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One of the removed panels featured images of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Both born as enslaved persons, they were instrumental in starting their churches.

On Monday, the top federal judge in Minnesota issued a blistering critique of three Trump administration officials for repeatedly violating court orders. One of the three is David Easterwood, the acting director of the St. Paul ICE field office. Easterwood is also a pastor at Cities Churches in St. Paul.

Sequola Dawson, senior pastor of St. Mary African Methodist Episcopal Church and a bereavement chaplain, offers a helpful discussion of death rituals, with a focus on honoring the environment while also acknowledging the traditions and needs of families.

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Church

This issue of A Public Witness seeks sanctuary to understand the history of how ICE interacts with houses of worship and the pushback against Trump’s changes from various Christian groups.

Robinson has defended the gesture, with which he concluded his speech at the National Pro-Life Summit last week, as an ‘attempt at dry wit.’

The Eaton fire consumed the sanctuary of Altadena Baptist Church, one of at least a dozen houses of worship destroyed in the fires in Los Angeles County.

Nation

The directive last year from former Superintendent Ryan Walters drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and prompted a pending lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers, and religious leaders.

In the first month of direct state aid for Missouri’s K-12 scholarship program, 98% of funds went to Christian, Jewish, and Islamic institutions.

With the execution of Lance Shockley approaching, this issue of A Public Witness unpacks the debate over his religious freedom rights for his final moments.

World

Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, led the memorial service.

The commitment falls short of demands from some campaigners for institutions that benefited from slavery to pay compensation to descendants of the enslaved.

The militants 'are terrorists, and they are not fighting for any religion. But they want to use religion to achieve their target of destabilizing the country and establishing an Islamic state,' said a local evangelical Christian pastor.

Editorials

Brian KaylorIn the U.S. context, we often hear laments about the decline of Christianity, how younger generations are walking away from faith and about our culture’s increasing embrace of immorality. If we hear

Brian KaylorThe top religious advisor to President Donald Trump defended his policies on detaining immigrant children, claiming Jesus never broke the law. Rather than an aberration, Paula White, the Florida megachurch “prosperity gospel”

Brian KaylorIt seems that since people could write, we’ve had stories warning about powerful people using their power to abuse others and to gain or preserve their power, assets or lustful desires. Homer’s

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy argues that a recent tweet from Senator Josh Hawley describing Christianity and America as the saviors who destroyed slavery represents a false history.

Contributing writer Sarah Blackwell argues that the unfortunate consequence of separating ministries into silos based on age and stage of life means churches miss out on one of their biggest monopolies in the world today: being a place of true intergenerational community.

A recent op-ed published in the Washington Post about Christian Nationalism engaged in dangerous historical revisionism, failing to listen to and learn from the lessons of the past.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness looks at numerous sermons by Episcopal and other mainline preachers across the country as they reflected on Luke 4, Bishop Budde, and showing mercy.

Amid the vitriol against Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde from Trump and other Republicans this week, a few proposals stick out since they attempt to empower the federal government to decide which religious beliefs should be allowed or not.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the evolution of the WHO, its religious connections, and why it matters in the face of Trump ordering the U.S. to leave the valuable global agency.

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Recent Episodes

Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Choosing Hope: The Heritage of Judaism" by David Arnow. This book asserts that hope stands at the center of Jewish theology. That’s understandable since Judaism, historically, has had to navigate tremendous challenges when it comes to

Here at A Public Witness, it’s an annual tradition to share the best books we’ve read during the last calendar year. The table of contents is as follows: 1. Five books featured on our podcast Dangerous Dogma, 2. Five books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "You Never Step into the Same Pulpit Twice: Preaching from a Perspective of Process Theology" by Ronald J. Allen. This book seeks to offer guidance to preachers who approach questions from a particular vantage point: Process

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities" by Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher. This book explores the fact that many marginalized Christian communities live without the traditional trappings of institutional religion. Nevertheless,