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1. A Town Full of Churches: What Happens When Institutions Fail to Address Addiction? Michael Mellette reflected on the problems in a small Arkansas town that’s full of churches but also of poverty and substance abuse.

2. Challenging Trump’s Efforts to Whitewash Our History. Edward Walsh wrote about the need for Americans to know about the nation’s record of slavery and racism.

3. Review: Gratitude to God. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Gratitude to God: The Heart of Christian Formation by Kent Dunnington.

4. Released Texas Pastors Say Immigration Agents Threatened Family Separation. Two Assemblies of God pastors in Texas shared their story of being detained by federal agents after being nabbed while traveling to a retreat with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

5. Booted From Evangelicalism, a Progressive, ‘Post-Evangelical’ Church Blooms in Texas. Kathryn Post reported on the success of an Austin church led by Zach Lambert.

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by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

On Monday (July 27), a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Trump’s so-called “Religious Liberty Commission.” But he did so by basing a key part of his argument on a complete misunderstanding of religion.

The lawsuit was brought by various groups, including Interfaith Alliance, Muslims For Progressive Values, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Hindus For Human Rights — with legal representation by Democracy Forward and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve as vice chair of the national board of trustees). One victory from the suit is it previously forced the commission to follow the law and actually release documents related to its work.

The judge this week rejected the claim that the commission’s creation violated federal law that requires a diverse membership. All of the members are rightwing supporters of Trump, and the group was a bunch of Christians with one Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Not only were most religious traditions not included, but much of the diversity of Christianity was excluded beyond rightwing evangelicals and Catholics.

“The RLC’s membership is fairly balanced,” the judge countered. “Its members include workers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, have widely varying life experiences — from a former host of a popular television show to a State Lieutenant Governor, are religious leaders as well as rank-and-file congregants, and — to the extent that it matters — encompass adherents of at least five different religions.”

Let’s put aside the notion of diversity being a former TV talk show host and a lieutenant governor (who are both White Texans born in 1950) and instead focus on his claim of “at least five different religions.” The judge added a footnote to “prove” this, but quickly shows he doesn’t know how to define religion: “Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is an Orthodox Jew, Pastor Franklin Graham is an Evangelist, Pastor Paula White is a non-denominational Christian, Cardinal Timothy Dolan is a Catholic, and Scott Turner is a Baptist.”

Read that again to count the religions and you’ll see you have three fingers to spare on your hand. “Evangelist” is not a religion but a profession. And non-denominational Christian, Catholic, and Baptist are not religions but different groups within the religion of Christianity.

This Trump-appointed judge apparently knows about as much about religion as the so-called “Religious Liberty Commission” knows about religious liberty. When your religion is power, facts don’t matter.

Other News of Note

• In an interview with PBS, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch rejected the idea that the United States was founded as a “White Christian nation,” insisting that “We were never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion.” His remark was surprising given some of his decisions when he’s attacked church-state separation and pushed Christianity in public schools.

• 9News in Colorado reviewed past sermons and speeches by Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx to document how he’s frequently claimed to perform exorcisms of demons and even Satan.

• A Republican candidate for a Missouri state House seat refuses to answer questions about his time on staff at the International House of Prayer-Kansas City, a charismatic ministry that has been roiled in recent years by allegations of sexual abuse by its founder.

• A charismatic church in Tennessee used its Sunday worship service, in violation of IRS tax rules, to endorse multiple Republican candidates and bring them on stage to speak after the pastor claimed a Christian cannot vote for Democrats.

• A Republican state legislator running for governor of Tennessee said he wants to ban mosques.

• The best headline of the week comes from Texas Monthly: “Sharia Law Is Not Coming to Texas, No Matter What Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo, Says.”

• Wu Shaoping, a Chinese human rights lawyer who has represented persecuted Christians, is speaking out after he was detained by ICE in Pennsylvania and is now targeted for deportation.

• Emma Maple of FāVS News reported on how some rural mainline churches in the Pacific Northwest are sharing pastors across denominational lines.

• After being lost for centuries, two sermons by Augustine of Hippo have been rediscovered.

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“I want to simply thank you for being a means of God’s grace to us as a country,” Potteiger declared during his sermon. “You, in real time, are an instrument, are one of the many ways God’s grace is manifested to us as a nation to continue securing the liberty that has endured through the centuries. … I want to strengthen you in God’s grace towards you personally as a Christian today. Or to say it another way, I want you this Wednesday to stand firm in the grace of God towards you as you continue the good work that he’s placed in your hands the rest of the day.”

In order to do “the good work” at the Pentagon for “the rest of the day,” Potteiger urged those gathered to “dwell on the immeasurable cost of Christ’s death for you” that saved “us from the bleak and the black eternity that our sin had plunged us towards.” He added, “So stand firm in the grace of God by meditating on the cross and realizing if God didn’t withhold his own Son but gave him for you, there is nothing that is for your ultimate good that he will now withhold.”

Hegseth introduced Potteiger on Wednesday as “my pastor,” adding that having him preach will be “a regular thing.” Potteiger previously pastored a church in Tennessee that Hegseth attended before joining the Trump administration. Both congregations are part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, founded by self-described “paleo-Confederate” Idaho pastor Doug Wilson (who preached at the February 2026 Pentagon service).

Joe Rigney, a leader in the CREC and author of The Sin of Empathy, preached during the installation service for Potteiger at Christ Church Washington D.C. on July 19. He framed the selection of Potteiger as following what he saw as themes in the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah: “the call to build and fight and to renew Christendom in the face of the sabotage that we knew would come.”

When Hegseth launched his monthly Christian services at the Pentagon in May 2025, he invited Potteiger to offer the first sermon. During that service, the pastor claimed God directed where U.S. missiles landed: “If our Lord is sovereign even over the sparrows’ fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world, including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles, including strategy meetings and war room debriefings. Jesus has the final say over all of it.” Nine months later, the United States killed more than 160 civilians with a missile strike on a girls’ school in Iran.

In January 2026, Potteiger preached at another monthly service. He exclaimed “what a blessing the Department of War is.” He also prayed for “the strength and lethality of our capabilities” and for Pentagon leaders to have “stout hearts and thick skin to withstand the heckling from ingrates.”

During Wednesday’s service, Potteiger used his sermon to push a Christian Nationalist view of the founding of the United States. Saying it’s “remarkable to live during the 250th anniversary of this nation’s founding,” he praised the founders and “the biblical values that we were founded upon.” As a kind of evidence for this claim that the nation had been “bathed in divine grace,” he quoted from remarks by Benjamin Franklin, which the deist offered during an unsuccessful attempt to get the Constitutional Convention to open sessions in prayer. Potteiger also referred to that speech during his January sermon, but he did not mention either time that Franklin’s appeal was overwhelmingly rejected by the delegates. Potteiger also prayed that the United States “might be a light to the nations.”

Additionally, Potteiger prayed that God would “give the secretary and all his advisers Solomonic instincts.” By that, he likely meant the wisdom of Solomon in making decisions and not Solomon’s instincts that got him in trouble, like marrying lots of women and worshipping false gods.

At the conclusion of his sermon, Potteiger led those gathered in reciting the Lord’s Prayer and then in singing “A Mighty Fortress” and the “Doxology.” Prior to the service’s start, recordings of several Christian worship songs were played as people assembled in the auditorium, including “Open Up the Heavens,” “Your Great Name,” and “Forever Reign.”

Before Potteiger preached, Hegseth read from Psalm 26 and urged those present to “remember” that psalm and to “keep your feet standing on firm ground no matter what fight you’re engaged in, big or small.” During his prayer, he declared to God that “we give this minute, this hour, this day, this week, this month, this year all to you — you and your purpose.”

