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A new Pew Research survey found that Trump’s approval ratings have dropped among major religious groups. But White Christians support the president more than other Americans.

The same board had supported opening a Catholic charter school in recent years, but a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state Court decision against it to stand.

After President Donald Trump rambled, lied, and cursed for 77 minutes at the National Prayer Breakfast, a prominent Christian musician went to the piano to bless it.

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Videos

Church

On the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the two Christian leaders pledged to unify their churches while warning world leaders to halt the spread of war and care for the environment.

Catholic, Orthodox, and most historic Protestant groups accept the Nicene Creed. Despite later schisms over doctrine and other factors, Nicaea remains a point of agreement — the most widely accepted creed in Christendom.

Part of a little-used fund in the Diocese of New Jersey established 100 years ago to support medical care for children will now help Palestinian youth in Gaza.

Nation

Coverage of Thursday’s event has largely focused on Trump’s rambling remarks — but the much more problematic and dangerous comments actually came later from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

This issue of A Public Witness explores biblical ‘peacemaker’ rhetoric from the Trump administration and how it wildly misrepresents what Jesus actually taught.

Monday’s ruling came just over 24 hours before TPS status was set to expire for some 350,000 Haitians. The U.S. district judge wrote that DHS Secretary Noem’s ‘approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of them.’

World

While Christians are among those targeted, analysts say the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most attacks occur.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is being phased out, said Samaritan's Purse CEO Franklin Graham. Johnnie Moore, the evangelical PR guru who has served as GHF chairman, recently stepped down.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been trying to rally fellow evangelical Christians and urge Congress to designate Nigeria as a violator of religious freedom with unfounded claims.

Editorials

For the first devotional exploring Advent in a time of rulers clinging to power, Brian Kaylor reflects on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declaring Christmas in October to distract from his false election claims.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on Speaker Mike Johnson working to cover up a House Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as U.S. attorney general.

While messengers to last week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention debated how to treat churches with women in pastoral roles, Baptist Women in Ministry showed up to offer a counter witness.

Word&Way Voices

The good news of Advent is this: Christ entered the violence of human life, the very violence that says some folks are more valuable than others, and took on these abstractions.

Advent teaches us that a shiny, gilded facade only serves to cover up the other side of the story. If we keep our focus on the child sleeping in an animal feeding trough, we might be unsettled — but the truth we see will compel us to live differently.

Advent reminds us we are called to help bring the empire of God — not of any power or principality — into being. And as the Lord’s Prayer exhorts, resist the temptations and trappings of the unjust.

E-Newsletter

This isn’t the first time Graham has been invited to speak at the Pentagon. Two previous occasions — one of which was canceled — each sparked controversy because of his comments about Islam.

William Schultz, a historian of American religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School, makes a compelling argument that there was a moment where Colorado Springs was a place of enormous cultural influence.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside a very Catholic governmental Christmas celebration that also featured a Trumpian rabbi commemorating Hanukkah.

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Recent Episodes

Books

With the weaponization of Scripture regularly making headline news, “The Bible According to Christian Nationalists” officially releases today to point to better ways of reading and applying sacred texts.

In this new book, Brian Kaylor exposes the ways Christian Nationalism distorts scripture through seven different problematic approaches to interpreting and applying the biblical text.

Greg Carey, scholar of the New Testament and apocalyptic literature, invites readers to reconsider the Book of Revelation as a text that can speak meaningfully to contemporary resistance movements.

How do we make sense of our confusing political moment? Scripture is constantly warped to advance purely partisan agendas. The underlying goal is advancing power at seemingly any cost. Luckily, we have a new book that deciphers it all.