A new White House initiative encouraging people to pray for America claims to have the backing of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. But a spokesperson for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee told Word&Way that’s not accurate.

Churches across Chicago braced for Trump’s threat of a National Guard deployment and apocalyptic force, even as Chicago’s rates of violent crime have dropped substantially in recent years as part of a national trend.

More than 210 people, mostly Chicago-area Christian clergy, signed a letter titled “Jesus is Being Tear Gassed at Broadview.” The letter railed against ICE and agents “hunting and terrorizing of immigrant communities” in the city.

A diverse group of faith leaders gathered in Manhattan on Saturday morning (Oct. 18) to offer prayers at an interfaith prayer vigil before joining a massive “No Kings” march in Times Square.

On a rare solidarity visit, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa asserted that Israeli authorities ‘facilitate and enable’ the presence of settlers who have intensified attacks.

The attack has raised fears of a mass exodus of Christians similar to what happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the rise of sectarian violence.

Brian Kaylor writes that ten years ago today an armed man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and opened fire. This massacre at Christmastime evokes memories of part of the biblical story we tend to leave out of our nativities and pageants.

As Brian Kaylor thinks about modern-day refugees fleeing a genocidal foreign dictator, he also wonders where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus spent the night on their journey from Bethlehem to Egypt. Where was their safe place to sleep and to enjoy a nice meal from strangers? And how were those people

In life and in death, Charlie Kirk represented the worst of American politics. He stoked dangerous conspiracies, attempted to silence voices he disagreed with, and utilized violent rhetoric mixed with a godly veneer. Then, someone decided to respond with evil by picking up a gun to silence a life.

This issue of A Public Witness covers a 1979 Sunday School lesson from President Jimmy Carter — with concerns eerily fitting for 2025 — taught at the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.