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This issue of A Public Witness pulls back the curtain to explore self-defeating efforts from the religious right in Washington and Iowa.

This issue of A Public Witness drives over to the opening stop of the 2026 'The Vote Is Sacred Tour' at a Missouri church that’s seen firsthand the efforts this year to distort elections and dilute the voting power of Black communities.

The defense secretary’s conscription of Isaiah 6:8’s ‘send me’ to promote military recruitment has also drawn rebukes from Christian Nationalist figures such as pastor/commentator Joel Webbon and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

We are excited to announce a new book unpacking seven types of misuses of Scripture by influential preachers and politicians pushing Christian Nationalism today, officially out Oct. 7 from Chalice Press and available for pre-order now.

Videos

Church

The lawsuit, from Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski along with the Archdiocese of St. Louis, accused the Department of Homeland Security and ICE of instituting policies that violate 'core constitutional values.'

This issue of A Public Witness drives over to the opening stop of the 2026 'The Vote Is Sacred Tour' at a Missouri church that’s seen firsthand the efforts this year to distort elections and dilute the voting power of Black communities.

'I am asking for your courage to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every human being, and now, to vote,' Budde says in the new ad, which references her headline-grabbing sermon to President Donald Trump last year.

Nation

'I don’t have words,' Martín Alonso Soto Hernandez said in Spanish while holding his wife and two children. 'Thank you so much for everything. I always, always stayed in prayer.'

The Kentucky governor's book tour to promote 'Go and Do Likewise,' a book about faith and politics, has been seen as a precursor to a run for president in 2028.

This issue of A Public Witness pulls back the curtain to explore self-defeating efforts from the religious right in Washington and Iowa.

World

Pope Leo XIV once again stressed that God does not promote war and called for the protection of human dignity and life, during the last day of his papal visit to France on Monday (Sept. 28).

The group, which included a religious adviser to Trump, sent a letter to Trump officials — an unusual instance of evangelical leaders urging the administration to change course.

Amid surging kidnappings and attacks on communities and places of worship, faith leaders are forming partnerships aimed at countering religious division and building peace.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor unpacks a significant problem with a proposed resolution for consideration at the 2026 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The choice of ‘Two Chronicles’ is not a coincidence.

Editor-in-Chie Brian Kaylor reflects on a recent violent prayer by Pete Hegseth during a Christian worship service at the Pentagon and Mark Twain’s satirical work “The War Prayer.”

Word&Way Voices

Evangelicals have turned to various historical figures in an attempt to depict President Donald Trump as a fine Christian man. But the “Sun King” might be the best fit.

There is a way to interpret Scripture that leaves a person almost permanently reassured — difficult passages become instruments for identifying enemies rather than mirrors for examining the soul. But the Bible consistently resists that reading.

For the second entry in our series on religion and AI, a biblical scholar and ethicist unpacks how technological advances are influencing how her students might choose bullet-pointed information over learning to seek and love the truth.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness pulls back the curtain to explore self-defeating efforts from the religious right in Washington and Iowa.

The defense secretary’s conscription of Isaiah 6:8’s ‘send me’ to promote military recruitment has also drawn rebukes from Christian Nationalist figures such as pastor/commentator Joel Webbon and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

A federal judge recently ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to report about any protected church where it has conducted an immigration enforcement action. But the agency told the court it had no idea how many incidents there may be, insisting it had no reasonable way to check its

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Recent Episodes

Books

C. M. Howell shows that the religious dimension of Outlaw Country is best understood as musicians involved in a mode of theological play.

Daniel Cooperrider reminds readers that God continues to speak in the context of nature and the ebbs and flows of the seasons. It’s a witness we need to heed, considering the climate challenges we face as human beings.

In this luminous and deeply comforting collection, Fr. Joel W. Huffstetler, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, invites us to see life's upheavals through the steady light of grace.

Bradley Onishi’s new book details the rise of a class of ruling elites who seek to use religion and technology to replace democracy with authoritarian rule.