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While reporters and peaceful protesters were accosted on Pentecost by militarized forces, tanks have been rolling into the nation’s capital so President Trump can enjoy a military parade on his birthday this Saturday.

The Southern Baptist Convention meeting this week in Dallas will also consider a proposed ban on churches with women pastors.

When Jesus said to go pray in a closet, he didn’t mean you should then show it off to Fox News or The Associated Press.

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Church

This issue of A Public Witness tracks which denominations Lutheran congressional members are part of to consider what that reveals about Lutheran life and the broader Christian witness.

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.

Nation

For United Methodist minister Hillary Taylor, there’s a reward in introducing outsiders to someone who is kind and compassionate — ‘telling a story that maybe hasn’t been told before.’

Why does Charlie Kirk, the new face of Christian Nationalism, say the church is in ‘wartime’ when Trump is in the White House and his party controls D.C.?

The U.S. Institute of Peace has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Government Efficiency, seeking a restraining order and injunctive relief to stop defendants from further dismantling USIP's leadership.

World

Vatican officials said about 70,000 people filled St. Peter's Square for Francis' noonday speech and blessing. They included many people flying Palestinian flags, as well as some Ukrainian ones.

Palestinian Christians have felt abandoned by global Christian church leaders’ statements on the Israel-Hamas war, with some viewing the war as a moment for Western denominations to reckon with their colonialist past.

'It’s war, it’s terrorism,' Pope Francis said.

Editorials

In 2 Kings 5, a self-righteous, important man had to humble himself and listen to others in a quest to find healing from leprosy. Humbly listening to those we normally wouldn’t listen to might be the recipe we need today.

The classic children’s song about Zacchaeus — a wee little man was he — strikes me as odd. The song ends just as the story really gets good. And it has parallels to the report released by Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., documenting the school’s ties to slavery and racism.

As often occurs when preachers give their pulpits over to a politician, they point to a Bible passage that does not actually justify their decision: 1 Timothy 2:1-2. But the passage does not actually say what proponents claim.

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell makes the case that in our emphasis over the last four decades to tell our girls that they could be anything they want to be, we missed a critical step: we forgot to liberate the boys as well.

Angela Denker reflects on the aftermath of the worst earthquake in recent memory that struck Turkey and northwest Syria. Like all natural disasters and mass casualty events, as the death toll rises our ability to contemplate and synthesize the loss paradoxically decreases.

Sociologist and educator Dr. Nabil Tueme uses Springtide Research Institute’s latest research report “Navigating Injustice: A Closer Look at Race, Faith & Mental Health” to argue that when faith leaders ignore racial/ethnic identity, this makes young people of color feel misunderstood and unwelcome.

E-Newsletter

Some public figures also regularly tweet a random Bible verse on Sundays. And sometimes that creates an incongruity with the news. So this issue of A Public Witness gets biblical online to look inside this practice of tweeting the Bible.

This issue of A Public Witness shows up like a hotdish with, dontcha know, a look at Minnesota Nice Lutherans and why, gosh darn it, the attacks on Walz’s church are worse than Wisconsin.

This issue of A Public Witness grabs some tinsel and some lights to unwrap some recent seasonally inappropriate “War on Christmas” rhetoric and rake the problematic attacks over the coals.

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Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Theology and the Star Wars Universe" edited by Benjamin D. Espinoza. This book is part of a larger series of academic studies that explore the relationship between theology/religion and pop culture. The idea here is to

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Pathways to Hindu-Christian Dialogue" by Anantanand Rambachan. This book provides an accessible foundation for Hindu-Christian relations that are often underdeveloped. Rambachan outlines barriers to relationships and understanding that both communities present to the other which can

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age" by Dale C. Allison Jr. This book seeks to help those who have had spiritual experiences that are not easily explained by sorting these occurances out instead of

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Reading Theology Wisely: A Practical Introduction" by Kent Eilers with art by Chris Koelle. This book, written for the student or layperson, makes the case that theology is more than dry intellectualism because how we see