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The commercialized American church has arrived at a form of religious life in which institutional maintenance and spiritual fidelity become indistinguishable, and where questioning the institution is easily recoded as questioning God.

Translating the Bible into Cherokee began early in the 19th century, shortly after Protestant missionaries arrived in the Cherokee Nation – centered mainly in what are now western North Carolina, north Georgia, and eastern Tennessee.

In some ways, the debate over Paine's legacy today is a proxy for a much larger debate over whose vision gets to govern.

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Church

'This is one important step in our struggle for justice and my call to live out Jesus’s command to care for the captives,' said the Rev. Susie Hayward, who is cited in the legal case and was in court for the ruling.

U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell will hear Friday from attorneys for Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and a Catholic priest.

Fountain Street Church, founded in 1869 through the merger of two Baptist congregations, has a legacy of rejecting dogma and pushing the envelope.

Nation

This week’s Summit for Religious Freedom, organized by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, struck a tone of joyful resistance.

President Donald Trump described the would-be assassin as anti-Christian. The evidence hints at a complex faith background.

A court of appeals ruling just overturned Supreme Court precedent on posting the Ten Commandments in public schools — and the majority opinion conscripted a legendary colonial Baptist figure who fought for church-state separation to justify their actions.

World

The worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the U.S., has no formal head, but the archbishop traditionally has been seen as its spiritual leader.

This issue of A Public Witness highlights important voices of opposition to imperial plotting from a variety of religious groups, ranging from Lutherans to Baptists, Anglicans, Catholics, and others.

Historic Christian churches representing the predominantly Arab Christian community and mostly U.S. evangelicals who support Israel are at odds with each other.

Editorials

The thinning of the UMC’s conservative ranks makes this week’s conference a perfect time to address the issue.

Missing in all the jokes and news reports about the Trump Bible is that this isn’t the first time a presidential stamp of approval was sought for the Good Book.

Brian Kaylor reacts to claims that God is sending a message through a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook the northeastern part of the U.S. on Friday or a solar eclipse going across much of the U.S. on Monday.

Word&Way Voices

As Christmas approaches and the world gazes once again toward Bethlehem, a fundamental choice emerges: Will Christians justify oppression and exclusion, or will they stand with the local Christian community?

The season of Advent urges us to slow down; to dwell in the fullness of God’s good news. God offers us life-affirming joy even as calamity follows crisis like an ever-unspooling tragedy.

It seems if we are to have an honest conversation about persecution against Christians, we should first and foremost consider the migrant who is our neighbor, who is made in God’s image, and who needs our collective voice and support right now.

E-Newsletter

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration today as part of their investigation into government worship services.

The defense secretary’s tattoos of the Jerusalem Cross and “Deus Vult” are frequently invoked as literal signs of his Christian Nationalism — and rightly so. But the same symbols on his Bible were overlooked until now.

This issue of A Public Witness heads down to Georgia to consider the devil in the details of the race to determine who will be the next Republican nominee for governor.

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Recent Episodes

Books

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

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.

Leading Qur'anic scholar Gabriel Said Reynolds presents a revisionary account of how Islam emerged in dialogue with Christian traditions, challenging the dominant narrative that it came out of a predominantly pagan context.