Home - Word&Way

Featured

In this eyewitness account, Valentyn Syniy recounts how the Russian invasion of Ukraine upended life for students, teachers, and staff in a seminary community.

With Pentagon prayer services continuing into the Christmas season, this issue of A Public Witness peeks inside Pete Hegseth’s monthly effort to establish his brand of rightwing Christianity inside the government.

In 2025, the U.S.-led global fight against AIDS grew more complicated as the Trump administration dismantled most foreign aid and barred State Department employees from commemorating World AIDS Day.

No posts were found.

Videos

Church

Richard Joyner has a new rejoinder to his congregants: 'God is not flooding the land. Our behavior is destroying the environment.'

Queen is the first SBC leader to be charged in an ongoing DOJ investigation into the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

At St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the Rev. Jean Beniste, a Haitian immigrant and Episcopal priest turned internet curses into blessings during an annual blessing of the animals, held in honor of St. Francis.

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 lush Cedars of God Forest, some 2000 meters (6,560 feet) above sea level near the northern town of Bcharre, is part of a landscape cherished by Christians.

Inspired by Palestinian Christians canceling Christmas lights and festivities in Bethlehem, British Christians urge Christians elsewhere to show solidarity by not lighting the “peace candle” that is traditionally lit on the second Sunday in Advent.

The Rev. Lydia Chituku Neshangwe, a Presbyterian minister, became the first woman to lead the ecumenical All Africa Conference of Churches.

Editorials

Brian KaylorSince my election in November to serve as the ninth editor of Word&Way, several faithful subscribers have shared with me how they have read Word&Way since they were kids. I understand. I

Brian Kaylor“Everyone went to their own town to register” (Luke 2:3).

The familiar Christmas story starts with a governmental registry. Tracking — and taxing — populations helped Rome enact its oppression. So we

Bill WebbThanksgiving 2016 is already shaping up as one of my most memorable — for various reasons. Our household is experiencing change and with it stress as retirement and, in our case, relocation

Word&Way Voices

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy writes that we will never understand conservative evangelicals until we understand the theological construction of the dominant trope that "Democrats are devils." This has become the most successful propaganda campaign in American politics.

Rev. Darron LaMonte Edwards writes that he is feeling weary from the announcement that another unarmed Black man was killed. But as a Christian community, we cannot afford to get tired of speaking up for victims like Tyre Nichols. This problem has solutions.

Rev. Angela Denker reflects on the church life her kids don't get to live and how at times it feels like it would be easier to uncompromisingly champion a strong and central Church, one that can afford to take for granted its place at the center of American community and

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness looks at how Trump, along with several pastors and conservative Christian activists, lied about shouts of “Lies!” at a recent Harris rally — and his supporters responded by taking the Lord’s name in vain.

Jerome Copulsky’s “American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order” is a tour de force documenting the religious illiberalism that has challenged democratic values from the very beginning.

This issue of A Public Witness heads deep in the heart of Texas to track the campaign of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred as he shows up in pulpits hoping to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Sign up to receive full essays in your inbox!

Recent Episodes

Books

Robert D. Cornwall reviews The Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar by Luke Timothy Johnson. The book serves as a memoir about the life of a scholar, written both for potential academics and for those who wonder

Robert D. Cornwall reviews A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: Introducing Beliefs and Practices Paperback by Eve Tibbs. The book is written with Protestants in mind and offers readers who might be unfamiliar with Eastern Orthodoxy a basic introduction

The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy by sociologists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry is so important that we’re not just highlighting it in this review, but we’re also giving away a copy autographed

Robert D. Cornwall reviews My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church by Amy Kenny. The book uses the author's own story to call on the church to rethink how it understands and relates to disabled