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

For decades, Western Christian leaders have avoided visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — the most revered site in all of Christianity. So Vice President JD Vance’s recent visit stood out.

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.

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Church

The Moravian Church is one of the world's oldest Protestant denominations. Its name comes from the historical provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic.

'During the holidays, we are practicing relational spirituality and engaging in our awakened brain,' said one professor of psychology.

Rev. Jennifer S. Leath hopes to help her denomination avoid the schisms that ruptured many mainline Protestant denominations as they dismantled LBGTQ+ bans.

Nation

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.

A federal judge temporarily halted a law requiring public schools to display a version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, echoing faith leaders and others who argue the statute violates the First Amendment.

This issue of A Public Witness recommends two films and one miniseries exploring important issues of Christian Nationalism and religious abuse.

World

The incident underscored how the church’s official teaching bumps against the reality that there are gay priests and plenty of LGBTQ+ Catholics who want to be fully part of the life and sacraments of the church.

As the world’s eyes turn to France, host of the summer games in two months, their unique approach to the role of religious symbols in the public realm is getting more scrutiny.

Given recent claims about how the Bible should guide U.S. policy decisions when it comes to Israel, this issue of A Public Witness reads through Scripture to determine how political leaders should treat various nations.

Editorials

There’s a fascinating, oft - overlooked parable in Judges 9. It might be one of the most profound teachings about political power and who we trust to rule found in the scriptures.

When Zacchaeus met Jesus and recognized his sins, he did more than say a prayer. And a critical part of that story is the financial payments. But are we unwilling to let a Zacchaeus walk such a path of redemption?

We saw a prophetic example earlier this week at the United Nations. And like many of the Old Testament prophets, this modern one did not come from a prominent position of power. But God doesn’t usually speak through the powerful.

Word&Way Voices

Ryan Whitaker’s new film 'Surprised by Oxford,' based on Carolyn Weber’s memoir of the same name, explores what happens when our plans and expectations are thwarted by the vagaries of life.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell makes the case that children are walking around each day speaking the language of the world, so it is powerful when we can take those stories and translate them into our own religious language.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that Rev. Mark Burns abused the Bible for secular political purposes during a recent ReAwaken America Tour event in order to foment violence and promote insurrection.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness considers the upcoming prayer services for the presidential inauguration and the problems with access spirituality.

While Trump fantasizes about retaking the waterway, this issue of A Public Witness digs into American colonialism and the roles Christian leaders and denominations played.

Like a decades-long game of telephone, the tale takes many twists — with appearances by George Washington, an Episcopal convention in Missouri, a promoter of Christian Nationalism at a group now trying to debunk the claim, a Catholic newspaper in New York, a library heist, and a Presbyterian chaplain.

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Recent Episodes

Books

"Preaching and Praying as Though God Matters: In the Post-establishment Church" by Ronald P. Byars seeks to provide us with a word that ties preaching and worship together, with special attention given to the Lord's Table.

In "The Desert of Compassion: Devotions for the Lenten Journey" author Rachel M. Srubas draws on the images of the desert, which she knows so well as a pastor in southern Arizona, to provide the reader/spiritual seeker with a rich

Barbara Mahany's "The Book of Nature: The Astonishing Beauty of God’s First Sacred Text" serves to remind us that before there was scripture, there was nature. It was nature that spoke to humanity about the presence of God the creator.

Jeremy Fuzy reviews "Second Thoughts about the Second Coming: Understanding the End Times, Our Future, and Christian Hope" by Ronald J. Allen and Robert D. Cornwall. This book explores the apocalypse from a mainline Protestant perspective.