Hidden Camera Controversy

While Hegseth has claimed his prayer services are a unifying force in the military, they continue to spark criticism from within the Pentagon. Often, such comments are anonymous as individuals fear repercussions for criticizing the secretary of defense. Last week proved that after a senior Navy official was ousted because of comments he made that were captured on a hidden camera by a rightwing activist.

Brandon Newsom was the director of business operations for the U.S. Navy until he lost that job last week because of videos created by James O’Keefe, a provocateur who has a history of creating deceptively edited videos. On July 22, O’Keefe released edited footage of a conversation with Newsom that was recorded on a hidden camera. In it, Newsom called Trump “a narcissist” and criticized the Iran war as “completely stupid” and “driven on one man’s ego.” One of the topics O’Keefe particularly highlighted was Newsom’s criticism of Hegseth’s monthly worship services.

“I would not have prayer service,” Newsom said on the edited video. “I don’t think there should be one specific prayer service — even though I believe, I’m a Christian. … The way they’ve implemented the prayer service is almost like if you’re not there, people are noticing who’s there and who’s not there.”

When asked if he would “take that away once Trump gets out of there,” Newsom added, “I would either take it away or I would implement a prayer service for all religions that are recognized.”

O’Keefe interrupted the clips from Newsom to offer his own summary and commentary on the conversation. But the activist mixed up facts about the Pentagon worship services, confusing the official services organized and hosted by Hegseth with the presence of an interfaith chapel that is open to those of various religious traditions. Additionally, O’Keefe ignored the hierarchical nature of the military as he suggested that anyone could organize their own service in the Pentagon and that Hegseth lacked “exclusive greater power to establish it.” Not only do chaplain-organized services in the chapel lack the level of institutional support of Hegseth’s services in the auditorium, those diverse services also do not come with an invite from the secretary of defense, which has led some service members and defense contractors to say they feel pressured to attend.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, a failed Republican congressional candidate who spoke and prayed at the Pentagon service in March, immediately suspended Newsom because of O’Keefe’s video. A few days later, Cao announced on Elon Musk’s X platform that “the individual is no longer employed by the Department of Navy” and tagged O’Keefe.

Other people have been fired and organizations have lost money due to O’Keefe’s videos, even though investigations later showed his videos had been deceptively edited. In 2009. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now lost federal funding and dissolved because of videos recorded by O’Keefe that alleged fraud. But multiple legal investigations later found no evidence of wrongdoing by ACORN and O’Keefe agreed to pay $100,000 after being sued by one of the employees targeted in the videos. The next year, O’Keefe was arrested for trying to tamper with the phones of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

With one internal critic of the Pentagon services removed, Hegseth continues to establish his brand of Christianity. In addition to the three sermons by Potteiger and the one by Wilson, the monthly services have included sermons by seven Southern Baptists, two members of the Graham family, two former NFL stars, and two Cabinet members (who are both Southern Baptists). The only service not featuring a rightwing evangelical was the June 2026 service with a homily by a former Catholic priest and current rightwing Fox News contributor. Hegseth’s effort has also inspired government worship services in other federal agencies, including the Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, and Small Business Administration.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. Susannah Crockford Traces How Protestant Themes Frame Discourse Around Climate Change. Kenneth Ethan Frantz spoke with anthropologist Susannah Crockford about her new book A Perturbed System: Religion and Climate Change from the End of a World and more.

2. Review: Biblical Outlaws. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Biblical Outlaws: What the Bible’s Most Despised Characters Can Teach Us by Anthony B. Pinn.

3. With Voting Rights in Mind, Progressive National Baptists Head to Capitol Hill. Adelle M. Banks reported from the annual session of the denominational home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

4. Inside a Brooklyn Church Where Immigration Activism Is the Gospel. Fiona André reported on the advocacy and ministry efforts of an ELCA Lutheran church challenging ICE and helping immigrants.

5. ‘This Isn’t a Peacekeeping Initiative — This Is a Terror Campaign’: Texas Faith Leaders Condemn ICE Deaths. Ellie Ashby reported on United Methodist, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, and other faith leaders challenging ICE terror in the Lone Star State.

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by Jeremy Fuzy, Word&Way Digital Editor

I will admit it — I have The Odyssey fever. After being lucky enough to see a 70mm projection of Christopher Nolan’s new film at my local independent theater, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Partially because of its cinematic accomplishments through incredible cinematography and practical effects, but even more so due to the simple but powerful message it offers us today.

It feels odd to say I won’t spoil anything from a story that is almost 3,000 years old, but I promise not to reveal any of the substantial changes Nolan makes to the source material. Instead, I want to reflect on the film’s broader interest in foregrounding Zeus’s Law (ξενία), the ancient Greek concept of sacred hospitality. Within this framework, hosts must offer food and shelter to travelers and “beggars,” because any stranger might secretly be a god in disguise.

We Christians certainly have a version of this embedded in core biblical principles regarding welcoming and caring for the vulnerable. The most direct parallel is probably found in Hebrews 13:2, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” And there’s also the famous Judgment of the Nations in Matthew 25, where Jesus says: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”

So what happens when this fundamental ethical and religious principle is broken? The various trials and tribulations of Odysseus serve as a warning about the toll this can take on an individual soul and a society facing decline. We can also see echoes of this morality tale in our current era, as Christian Nationalism encourages adherents to reject “toxic empathy” and instead work toward amassing earthly power in order to crush perceived enemies. But that sounds much more like the brutal warrior king Agamemnon than the Prince of Peace.

Other News of Note

• Risa Cromer wrote for PRRI about how mainline Protestant clergy support abortion rights, often in ways outside the pulpit.

• A group of Catholic nuns is suing New York, making a religious liberty claim against a new law allowing some terminally ill adults to obtain prescription medicine to end their lives.

• Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global reported on clergy in Tennessee urging the governor to postpone an upcoming execution after a botched lethal injection in May.

• Andy Burnham became the first lifelong Roman Catholic prime minister of Britain. The prime minister technically has a say in bishop appointments in the Anglican Church (though in modern times it’s just been ceremonial), but Catholics are barred from doing so.

• The Church of England voted to stand in solidarity with Palestinian Christians.

• Rick Melson, who assumed the presidency of Southwest Baptist University in Missouri amid institutional woes caused by trustee decisions, is leaving that school after five years to become president of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.

• Jack Panyard of Christianity Today reported on an Episcopal church in Texas that wants to construct its new building via 3D printed construction.

• A group of Catholic nuns wants to start a new order with the mission of helping survivors of clergy abuse.

• Calvin Manika reported for Religion Unplugged on how Mennonites in Zimbabwe are working to address climate change.

• A Florida pastor is suing ChatGPT after it used Christian language to give him bad medical advice that nearly killed him.

• A journalist in the Philippines has been arrested after publishing a piece critical of a powerful Christian church.

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I will confess to harboring suspicions about homeschooling. Avoiding traditional education models seemed like an extreme way for fundamentalist Christians to shield their children from scientific truths they found inconvenient and to avoid diverse social encounters that disturbed their artificially homogeneous lives.

Some recent events in my personal life challenged these assumptions, or maybe the more accurate term would be prejudices.

I encountered a gay Christian couple who decided to homeschool their children, partly because they worried what their kids would hear about their family from teachers and students, given our current political climate, in their local public school. I have also come to understand how some parents of kids with disabilities and neurodivergencies see homeschooling as the most viable way of ensuring their kids can learn in a constructive and safe environment.

This left me intrigued by the American historian Dixie Dillon Lane’s new book, Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream. I approached it eager to cure my ignorance of a topic I had judged but mostly ignored. Were my skepticisms warranted or unfair?

