Despite the fact that many Venezuelan faith leaders have been impacted themselves by the ongoing disaster, they’ve sprung into action to provide food, psychological support, and other basic needs to the large population of victims.
This issue of A Public Witness considers how the military chaplain who authored a war prayer and the secretary of defense who appropriated it for himself performed violence against Scripture to justify violence against people.
In the first Defense Department service since the start of the Iran war, Pete Hegseth prayed that God would ‘break the teeth’ and kill those ‘who deserve no mercy’ and should be ‘delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.’
Some evangelicals’ cooling relationship with Chavismo stems from a 2024 meeting where Nicolás Maduro favored the pastors of the largest megachurches.
During the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon in 2026 — and the first since the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — the Secretary of War framed that U.S. military action as a godly mission.
The unusual statement marked the second time in recent months that members of the Catholic hierarchy have asserted their voice against a Trump administration many believe isn’t upholding the basic tenets of human dignity.
With the growth of worship services by leaders in a Christian Nationalist administration, it’s worth revisiting the most significant previous effort to craft religion within the federal government: the church of Nixon.
This issue of A Public Witness looks at criticism of the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela by various Christian denominations and organizations, as well as pleas for peace by Venezuelan Christian leaders.
The Chicago-born pope was responding to a range of geopolitical questions, including what kind of spiritual rights migrants in U.S. custody should have, U.S. military attacks on suspected drug traffickers off Venezuela, and the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East.
This issue of A Public Witness treks to Latin America to consider the dangers arising from the political co-opting of sacred texts.