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Two recent books, each co-authored by two pastors, offer insight to church leaders who feel stuck and congregations struggling to muster hope in a time where maintaining a successful religious community is more difficult than ever.

Through honest storytelling, spiritual reflection, and practical wisdom gained from a pilgrimage journey, Andy and Kara Root offer parents and pastors a refreshing alternative to the exhausting cycle of trying to control outcomes.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that the best approach to this question is investigating how Jesus interacted with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots throughout the Gospels.

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Videos

Church

On Thursday (Oct. 31), Curry, 71, completed his nine-year term as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and it’s his casual style and his capacity to adapt and improvise that may be his signature.

Fear of violence recently prompted Grace United Methodist Church’s pastor to join Choices and Voices for Peace, a coalition of faith leaders from across the state.

The site of colonial America's break with the Church of England and the mother church of the nation’s first Black denomination sit less than a mile from each other.

Nation

On Thursday, a delegation of religious leaders from Arkansas gathered at the state capitol in Little Rock to implore Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders not to resume state-sanctioned executions — specifically those using the method of gas asphyxiation.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the need for those who oppose Christian Nationalism to fight not just with lawsuits but also in the court of public opinion, so we can effectively protect religious liberty.

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.

World

The only Baptist church in the Gaza Strip — and one of just four Christian congregations in the besieged territory — received significant damage from an Israeli attack on Tuesday.

The change, enacted in legislation signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, reflects both Ukrainians' dismay with the 22-month-old Russian invasion and their assertion of a national identity.

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.

Editorials

Brian KaylorWith the start of a new year, state lawmakers will return to their chambers for a new legislative session. Christians should pay attention to bills under consideration. Although the debates and tweets

Brian KaylorThere is a scene in the biblical Christmas story that bugs me. I didn’t notice it for years. But one Christmas as I was preparing a couple of sermons, I was struggling

Brian KaylorLast month, news headlines called the shooting in Las Vegas the “deadliest mass shooting in US history.” That’s the fifth time in my life that such a tragedy claimed that title —

Word&Way Voices

Multigenerational Texan and seminarian Christopher Symms details the religious aspects of the political fight in his state over what Governor Greg Abbott calls the “woke agendas in schools."

Nabil Costa details a ludicrous conflict that surfaced when the caretaker Prime Minister, in a surge of “altruistic” enthusiasm to ease Ramadan’s rituals on the fasting populace, decided to postpone daylight saving time.

Darron LaMonte Edwards argues that Christians should be opposed to harmful conversion therapy, which is more concerned with changing who a teen is sexually attracted to than with modeling how to live faithfully.

E-Newsletter

This Election Day issue of A Public Witness considers the idea that where you vote might influence how you vote.

The upcoming election is certainly important, but the journey of addressing Christian Nationalism in our churches and nation will continue in the weeks, months, and years to follow.

This issue of A Public Witness hops on a cross-country bus to sightsee the pluralist resistance to Christian Nationalism — and picks up some religious hope for our divided country along the way.

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Recent Episodes

Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask Us by Lore Ferguson Wilbert. The book is written from an evangelical perspective that is open to learning new things by

We review a book each month at A Public Witness and for this installment, Beau Underwood examines a memoir on family histories, racism, and what our society needs to do now. He highly recommends Lisa Sharon Harper.'s Fortune:

Robert D. Cornwall reviews Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible by Dietrich Bonhoeffer with a new introduction from Walter Brueggemann. While Bonhoeffer was thoroughly trained in the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, in his book on the Psalms he

Robert D. Cornwall reviews Words of Love: A Healing Journey with the Ten Commandments by Eugenia Anne Gamble. This book reflects on the Commandments in a manner that is both deeply spiritual and personal and we see aspects that people