The first task is figuring out what exactly we are talking about. It turns out that homeschooling is a fairly large umbrella that covers a range of pedagogies. Some children direct their own education under parental supervision, a concept known as “unschooling.” Others are more stereotypically taught by their parents at the kitchen table. There are collaborations with school districts, with kids enrolled in public schools and participating in extracurricular activities, but taking classes mostly at home.

“I define homeschooling,” Lane writes, “by what I consider its most important characteristic: as a form of education outside of conventional classrooms that is characterized by high levels of parental influence, direction, authority, and even control.”

Indeed, Skipping School’s overarching narrative is the struggle of parents to exert greater management over how, what, and where their children learn. The antagonists are experts who claim to know what is better for everyone else’s kids and an ever-expanding government whose cultural agenda cannot be trusted.

Fearful of these forces, early homeschoolers withdrew from mainstream education and sought to fly below society’s radar. They worried about facing legal consequences for their choices and quietly organized themselves into communities of support. Over time, they created networks, educational resources, and legal defenses that legitimized their practices in both the eyes of the state and the opinion of the broader public.

It’s a story of what was practiced in secret becoming more visible, and of what was viewed as suspicious becoming more accepted. It’s also a story of a movement that came together in the shadows of the law emerging into the legal daylight. And it’s a story of parents, distrustful of the ability of educational and governmental institutions to teach their children, forming their own increasingly complex networks and institutions to accomplish that task in their preferred ways.

Dr. Lane does not claim to be an unbiased narrator. As a homeschooling parent, she writes as someone whose personal experience informs the story being told and as someone who finds value in an approach to education overlooked or scorned by so many in our society. At the same time, her personal experience allowed her to interview homeschooling families and leaders who may have distrusted an outside researcher, which provided valuable anecdotes and illumination. She also unpacks nuances that more distant observers likely would have missed.

Yet, her championing of the cause also limits the critical eye she brings to it. There is little discussion in the book of the racial and religious aspects of the movement that are widely viewed as animating it to various degrees. To the extent these topics are raised, it is through asides and anecdotes that seem intended to push back against these common critiques.

There is also minimal reflection on homeschooling’s wider impact, positive or negative. While Lane celebrates the progress homeschooling has made for those pursuing that educational option, there is little evaluation of what this means for society writ large. To the extent that more parents are choosing this option, is that an indictment of public education’s decline or an affirmation of a society recognizing it takes diverse approaches for all children to flourish? Is there a tipping point where too many children learning at home undermines the ability of the next generation to be connected by shared knowledge, experiences, and values?

Skipping School allows readers to see inside an experience that most will never know and many perceive as odd. In detailing the evolution of homeschooling in the United States, the book is an enjoyable and enlightening read that challenges preconceptions and invites new, more informed questions. If nonfiction books are evaluated based on whether they expertly and convincingly teach readers something new, this one definitely passes the test.

As a public witness,

Beau Underwood

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. Review: Sacred Rebel. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Sacred Rebel: Fierce Love in a Fearful World by Jerry Zehr.

2. Kansas Faith Leaders Urge Governor to Grant Clemency Requests From People Sentenced to Death. Baya Burgess reported on an ecumenical advocacy effort in the Sunflower State.

3. The Latina Women in Texas Reshaping the UMC. Chloe Landen and Ellie Ashby wrote about new ministers serving after years of schism and uncertainty in United Methodist life.

4. Amid ICE Killings, More Than 100 Clergy From Across the US Stage Protest at Delaney Hall. Jack Jenkins reported from a protest in New Jersey.

5. National Baptists Launch Social Justice Center Near US Capitol. Adelle M. Banks reported on the opening of a new advocacy center by Black Baptists.

Dangerous Dogma

This week’s episode features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham as well as issues of faith and morality in Senate races in Maine, Texas, and Kansas. Listen to the audio version here (or wherever you listen to podcasts) or watch the video version here.

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by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Full stop.

It shouldn’t be hard to say that Trump won in 2024 or that Joe Biden won in 2020. No matter who you wanted to win those elections, those are the results. Those are basic facts, yet too many fail today.

Any politician who refuses to admit who won in 2020 is unfit for office. Any preacher who suggests Trump won is morally bankrupt. A primetime rant or social media posts don’t get a pass when it comes to expectations to tell the truth. These are not just lies; these conspiracies and false claims are an attack on our democratic system and ideals. People willing to lie and harm our civic life in a quest for power and money can do a lot of damage.

If a politician won’t tell the truth about the 2020 election, they should be defeated in the ballot box or during a confirmation vote. And if a preacher peddles conspiracies and lies, they should be rejected as a false prophet.

Other News of Note

• In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Maine had to provide funding to private religious schools. Some Christian schools want the funding but do not want to have to follow the state’s anti-discrimination rules. A federal appeals court ruled the state can bar schools that refuse to follow the anti-discrimination rules expected of all other schools.

• While interviewing Vice President J.D. Vance, rightwing podcaster Joe Rogan argued that states should not require public schools to post the Ten Commandments, while Vance defended state laws that mandate the display of a highly edited version.

• Daniel Silliman of The Roys Report wrote about a rightwing evangelical group in Georgia that was fined for dozens of campaign finance violations.

• The Southern Baptist church that Sen. Lindsey Graham was a member of remembered him Sunday after his passing. And one of his last public appearances was the previous week at a different Baptist church.

• Rob Schenck wrote for Mother Jones about rightwing evangelical efforts to make Jesus into a Mixed Martial Arts coach.

• Multiple denominations in Switzerland are criticizing the government for ending the exemption for clergy to fulfill mandatory military service.

• A Russian drone missile and drone attack damaged the Kyiv Theological Seminary.

• The Church of England, one of the biggest landowners in England, voted against a proposal to rewild 30% of its land by 2030. Currently, just 3.5% of its land is devoted to nature restoration.

• A United Methodist pastor who worked for Jerry Epstein is no longer suspended but cannot serve as a UMC pastor.

• After more than a century, the grave of a Baptist preacher who was born in slavery and founded multiple churches after the Civil War has finally been marked in Pittsburgh.

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The lawsuit filed in May by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve as vice chair of the national board of trustees), Democracy Forward, and Bryan Schwartz Law on behalf of seven USDA employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees documented a pattern of sectarian messages sent by Rollins to USDA employees. These explicitly Christian messages climaxed in a missive on Easter Sunday in which Rollins preached to her subordinates and implied that everyone at USDA recognizes and follows Jesus.

“We work for the federal government, not a church. I just want to go to work and make my country better — I shouldn’t have to suffer through sermons and other religious messages forced upon me by the head of a federal agency,” said Ethan Roberts, a USDA employee and one of the plaintiffs. “When the Secretary sends an email, I have to read it. And when those emails are telling me what to believe, they make me feel unwelcome in an agency I’ve dedicated 10 years to.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has now discovered that Rollins and the USDA’s Center for Faith are instead increasing the sectarian programming by organizing, hosting, and leading worship services during work hours in the USDA headquarters. These services follow a model of government worship services started at the Pentagon and also copied by the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration.

FFRF reported on July 10 that they learned of a service on May 20 that was billed as a “Faith and Fellowship Musical Celebration and Launch of USDA Prayer Service.” The invite was marked as coming from the “Office of the Secretary” and noted it would be the start of “a quarterly USDA Prayer and Worship Service, which provides an opportunity for prayer and worship.”

“Participation is optional, during working hours to accommodate schedules, and focused on seeking God’s presence, wisdom, protection, and blessings for the USDA, the Secretary, her staff, and our nation,” the invite added. “The event features leadership remarks and musical performances highlighting gospel music, and engaging USDA employees in faithful fellowship.”

