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In "Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China," Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the surprising history of the early Eastern church — referred to as Jingjiao, or the Luminous Teaching.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Republican from Michigan who used to serve as a Baptist pastor, suggested at a town hall during Holy Week that the Gaza Strip should be nuked.

Many chaplains and interfaith organizations oppose the campaign, calling the motivation offensive and dangerous — especially without standards around proselytizing or serving students from different religious backgrounds.

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Dangerous Dogma

Church

Many American congregations tend to focus on traditional families, recollecting a mid-20th-century model for church growth or else simply as a model of what a Christian life should be.

A pair of new lawsuits, including one that includes civil RICO claims, come at a time when the SBC Executive Committee faces a fiscal and leadership crisis.

After many in the room cheered her on and stood as she preached, the session featuring her sermon temporarily disappeared from the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.’s Facebook page.

Nation

This issue of A Public Witness digs into the hotly debated 'render therefore unto Caesar' Bible verse to consider its usage in a recent notable legal opinion.

There is also growing concern among an array of religious Americans that their beliefs are in conflict with mainstream American culture.

This issue of A Public Witness unpacks a recent faith-based political ad from Josh Hawley to consider what it tells us more broadly about the state of the 2024 election cycle.

World

Orthodox Christians packed churches Saturday night for Christmas Eve services during ongoing conflicts including the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a law into effect that mandates that all denominations and religious groups reapply for state registration, which authorities reserve the right to refuse.

Many of the salt-making families are Christian. Reconciling Christian faith with Native Hawaiian spirituality can be challenging, but it often happens organically.

Editorials

On Sunday evening, a man opened fire in a shopping mall in Greenwood, Indiana, killing three people and wounding two others before also being shot dead. What city officials said in response sparked some odd headlines.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor responds to comments by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, who attacked Americans United for Separation of Church and State while he advocated for government prayers in public schools.

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on starting a third year of a global pandemic. Looking at coverage of this pandemic and the flu pandemic of a century before, he offers some lessons to consider.

Word&Way Voices

Many churches hold Blue Christmas services that allow people a sacred space for mourning. Perhaps the laments that come from political loss also need to be acknowledged in this season of anticipation.

We live in a time of great precariousness and it is important to be reminded that the only kingdom sure to last is the kingdom of God.

Often it doesn’t seem like Jesus was terribly concerned with politics, and certainly not with obtaining earthly power. But he was playing the long game of spiritual, social, and yes, political transformation.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness takes you inside the Family Research Council’s “National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance” featuring Speaker Mike Johnson and a couple dozen other Republican lawmakers.

This issue of A Public Witness tracks which members of Congress are no longer part of the United Methodist Church to consider what that reveals about Methodist life as well as religion and politics more broadly.

This issue of A Public Witness heads to the border to consider an ongoing legal controversy and an obscure theological theory some hope will migrate into our political system.

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Podcasts

In episode 78 of Dangerous Dogma, Adriene Thorne, the new senior pastor at the Riverside Church in New York City, talks about pastoring at this historic congregation. She also discusses becoming the first African American woman to lead Riverside and the

Lee Spitzer, historian for the Baptist World Alliance and affiliate professor of church history at Northern Seminary in Chicago, talks about his new book Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three Europeans Baptist Responses to the Holocaust.

Pamela Cooper-White of Union Theological Seminary talks about her book The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide. She also discusses pastoral counseling and her perspective as an Episcopal priest.

Mike McMahon, executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, talks about the work of the Hymn Society. He also discusses music and issues like COVID, welcoming immigrants, and scandals involving Hillsong.

Books

This issue of A Public Witness delves into Kathryn Cramer Brownell’s new book “24/7 Politics: Cable Television & the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News” exploring why our current media landscape looks the way it does.

In "Church Conflicts: The Cross, Apocalyptic, and Political Resistance," noted New Testament scholar Ernst Käsemann explores the significance of Christian apocalyptic for the church in times of crisis.

Henri Nouwen's "Community" provides a complete picture community and why it is such a necessary and integral part of the spiritual life.

In "Pluralism in Practice: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America," Elinor J. Pierce invites close reading, reflection, and discussion on the dilemmas and disputes of our multireligious society.