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

The consensus was so overwhelming that it was rolled into a 'consent calendar,' a package of normally non-controversial measures that are bundled into a single vote to save time.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy offers a unique rhetorical critique of how Trump acts and the danger this puts in the lap of his evangelical followers.

This issue of A Public Witness looks back at Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Baptists penned 202 years ago this week and explores why prominent figures deliberately misrepresent the metaphorical “wall of separation” between church and state.

Dangerous Dogma

Church

The consensus was so overwhelming that it was rolled into a 'consent calendar,' a package of normally non-controversial measures that are bundled into a single vote to save time.

As Sexual Assault Awareness Month comes to a close, there are a few steps experts say every faith group can take to improve safeguarding protocols.

The Stronger Men’s Conference made headlines after Mark Driscoll was kicked off the stage. But the church’s women’s conference may actually undermine evangelical stereotypes.

Nation

‘Issues related to racism are now being fiercely debated across the country, and many people of color are fearful that racism is getting worse,’ reads their statement.

‘We were doing nothing but standing on that piece of property, singing, chanting, praying in the road when we were dragged off,’ said the Rev. Seth Wispelwey.

This issue of A Public Witness tackles Chicago Bears stadium pastor Rev. Charlie Dates and offers some postgame analysis about what went wrong with his recent prayer controversy.

World

Dmitry Safronov held a memorial service by Navalny’s grave in Moscow on March 26 to mark 40 days since the politician’s death, an important ritual within Russian Orthodox tradition.

The starring role in a June auction at Christie's will be taken by the Crosby-Schoyen Codex, the oldest known book in private hands. Written on papyrus in the Coptic language, it contains the oldest complete version of the First Epistle of Peter and the Book of Jonah.

The Rev. Hkalam Samson is a prominent advocate for the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar and in 2019 was part of a delegation that met President Trump at the White House.

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

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy offers a unique rhetorical critique of how Trump acts and the danger this puts in the lap of his evangelical followers.

Contributing writer Rodney Kennedy explores the various meanings behind Trump’s recent endorsement of Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA Bible.’

On April 2, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could allow a Catholic charter school to open — which critics say would demolish the line between church and state in education.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness tackles Chicago Bears stadium pastor Rev. Charlie Dates and offers some postgame analysis about what went wrong with his recent prayer controversy.

This issue of A Public Witness looks at the problems with recent public school chaplaincy bills by considering what a chaplain really is and what religious freedom actually looks like.

This issue of A Public Witness digs into recent data from Lifeway Research and the Land Center to see what we can actually learn about a significant evangelical denomination and why the framing of the report misses the mark.

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Podcasts

We had a lot of great podcast conversations this year. So let’s count down the top 10 most-downloaded of episodes of Dangerous Dogma in 2023.

In episode 104 of Dangerous Dogma, Jay Augustine, senior pastor at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, North Carolina, talks about his book When Prophets Preach: Leadership and the Politics of the Pulpit. He also discusses preaching about current events,

In episode 103 of Dangerous Dogma, Craig Lamar Brown and Andrea Summer talk with about their movie Between Mercy and Me. They also discuss issues of racism, church worship, and creating music and movies. 

In episode 102 of Dangerous Dogma, Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, talks about attending the ReAwaken America Tour and a Pastors for Trump meeting at Trump Doral in Miami, Florida.

Books

In "The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church," Sarah McCammon explores the rising generation of the children of conservative Christianity who are growing up and fleeing the fold.

In "Review: Gospel As Work of Art: Imaginative Truth and the Open Text," David Brown challenges us to expand our understanding of scripture past source criticism and historical Jesus studies to include works of imagination.

In "A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity," Debie Thomas takes readers on a deeply personal and profoundly theological odyssey.

This issue of A Public Witness explores what Scott Coley’s forthcoming book “Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right” reveals about the antidote to Christo-authoritarianism.