No details, images, or video from the May 20 event, which was held in the middle of the morning on that Wednesday, were made available by the USDA (and they did not respond to my request for comment). But the invite did add that they were partnering with the “owner and operator of Dunkin Donuts and the AG Connections Café” in the USDA’s headquarters “to host a musical celebration as part of the service.”

From online postings, I discovered the service primarily featured music by Nanum Arts For All, a collective of classical musicians. One announcement about the service called it a “worship gathering” with the theme of “Harmony & Hope in the Capital.” And someone who attended posted a photo of themselves with members of Nanum Arts For All.

In a July 10 letter to Rollins, FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line noted they had received complaints about the service and its promotion “through official departmental communications.” He added, “Federal agencies exist to serve the public, not to organize worship services or encourage employees to participate in prayer. Government employees remain free to pray privately or gather voluntarily on their own initiative. What the Constitution forbids is the government itself becoming the organizer and promoter of religious worship.” He therefore called on the USDA to cease sponsoring and promoting official prayer and worship services and for Rollins to stop sending sectarian messages to employees.

While much remains unknown about the USDA worship service, this move follows a pattern of Rollins and the USDA holding rightwing Christian gatherings in the department’s building that sits on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. So this issue of A Public Witness documents several events beyond those named in the lawsuit by employees or the complaint from FFRF.

‘Take You to Church Today’

This is not the first time the USDA’s Center for Faith has attempted to create an official prayer service. Last fall, they announced a “Faith and Fellowship Musical Celebration and Prayer Service” for October 8, 2025, during work hours at the USDA headquarters. That announcement said they were “launching a monthly prayer service to provide an open space for USDA employees to worship together and/or enter into quiet meditation with colleagues.” The invite promised it would be livestreamed and that a recap would be available afterward. However, they never posted anything about whether the service actually occurred or why it wasn’t advertised for later months. The service announcement was later even removed from the listing of “past events” on the USDA Center for Faith’s website.

If that service occurred, it would’ve made the USDA the second federal agency in this Trump administration to host an official worship service. Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself “secretary of war,” started monthly services in the Pentagon in May 2025. Rollins attended the Pentagon service in December, during which evangelist Franklin Graham praised a “god of war” and justified genocide. The Department of Labor started monthly services in December 2025, but then stopped after the April service following the ouster of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Her nominated successor, Keith Sonderling, appeared today for a Senate confirmation hearing in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

The Small Business Administration also launched in March 2026 what they said would be monthly services, though it’s not clear if they held any after the first one. The speaker for the March service was Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist who serves as senior advisor on faith and community outreach for the USDA Center for Faith. King previously preached at a Labor service in January, during which she criticized those who are not religious. In May, the SBA Center for Faith leader who organized the worship service left that post to instead lead the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Faith. The VA announcement of her hiring specifically highlighted that at the SBA “she launched the agency’s Faith & Fellowship Prayer Service.” It has not been reported yet if she is starting a similar prayer service effort at the VA.

While a monthly (or quarterly) worship service does not appear to have taken off at the USDA last fall, there have been other worship events held in the building, both official and unofficial ones.

On Jan. 15, the USDA Center for Faith hosted an event they called “Continuing the Dream: MLK Day Celebration and Prayer Service.” USDA Center for Faith Director Steve Messeh told those gathered in the USDA’s main auditorium that they were “going to take you to church today.” He added, “Secretary Rollins knows that unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. And so she puts the spirit of God in this place every single day.”

In addition to remarks by Rollins and other administration officials like Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and USDA National Advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing Ben Carson, the service included prayers and comments by Alveda King, Trump spiritual advisor Paula White-Cain, and MAGA preacher Lorenzo Sewell.

“We are so grateful for our president that has brought the Holy Ghost back into the White House,” declared Sewell, a charismatic preacher who hosted Trump at his Michigan church during the 2024 campaign and prayed during Trump’s second inauguration.

During the service, Rollins heralded “President Trump’s vision and his spirit and his heart for all communities, but especially for those who are ‘the least among us,’ as preached in Matthew.” White-Cain started her prayer by declaring that they would “enter into the very holy of holies right now.” She asked God that “your mercy and your blood cover this nation. And let righteousness rule, for your word declares that ‘blessed is the nation,’ in Psalm 33, ‘whose God is Lord.’” The service ended with King leading the singing of “This Little Light of Mine,” which she called the “unofficial anthem” of the USDA.

On the morning of the “Rededicate 250” worship rally on the National Mall, the USDA Center for Faith hosted a breakfast and worship service for invited pastors in the USDA headquarters. The event included music by Christian Nationalist musician Sean Feucht, as well as remarks from the USDA-branded podium by Speaker Mike Johnson, former Baptist preacher and U.S. congressman Mark Walker (who recently left the Trump administration to run for the U.S. Senate in 2028), Sewell, and others.

More recently, a worship service was held in the same main auditorium of the USDA building, but this one appears to have not been an official USDA event. Instead, organizers of the “One Nation Under God” service inside a federal building on July 5 were the group Pastors for POTUS and the business Christian Kitchens Coffee. Sewell founded Pastors for POTUS, which is not to be confused with Pastors for Trump created by Jackson Lahmeyer, whose recent campaign for a U.S. House seat in Oklahoma imploded last month amid revelations that he had an affair. Sewell said in a video about the Pastors for POTUS event, from the USDA podium, that the group was using the service to launch an effort to get “senior pastors from all across the country to be a voice for a movement for ‘such a time as this.’” Republican U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana was among the speakers for the service.

Two days after the Pastors for POTUS service, Sewell appeared in a video ad for Terri Hasdorff, an advocate for Christians to take over government, as she runs for a newly gerrymandered U.S. House seat in Florida. In the video apparently filmed at the Pastors for POTUS event, he is holding what looks like a large UFC championship belt and mentions that she’s with him and other pastors and therefore urges pastors to support her campaign. And the two are standing on the stage in the USDA auditorium as they filmed the partisan campaign ad.

Sewell also filmed a short interview at the Pastors for POTUS event with Tina Peters, a former county clerk in Colorado who was convicted for orchestrating a security breach of voting systems in an effort to prove Trump “won” the 2020 election (which he did not). She was released from prison last month after receiving a controversial commutation from the state’s governor. Peters spoke during the service, and in Sewell’s video she repeated false claims about the election results as the two stood on the USDA stage.

Not a Church

Beyond hosting worship services in the USDA building, Rollins frequently brings her brand of Christianity into government meetings and her public communications. This includes in ways beyond her sectarian emails that sparked the lawsuit.

Bruce LeVell, a former Republican congressional candidate and the current USDA director of public and private partnerships, declared on Facebook in January that “every day before the USDA begins its work, Secretary Rollins and the Faith Department start with a prayer.” In March, he posted a photo of Rollins and him holding hands while praying in a USDA meeting. Rollins has also posted photos (as did a USDA account) of her praying in her office with staff and others (including Sewell). After the killing of activist Charlie Kirk, Rollins gathered USDA staff in her office for prayer and song (with King leading “This Little Light of Mine,” as she also did at worship services at Labor and SBA).

On another occasion, the prayer gathering in her office as part of the USDA “National Prayer Shield” included New Apostolic Reformation pastor Mario Bramnick and Christian singer Danny Gokey. That event coincided with “The Great American Farmers Market” on the National Mall last fall that included a “Faith and Fellowship” day. Gokey performed as part of this “America 250” event, and it featured remarks by charismatic megachurch pastor Jentezen Franklin, Rollins, and two Trump Cabinet members who are both former Southern Baptist pastors and who have both preached at Pentagon worship services: VA Secretary Doug Collins and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner.

