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James Talarico’s attempt to make the election about ethos — character, credibility, and integrity — throws a Nolan Ryan fastball at Ken Paxton and MAGA and showcases their departure from 1990s conservative Christianity.

This groundbreaking study digs beneath the surface of one of early Christianity's most enigmatic documents and finds there two texts hidden side by side for nearly two millennia.

This issue of A Public Witness strikes at the heresy in Trump’s Fourth of July remarks and thunders some disapproval for similar rhetoric recently offered by Speaker Mike Johnson.

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Church

The version housed at Virginia Theological Seminary is not for sale, and archive staffers plan to seek the best ways to make its contents available for the public to view.

A separate proposal on the docket at the mainline Protestant denomination’s General Assembly this summer calls for a broader theological framework on human relationships.

Only about 1% of houses of worship in the U.S. today existed in 1776. Here are four that predate the revolution — and still hold services.

Nation

Jackson Lahmeyer, who founded Pastors for Trump and leads Sheridan Church in Tulsa, exchanged thousands of romantic text messages with a woman who is not his wife.

A new poll by PRRI shows two-thirds of Americans still prefer a nation made of many different faiths, despite the growth of Christian Nationalism in the public square.

'At the end of it, when we were just responding totally instinctually, we talked a lot about God,' Glover told RNS in a recent interview, referring to the Artemis II crew.

World

Hegseth has a history of defending the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars that pitted Christians against Muslims.

The Iran war could be the final blow to Bethlehem’s tourism industry — and to the already-dwindling Christian population as well.

Some evangelicals’ cooling relationship with Chavismo stems from a 2024 meeting where Nicolás Maduro favored the pastors of the largest megachurches.

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

In our familiarity with the birth narrative, we often do not consider the long-term consequences for the secondary figures in the story. It was an unsettling time that left long and permanent scars on their lives.

Advent reminds us that God comes into a world already organized by power and exclusion — and does not accept its terms. If Christianity is used today to justify separation, the gospel calls us back to its center.

The cruel spectacle churns on for now, but Advent prepares us to see anew that there are countless ordinary acts of love happening quietly, out of sight, more than you and I will ever know.

E-Newsletter

Given Pete Hegseth’s insistence on co-opting a biblical term and employing it out of context as an insult against reporters doing their job, this issue of A Public Witness takes a look at the real Pharisees and the lesson the ‘secretary of war’ is missing.

Join us as we celebrate five years of our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter and highlight the best from the 115 pieces we’ve published over the past 12 months exploring the intersection of faith, culture, and politics.

This week, Rev. William Barber II gathered in front of the White House along with dozens of other clergy to protest the conflict that the Trump administration started against Iran.

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Recent Episodes

Books

Jennifer Houston McNeel explores the literary, historical, feminist, and theological significance of mothers and motherhood in the New Testament.

Drawing on cutting-edge work in biblical studies and ethics, David Dault makes the case that the recent rise in Christian Nationalism and religious violence demands new approaches to scriptural interpretation.

Sequola Dawson, senior pastor of St. Mary African Methodist Episcopal Church and a bereavement chaplain, offers a helpful discussion of death rituals, with a focus on honoring the environment while also acknowledging the traditions and needs of families.

In this book, W. David O. Taylor and Daniel Train bring together a remarkable group of theologians, scholars, and artists to offer a fresh perspective on pneumatology through the creative lens of the arts.