “origins”

The famed Bible study teacher said she no longer feels at home in the denomination that once saved her life. Moore’s criticism of the 45th president’s abusive behavior toward women and her advocacy for sexual abuse victims turned her from a

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep is not a memoir, per se, but its deep theological insights are repeatedly grounded in Warren’s own experiences as a mother and an Anglican priest. And many of

Popular Christian author Shauna Niequist has apologized for her silence following the allegations against her father, Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of suburban Chicago megachurch Willow Creek Community Church.