Rollins also frequently posts Bible verses on her social media feeds, sprinkling them in between posts exalting Trump or justifying cutting health programs that assist children.

None of this is surprising given the backing Rollins has long given to Christian Nationalist efforts. She’s a supporter of the rightwing group Capital Ministries and cosponsors a regular White House Bible study by the group’s controversial preacher Ralph Drollinger. When she attended the Christmas worship service at the Pentagon, Jennifer Hegseth (who was filling in for her husband as host until he arrived late) praised Rollins for leading a Bible study every other week for Cabinet members.

After serving in the first Trump administration, Rollins and Larry Kudlow in 2021 founded the America First Policy Institute. With Rollins as its president and CEO until becoming USDA secretary, others involved in leadership roles at AFPI included Alveda King, Paula White-Cain, Linda McMahon, Kevin Hassett, Pam Bondi, Doug Collins, Scott Turner, John Ratcliffe, Kellyanne Conway, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich. In 2023, they released a report outlining “ten pillars for restoring a nation under God!” With the document, AFPI claimed it “interprets the policy objectives of the America First Agenda through the lens of their biblical foundations and applications to provide Christians with more information on the issues and solutions needed to restore our nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.” The “biblical” pillars included things like tax cuts, defending the “right to keep and bear arms,” promoting school vouchers, building a border wall, increasing the military, and changing voting rules to cut down on mail-in ballots. Each of these were presented as aligning with various Scriptures, along with the insistence that their interpretation of the Bible should be codified as government policies.

Rollins has carried that Christian Nationalist attitude into her current role. Last year, she told a rightwing Christian magazine that she views her role at USDA as a ministry.

“Through all the years — as an agricultural major at Texas A&M and then earning a law degree at the University of Texas, I really thought I’d end up at seminary and be a youth minister, that’s where my heart was. But I also realized that maybe my ministry would be larger than a church or a youth group. And I think God’s hand was in this 100%,” she said.

While Rollins views her government post as a church position, others are pushing back. As Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, put it when announcing the lawsuit against Rollins and USDA: “Trump is not Jesus, federal agencies are not churches, and cabinet secretaries are not government preachers.”

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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The event started just after our host nation found itself knocked out of the World Cup. So speakers mixed their thanks to our Canadian friends with some condolences. Attendees from various nations gathered in restaurants in the evenings to watch games together or even kept an eye on early matches streaming on their phones. When France took out Morocco in the Quarterfinals, a theologian from there raised her hand in victory. My favorite moment occurred after Norway bested Brazil in the Round of 16. A Brazilian Baptist leader the next morning mentioned his mourning as he started his remarks. As he mentioned the result, I turned to where I knew a Norwegian friend was sitting and saw him rowing in his pew, thus copying the viral rowing antics of Norwegian fans as they visited the United States for the tournament.

Beyond the World Cup flavor to the gathering, the global nature of the gathering meant stories from around the world were highlighted. The news of the world isn’t just hypothetical or streaming on screens. For many who showed up at Tyndale University last week, they’re living it. So we heard from a Ukrainian leader who shared stories from the frontline of the Russian invasion and how churches are ministering even as they’re being targeted by drones. We heard from an activist from Myanmar who had to flee after the military coup five years ago but who works to help refugees and those still in the nation. We heard from pastors in India just weeks after three Baptist pastors were killed after attending a peace conference. We similarly heard from pastors in Nigeria where there have been years of deadly violence. And we heard from leaders in Lebanon who continue to minister to Syrian refugees and their own people amid bombings by Israel.

Coming together like this matters because, as European Baptist Federation leader Alan Donaldson said during the event, “coming together” from various countries “reminds us of our shared humanity,” “that we love and serve the same Savior” and “that evil, war, nationalist rhetoric can be overcome in Christ.”

“The rise of so-called Christian Nationalism, or nationalism that has borrowed Christian symbols, challenges the fundamental understanding of the image of God,” he added. “It seeks to drive out people who are different from us, failing to recognize the image of God in them and therefore failing to live in community, failing to share a table, failing to exemplify God’s kingdom, where we will be gathered from every tribe and nation and tongue.”

As Donaldson’s comments suggested, the gathering included a strong focus on working toward peace and justice. This included reflections by Canadians about work in their nation to address injustices committed against Indigenous peoples, as well as broader efforts around the globe. So this issue of A Public Witness treks to The Six to cover the recent gathering of the Baptist World Alliance.

Indigenous Justice

Leanne Friesen, the executive minister of the Baptist convention of Ontario and Quebec, set the stage for the context in which the gathering was occurring in Toronto. She noted that the city has been deemed “the most culturally diverse city in the world,” with more than 50% of the population “not born in Canada.” But she also acknowledged that while Canadians like to point out how they’re not like the United States — with its mass shootings, lack of public healthcare, and pushing of imperial politics — there are many injustices for them to deal with as well.

“You will actually meet people from all over the world; you will hear countless languages, see many cultural expressions,” she added. “A young man from Sri Lanka may serve you your coffee at Tim Hortons. … Your Uber driver probably spoke several languages. The mayor of Toronto was born in Hong Kong.”

“Canada makes space for many different views and ideas. Canada doesn’t insist on one way of thinking, but celebrates all different ways of seeing the world,” she added. “We do not judge other people’s culture and insist that they change what they believe or practice. Canadians are indeed very nice, very welcoming. If you bump into us, we’ll apologize to you. But also, if you look beneath the hood a little bit, sometimes this can lead to us looking a little like the Pharisee in the story that Jesus told, who turns to his neighbor, who is also praying, and says, ‘Thank you, God, you did not make me like him.’”

Friesen recounted hearing this attitude in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in the United States. But then, she added, “less than a year later, the headlines were full of a different story.” In May 2021, it was reported that the remains of 215 people believed to be Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves on the grounds of a former residential school. Soon, similar unmarked graves were found at other such boarding schools that the Canadian government funded but were often run by Christian groups from 1828 to 1997 and in which children were taken from their families in order “assimilate” them into Canadian society. More than 4,000 Indigenous children died in the residential schools.

“A year after us Canadians were saying, ‘Surely not us with that racism problem in the States,’ we heard of thousands of unmarked graves of children who had died in the residential schools. And we had to say, ‘Us, too.’ Now, we could have been listening for the years that our Indigenous brothers and sisters have been telling us this,” Friesen said. “There have been countless stories. Last year, I visited one of our churches in Mistissini, Quebec, a Cree church. Every member of that church had been to a residential school. Every single one of them had been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. Every one.”

Talking even more about the injustices against Indigenous peoples and the work toward greater inclusion today was Daniel Zacharias, a New Testament professor at Acadia Divinity College in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). A coauthor of Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation, Zacharias received the BWA’s annual human rights award last week in recognition of his decades of work with Canadian churches on Indigenous issues. At the gathering, he argued for a biblical focus on welcoming people, which he contrasted with approaches when the gospel “has been coupled with colonialization.” With the colonial approach, “Welcome was conditional, cultural and worldview differences were judged harshly, and the agency of personal conviction and communal discernment was overseen by the colonial gaze. Paternalism and colonization seeks a cultural hegemony and denigrates anything that sits outside of that as something not proper for inside the church or at best tolerated when necessary.”

“To put it simply: The good news was often bad news for Indigenous people in this country,” he added. “For indigenous people who received Jesus into their lives, this did not usually stop these discriminatory thoughts in the church. My parents’ generation and upwards frequently heard from the pulpit that Indigenous culture was pagan, wrong, or even demonic. This is part of our collective legacy as Christians in this country.”

