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This issue of A Public Witness contemplates historical parallels between the Stasi secret police force in East Germany targeting activist Lutheran congregations and DHS agents spying inside ELCA churches today.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday (Oct. 15) that the Pentagon will not livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter, backing away from a proposal that triggered widespread pushback from prominent religious leaders.

As Christians, we are called to be citizens of heaven — currently residing on earth — so we should learn to talk like it.

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Church

As a Christian minister with a Muslim father and a mother of Jewish heritage, Bishop Adam Shoemaker hopes to use his background to facilitate more reconciliation, integration, and 'the understanding that we are inextricably linked.'

Eighty religious plaintiffs from 11 major faith traditions have joined lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s immigration policies, according to a tracker developed by RNS with the Law, Rights, and Religion Project.

This issue of A Public Witness features an interview with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her new book 'Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made.'

Nation

One of the most prominent centers of theological education in the country, Vanderbilt Divinity School has been known for its social justice advocacy. Now students, faculty, and alumni wonder what the future holds.

By the time Bakker and his first wife, Tammy Faye, were forced to give up their Praise the Lord ministry — known as PTL — in 1987, they were a well-known television couple with a loyal following.

The defense secretary’s conscription of Isaiah 6:8’s ‘send me’ to promote military recruitment has also drawn rebukes from Christian Nationalist figures such as pastor/commentator Joel Webbon and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

World

Churches are calling for restraint, humanitarian support, and law and order as xenophobic unrest deepens.

Despite the fact that many Venezuelan faith leaders have been impacted themselves by the ongoing disaster, they’ve sprung into action to provide food, psychological support, and other basic needs to the large population of victims.

‘For three years, the police saw me as a nudnikit (pest),’ said Yisca Harani, founder of the Religious Freedom Data Center, which tracks and aims to prevent incidents targeting Christians in Israel. ‘After the incident with the nun, I feel they are taking me a little more seriously.’

Editorials

Somehow, the plan allegedly rooted in faith values to represent Christians means driving out of office one of only three ministers in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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.

A chaplain is not just a pastor or a Sunday School teacher or a street preacher shouting through a bullhorn. This is a unique role, often in a secular setting that requires assistance with a variety of religious traditions.

Word&Way Voices

Set in modern-day Tehran, the new film premiering in Chicago this weekend is both a forbidden love story and a depiction of the steadfast faith of the Baha’i community amidst ongoing oppression.

We live in an era saturated with more means of communication than ever before, and yet we also face unprecedented threats to our genuine human connections.

The desire for a sustainable authoritarianism among MAGA Calvinists, such as the ‘Theobros’ and a coalition of Southern Baptist Reformed leaders, has lovers of democracy sounding the alarm.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a recent conference that celebrated America’s heritage of religious freedom, with a special Seventh-day Adventist flavor.

As the Trump administration claims ‘anti-Christian bias’ under Biden, activists and mainline Protestant denominations are pushing back against ‘church invasions by ICE.’

The Department of Homeland Security insists its surveillance at University Baptist Church and other houses of worship was only about alleged criminal violations unrelated to immigration.

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Recent Episodes

Books

Warren Throckmorton, whose fact-checking of David Barton's book 'The Jefferson Lies' convinced the publisher to pull it from the shelves, picks a fight with fables told about the past by those who are trying to erase the separation of church

Drawing from personal experience, theological insight, and psychological depth, Richard Beck challenges the fear-based, legalistic interpretations that have long dominated many Christian traditions.

In his new book, acclaimed sociologist Robert Wuthnow seeks to both illuminate what has been hidden and to add complexity where a story has been too simply told.

In this innovative synthesis of practical theology and psychological science, professors Katherine M. Douglass and Brittany M. Tausen bring wisdom from Scripture and cutting-edge research into conversation.