What is Truth?
This piece was originally published as the cover story of Word&Way magazine in October 2020, but which has never been published online. Read the piece online in our e-newsletter A Public Witness.
Southern Governors Sending Migrants North Face a Crisis of Faith
No one will deny that America’s immigration system is overburdened and in need of serious reform. But misleading migrants and sending them where resources to help them are both in shorter supply and less readily obtained is impossible to reconcile with the basic tenets of
Review & Giveaway: Red State Christians
Denker’s tales are of misguided, though sincere, followers of Jesus replacing the gospel’s message with poor substitutes. Like John the baptizer proclaimed long ago, she offers a prophetic message about our individual and collective need for repentance. In a new preface, she describes right-wing media
Little Churches Still Matter, Says Martha’s Vineyard Pastor of Church That Took In Migrants
Houses of worship on Martha's Vineyard have long worked together to meet the needs of their neighbors. So they were ready to spring into action when refugees arrived unexpectedly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, escalating
How Doug Mastriano Uses Faith to Fend Off Criticism — Even From Other Christians
Mastriano’s dispute with his Lutheran constituents shows he’s willing to reject the voices of other Christians, particularly views often expressed by moderate and liberal Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and others known collectively as “mainline” denominations. Although not as dominant as they once were, white mainline Protestants
Christian Nationalism 101
Given the growing public conversation about Christian Nationalism and divergent understandings of the meaning of the term, in this edition of A Public Witness we learn from scholars studying Christian Nationalism in order to consider what we actually know about this dangerous ideology. Then we
The Fading All-American Story
Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy makes the case that if ever a Bible story reads like our national mythology, it’s Jesus’s story of the rich farmer in Luke 12. In America, we don’t recognize the farmer's actions as greed — we call it a vision, a
Mastriano’s “Great Adventure”
In this issue of A Public Witness, we dust off our old Steven Curtis Chapman cassette tapes to consider the different testimony he offers about faith and even Jan. 6 in light of “The Great Adventure” serving as an anthem for Doug Mastriano’s campaign. Then
Judge Rules Required Coverage of HIV Prevention Drug Violates Employer’s Religious Freedom
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that required coverage of an HIV prevention drug under the Affordable Care Act violates a Texas employer’s religious beliefs and undercut the broader system that determines which preventive drugs are covered in the U.S. The ruling was handed down by
Wisconsin GOP Candidate Calls for ‘Pitchforks and Torches’
The Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin endorsed by Trump is calling for people to take up “pitchforks and torches” in reaction to a story that detailed his giving to anti-abortion groups and churches — rhetoric that many say amounts to threatening violence. Since the