Zacharias urged those present not to repeat the errors of trying to erase a culture, as if Indigenous people must abandon who they are in order to become Christians.

“No theology exists in a cultural vacuum. Every culture and every era has engaged with Jesus in their own terms, and this is not a failure of faithfulness. It’s what it looks like when the gospel actually takes root in different places and cultures and times,” he said. “If you truly want to sit at the table of Christ with people who are different than you, then you sit with the entirety of their stories because that’s the worldview they live in, just as we sit with the entirety of your story.”

Standing Against Violence

The issue of violence targeting vulnerable people is not just a Canadian problem nor merely a historical one. And beyond issues of wars and genocide, it also often shows up in homes and other places that should be considered safe.

Valérie Duval-Poujol, a French theologian and Bible translator, spoke about the need for better church advocacy against domestic abuse and other violence targeting women. The new BWA ambassador for standing against gender-based violence, Duval-Poujol specifically urged churches to join “The Red Chair Project,” an effort to place an empty red chair in a public space to draw attention to the problem of domestic abuse. A red chair sat on stage near the podium as she mentioned statistics about domestic abuse, including its prevalence among churchgoers.

After mentioning that “globally a woman or a girl dies at the hand of an intimate partner or family member” every 11 minutes, Duval-Poujol pointed to the chair: “This is why we have this chair for the victims of domestic violence. We miss them. We want to acknowledge them. They should have been at the table. But they’re not there. They cannot be. They have been killed by someone they were trusting.” She also urged pastors and churches to explore resources to find other ways to raise awareness and help prevent domestic abuse.

Another way the BWA bears witness against violence and injustices is through resolutions (and I serve on the resolutions committee). This year, the representatives passed four resolutions on empowering and caring for people with disabilities and special needs, serving vulnerable children (especially those living in active conflict zones), integral and polycentric mission (instead of a colonial “west to the rest” model), and working toward just peace among nations. The latter resolution “rejects the reemergence of imperial ideologies and theologies” along with “wars of ambition,” “unlawful annexation,” and other acts of violence. The resolution also urges Christians “to pursue a beloved community and courageously work for just peacemaking and flourishing freedom locally, nationally, and internationally.”

Similarly, BWA General Secretary & CEO Elijah Brown warned against following the “imperial logic” of the “model of Caesar Augustus” as seen in how Augustus and Herod acted at the time of Jesus’s birth.

“Herod hears that there may be one child, one family who is living in one particular neighborhood, and the response is to deploy governmental soldiers, even if there are casualties or collateral damage. The logic of Caesar becomes so enraged it orders families torn apart and the innocent children harmed, no matter their status, citizenship, or the wail of weeping mothers,” he explained.

In contrast, Brown urged those present to work for peace and to show hospitality, especially to migrants and refugees.

“The people of Jesus pursue peace among enemies in the world. For the hospitality of biblical faithfulness often comes with great risk. Jesus not only sat at tables, he at times overthrew tables. For the table of Christ is incompatible with the table of economic exploitation, including economic exploitation in the name of God. We, too, must pursue a hospitality of risk in order to pursue peace among enemies. The need is all the more urgent at a time when too many are pursuing wars of ambition,” he said.

“Underneath the veneer of public rationales, one of the driving forces of violence today is self-centered, personal, ideological, political, and national ambition. BWA, let us denounce the rhetoric of political, cultural, or ethnic domination. Let us reject the misuse of religion that sanctifies national ambition, ethnic superiority, territorial conquest, or coercive rule. Let’s reject the emergence of imperial ideologies and theologies which seek to divide the world into zones of influence in order to impose their will upon neighbors or to seek coercive control in the name of power, proximity, religion, or history,” he added as he worked in quotes from the resolution this year on just peace. “Let us oppose wars of ambition, for just peace is never secured through domination or violent conquest.”

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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1. Not Your Mother’s ‘Little House.’ Juliet Vedral reviewed a new Netflix reboot of Little House on the Prairie.

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3. Review: The Didache Discoveries. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Didache Discoveries: Recovering the Apostolic Decree and the Missing Epistle of John by Allan Garrow.

4. Between July 4 and Nov. 3, Faith Leaders Seek Fair Access to the Voting Booth. Adelle M. Banks reported on efforts by an interfaith coalition in Minnesota to ensure fair elections.

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by Jeremy Fuzy, Word&Way Digital Editor

I’ve been having a blast following the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup — particularly because my home, Kansas City, is still in the midst of hosting matches and serving as base camp for several teams. It has been weeks of Colombian chants on the streetcar, Argentinian banderazos in the park where I run, and Ghanaian songs echoing outside the knockout game I attended. Truly the best of humanity in its liveliest manifestations.

I’ve kept my eye out for a religion angle that I could write about. There has certainly been plenty of religion — from a Sikh player making history to the Pope reminiscing about football — but not much has been specifically Protestant. Until this week.

On Wednesday, an article by Stephen Gibbs for The Times was published titled, “‘If we pray like a gringo, then we play like a gringo’: Disappointed Brazilians see the hand of God in their World Cup exit, blaming Protestant players and the import of born-again Christianity from the US.” The story details the theory that some Brazilians believe they lost due to the recent growth of evangelicalism over Catholicism in their country.

This is certainly a real trend we have written about before, with the evangelical population growing from 15% of the population in 2002 to over 25% today and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro sharing numerous similarities to Donald Trump with Christian Nationalist evangelical support. And at least 20 out of 26 players on Brazil’s squad are indeed evangelicals. But it is still a wild soccer theory.

Beyond the vague notion that conservative evangelicalism might shift the team focus from the community to the individual, we get some humorous quotes within the article like “evangelical Protestant sterilization has flattened their ball, ruined their samba, and obliterated their swag” and “I wish so much that the players of the Brazilian national team had Catholic guilt … the evangelical guilt is too conformist and permissive; they outsource everything to God and take responsibility for nothing.”

While I’m not so sure this theory is good for much beyond a chuckle, I am still legitimately reeling from the United States team exiting the tournament in a spectacularly embarrassing fashion on Monday. So maybe if we want our men’s team to ever win a World Cup in the future, we might have yet another reason to fight the Christian Nationalism coming from our Protestant countrymen.

Other News of Note

• Stephanie McCrummen of The Atlantic reported on charismatic Christians waging spiritual warfare, with a focus on a couple that targeted a bookstore in Tennessee.

• NPR’s Leila Fadel interviewed Doug Wilson (the controversial head of the denomination that Pete Hegseth is part of) about his hopes for a theocratic state where most women and non-Christians wouldn’t be able to vote. Wilson preached at the Pentagon in February, which A Public Witness broke the news about.

• Jonathan Larsen wrote about Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York repeatedly pushing a false claim about the U.S. founders saying they created the United States as “God’s noble experiment.”

• A controversial Christian ministry leader known for telling tall tales and talking about killing people won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Colorado.

• Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist pastor running in Kansas as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, broke a state record for the most money raised by a new candidate. In his first two months campaigning, he raised more than $3.6 million.

• The South Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church overwhelmingly passed a resolution affirming voting rights and encouraging churches to advocate for voter access.

• Inside Higher Ed reported on how new rules from the Department of Education could hurt religious colleges by cutting off access to Federal Pell Grants.

• A new study found that most megachurches have rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, spent the Fourth of July on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to pray at a migrant cemetery and hold a mass for residents and migrants.

Photo of the Week

Thanks for reading!

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made this declaration while standing behind President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on June 26. Patrick was there as head of Trump’s so-called “Religious Liberty Commission” while the group delivered its draft report. Others from the commission standing with him included rightwing figures like Trump spiritual advisor Paul White-Cain, Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, Ben Carson, and Dr. Phil.

Patrick thinks his argument against church-state separation is really clever, because he likes to repeat it. But it’s actually quite stupid. While the exact phrase cannot be found in the Constitution, that doesn’t mean it’s not a constitutional principle. You also won’t find the phrase “religious liberty” in the document either, but it’s clearly a constitutional precept. Surely the chair of the so-called “Religious Liberty Commission” doesn’t believe “religious liberty” is not a constitutional concept. Similarly, you won’t find the word “trinity” in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a biblical doctrine.

Like with “religious liberty,” understanding how the phrase “separation of church and state” explains constitutional provisions such as Article VI and the First Amendment requires the ability to move from kindergarten-level rote copying of letters and words to understanding concepts and how to describe them in other ways. And this shouldn’t be hard. Because when Thomas Jefferson used his famous phrase about church-state separation, he explicitly spelled out in his letter to Baptists in Connecticut exactly why he saw that phrase as a way of describing what the Constitution does.

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State,” Jefferson wrote.

He literally quoted the First Amendment and then said that those words thus built the wall. So, yes, while the exact phrase is not there, the separation of church and state is very much in the Constitution. Anyone who says otherwise shouldn’t be trusted on issues of religious liberty, public policy, or English comprehension.

The comment by Patrick attacking church-state separation should give you a pretty good indication of how bad the 224-page draft report is and the danger of its recommendations they want the Trump administration to implement. The commission called for an end to the IRS’s political campaign activity ban (also often called “the Johnson Amendment”) so that houses of worship can engage in partisan campaign activity (and even become channels for funneling dark money through a tax-exempt entity). The commission called for more public funding of private sectarian schools and more pushing of Christianity in public schools. The commission backed anti-vaxxers and called for more religious exemptions to pretty much any rule rightwing Christians don’t like. And the commission pushed other Christian Nationalist ideas.

Our Turn

The commission Patrick leads is now receiving public comments that they will review before issuing their final report. While they will not repent of their Christian Nationalism (since the commission was problematically stacked without diversity), it can still be an important sign of how unpopular their agenda is if they are swamped with public comments opposing the recommendations in the report. That’s why groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve as vice chair of the national board of trustees) and Interfaith Alliance haven’t just sued the commission for not following federal law but are also now urging people to offer a public comment.

So let me also encourage you to take a few minutes to write a comment in opposition to the report and its recommendations. It’s a simple thing you can do to speak out against Christian Nationalism and speak up for church-state separation.

All you have to do is send an email to RLC@usdoj.gov before Monday, July 13. But don’t wait until then — just go ahead and do it today. Remember that this is a public comment, so don’t add personal information like your address or phone number. For the subject line of the email, write this: Public Comment – [Topic] – [Your Name]. For topic, you can just write “Religious Liberty Commission Report” for a broad message or you can pick a specific chapter topic from the draft report to focus on.

Your message can be a couple sentences or a few paragraphs. But I would encourage you to incorporate some points like:

• The separation of church and state is good for both. It’s a constitutional principle that explains how our religious liberty is protected by the First Amendment.

• The Johnson Amendment protects houses of worship from partisan politicking and ensures fair play in our campaigns.

• Public funds should go to public schools, not private schools.

• Public schools should not be pushing sectarian faith, like forcing the posting of the Ten Commandments or pushing official prayer.

• Institutions receiving public funding should not be allowed to discriminate against individuals but instead should treat all people fairly and equally.

It’s that simple. Just send an email today (or very soon) highlighting one or more of those points in your own words. It’s a small thing, but let’s make sure they know their Christian Nationalist ideas are unpopular. Let’s not embolden them with our silence.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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Then came the jokes about the weather forcing a delay of the fireworks and the speech President Donald Trump insisted on giving before the big show. Several people joked that Trump had “lost the mandate of heaven,” and many others suggested God was judging Trump with the strikes. Journalist Dave Jorgenson quipped, “It’s starting to feel a little biblical.”

To be clear, if divine lightning flashed down from the heavens, it wouldn’t match any biblical account of a deliberate act of God’s judgment. There are poetic passages describing God as casting the lightning, and many bolts did strike around Mount Sinai as Moses was up there apparently getting posters for schools, but God isn’t recorded as deliberately striking people (despite a psalmist asking for it against enemies in a Psalm that Pete Hegseth likes to quote).

However, it could be a sign from Zeus since he’s the god who in stories actually strikes people with lightning. I’m not a believer in Zeus, so while the thunderbolt and lightning may have been very, very frightening, it probably shouldn’t be read as a divine sign.

The lightning jokes lit up social media because of how inappropriate Trump’s behavior has been in making the national celebrations about himself. After referencing the poor weather and the “lightning blaring” as he finally gave his remarks shortly before midnight, he made comments unbefitting of the occasion or the office of the presidency. He grossly exaggerated the crowd size, pushed false claims of voter fraud, and blasted people who tried to hold him accountable to the laws of the land.

Trump also worked in some Christian Nationalist rhetoric to try to forcibly baptize America on its birthday. Like when he misquoted the text being celebrated 250 years after its crafting. Trump declared, “As our Declaration of Independence tells us, we are all made in the image of one Almighty God. And a communist will never say that. That’s for sure.” As a non-communist, I also won’t say that the Declaration tells us that. Because it does not say that. That’s for sure!

But none of that was the worst part, at least theologically, in Trump’s speech. He also used language to cast the United States as godlike. If God did strike down people for blasphemy, we would’ve seen it in the lightning and heard it in the thunder at that moment. But instead, we just got a few photographs of lightning flashing during the fireworks that finally started as the calendar switched to the Fifth of July.

So since Zeus ignored Trump’s unholy speech, this issue of A Public Witness strikes at the flashing heresy in Trump’s Fourth of July remarks. And it also thunders some disapproval as well to similar rhetoric recently offered by Speaker Mike Johnson.

Strikes Twice

If we put aside the partisan attacks, the conspiracy theories, and the petty personal vendetta, the speech would’ve been short enough for the fireworks to actually occur on the Fourth. And it would’ve at that point sounded a lot like normal, over-the-top presidential rhetoric about American greatness. Like calling the United States “the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist on the face of the earth.” Or that the American people are “a historic and heroic people” and “the bravest and the best.” We expect a national leader to talk like that on a national holiday even if we recognize that other people are also historic and brave. It wouldn’t be the Fourth without fireworks, Joey Chestnut downing dozens of hot dogs, and some presidential exaggeration to make us scream like after a World Cup goal.

But there’s one part of the speech that warrants more scrutiny. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill nationalistic pride or the inappropriate Trump asides. This was full-blown heresy.

“God bless the immortal patriots of 1776, and long live the cause of independence. May it reign forever and ever and ever. We will always be on top,” Trump declared. “For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light, and the glory among all of the nations of the world.”

Hope of the world? Not according to Matthew 12:21, where it’s the name of Jesus.

Light of the world? Not according to Matthew 5:14, where it’s Jesus’s followers who reflect Jesus (who in John 1:9 is called “the true light” that came into the world).

Glory among the nations? Not according to Psalm 96:3, where the psalmist declares God’s “glory among the nations.”

One of the heresies of Christian Nationalism is it makes the nation into an idol. But Trump took that to a particularly gross level by calling America the hope, light, and glory of the world. And to top it off, he expressed his longing for the kingdom of the red, white, and blue to “reign forever and ever and ever,” which can only happen if the United States is the kingdom of God or overthrows and colonizes it.

Despite the blatant blasphemy by Trump, it was actually the second time in recent months that a major political leader used such rhetoric during a major event at the National Mall. During the so-called “Rededicate 250” worship rally in May, Speaker Mike Johnson offered similarly problematic comments. As I noted in an MS NOW column last week, Johnson cannot rededicate something that wasn’t dedicated in the first place. Putting that aside, Johnson’s prayer seemed less about dedicating the nation to God than dedicating the nation as God.

“Over each of our 250 years, America has been a land of hope and liberty, a place of miracles, and the light and glory of all nations because of you,” he declared.

It’s not quite as bad as Trump’s, but it would still be playing with danger if God were a Zeus-like thrower of lightning.

Clearing the Air

The remarks by Trump and Johnson may be extreme, but they fit a general pattern of using Christian language and biblical imagery to glorify America. In recent months, we’ve seen the Department of Homeland Security release a video that kidnapped John 1:5 to make them and their red and blue flashing lights “the light” that “shines in the darkness” which the darkness cannot “extinguish.” We’ve seen Secretary of Pulp Fiction Pete Hegseth conscript Isaiah 6:8 to make the call of a prophet instead about calling soldiers to serve America — and the Pentagon misused that verse again that way in social media posts on July 4. And we’ve seen other examples of politicians and preachers taking passages out of context to deify the United States during recent patriotic celebrations.

This kind of rhetoric matters. Jesus taught us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot pledge allegiance to two lords. Thus, we must reject any effort to make an earthly nation — any nation — the eternal kingdom of God that is the hope, light, and glory of the world. No matter how great a nation is (or it thinks it is), it pales to the glory of God. No matter how powerful a nation’s military is (or it thinks it is), it pales to the power of the kingdom that will reign forever and ever and ever.

The difference between an earthly empire and the kingdom of God is so great that we dare not use the same language to describe them. It’s like the quip from Mark Twain: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.” Don’t confuse the bug with the lightning!

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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1. Demanded by God: Bad Faith and the Weaponization of Sacred Text. Michael Mellette wrote about dangerous ways appeals to holy text have been made during the U.S.-Israel-Iran war.

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3. PCUSA, American Academy of Religion Call Gaza War a Genocide. Chole Landen reported on a vote this week during the general assembly of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States.

4. Bible Stories Are Approved As Required Reading in Texas Public Schools. The Texas Board of Education voted to require public schools to teach various Bible stories (as well as some picture books of Bible stories published by rightwing organizations).

5. Review: The Christian Past That Wasn’t. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History by Warren Throckmorton.

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by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

Ahead of the Fourth of July, Interfaith Alliance and Protect Democracy United released a new TV ad this week celebrating past and present faith-based activism. It’s the latest in the “Choose Love, Not ICE” campaign. The ad starts with scenes of abolitionists, the civil rights movement, anti-Apartheid protests, and more. It then highlights clergy over the past several months in the streets standing against ICE violence.

“The Trump administration is invoking Christian Nationalist myths about America’s founding to justify cruel and authoritarian abuses of power,” said Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. “But throughout American history, people of faith have been at the center of many of our nation’s defining struggles for social justice and civil rights. As we mark America’s 250th anniversary, we’re making absolutely clear that religion continues to be a powerful force to defend and expand our democracy — and a counterweight to the authoritarian abuses of ICE and the Trump administration. The ‘Choose Love, Not ICE’ campaign is a direct rebuke to this administration’s cynical attempt to weaponize religion and an affirmation of the American values we are fighting to uphold.”

There is much to celebrate in American history. This ad lifts up some of those faithful voices worth remembering, honoring, and emulating.

Other News of Note

• Brian Kaylor wrote a column for MS NOW: “The Christian Nationalist Vision of America Couldn’t be Further from the Founders’ Plan.”

• Commissioners to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) general assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn White Christian Nationalism as “a theological error.” They also voted to hold their next general assembly in Puerto Rico in 2028.

• Sociologist Nancy Ammerman analyzed decades of Southern Baptist Convention resolutions, finding a shift toward rightwing politics and Christian Nationalism.

• Kiera Butler of Mother Jones reported on a contractor for the U.S. State Department seeking more Christians in diplomatic roles.

• Melody Schreiber of The Guardian wrote about how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is invoking alleged “anti-Christian bias” to push for exemptions to laws governing abortions, vaccines, and LGBTQ healthcare.

• Ruth Graham of The New York Times reported from Freedom Con, which preached messages of rightwing Christianity mixed with hypermasculinity.

• ICE officers detained a Catholic nun who was walking to Sunday Mass in Texas, quickly releasing her after the incident sparked bipartisan outrage.

• The U.S. is preparing to deport to Uganda (amid an Ebola outbreak) a 78-year-old retired Anglican priest in Colorado who came to the United States for asylum and is now ill after months in ICE detention.

• Pope Leo declared a breakaway rightwing group schismatics and excommunicated them after the group appointed four bishops without papal approval.

• Baptist News Global launched a new podcast, Bible Divas, featuring Angela N. Parker, Anna Sieges Beal, Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, and Cynthia Shafer-Elliott.

• R.L. Stollar, a child liberation theologian and an abuse survivor and advocate, died by suicide this week. Stollar talked about his work and his book The Kingdom of Children on our Dangerous Dogma podcast in 2023:

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My column, “The Christian Nationalist Vision of America Couldn’t be Further from the Founders’ Plan,” is out and I really hope you’ll read it. Here is a brief excerpt:

Read the whole piece here. It’s important that we push back against fake Christian Nationalist history. And it’s important that we celebrate the real religion story of the nation’s founding: the separation of church and state.

That’s why I’m grateful for MS NOW publishing this piece. And it’s why we work at A Public Witness to counter Christian Nationalism and support church-state separation. But we can’t do it without the support of our paid subscribers and donors. If the Semiquincentennial has taught us anything, it’s how much this work is needed in this moment. So if you’re not already a paid subscriber, upgrade today to have us oohing and ahhing more than we will during the fireworks on Saturday.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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Unlike Hegseth, Vance acknowledged borrowing from the movie and seemed to understand the evolution of Jackson’s character — but it’s still an odd metaphor for his own conversion. And it turns out it’s a story he likes to share to explain how he’s “felt the touch of God” in mystical moments.

“There’s this quote from Pulp Fiction I keep returning to,” Vance told rightwing podcaster Michael Knowles on Tuesday. “It’s right after Samuel Jackson and John Travolta, these gangsters, just murder a few people, but they miss one guy and that guy’s hiding in the bathroom. So he pops out and he shoots at point-blank range. Samuel Jackson is totally fine, right? Despite the fact that multiple bullets should have hit him. He kind of looks around, kills the guy who tried to shoot him, and then he has this religious sort of epiphany. And that’s really the entire movie from his perspective, is this ongoing religious journey.”

Vance then continued the story by recounting how Jackson’s character talked about the shooting moment in that scene and again later in the movie.

“Now, what’s fascinating about it is he talks about miracles and there’s this debate between him and John Travolta about whether this counts as a miracle,” Vance recounted. “And he says, ‘Look, what matters is not whether this is an ‘According to Hoyle’ miracle, what matters is that I felt the touch of God.’”

Vance then told two stories where he was “feeling the touch of God” in moments he thinks were miraculous, though neither involved violent gangsters. First, he mentioned a 2019 conversation in a bar with conservative pundit Ross Douthat where they were “drinking too much and talking about Catholicism.” Then, for no apparent reason, a wine glass behind the bar “kind of jumps off and shatters on the ground in the middle of this conversation.”

“It sounds insane,” Vance said. “Both Ross and I had this sort of moment. We’re like, ‘Oh, that was really weird.’ And again, is it an ‘According to Hoyle’ miracle? Maybe, maybe not. But I felt the touch of God. … That felt like a very powerful moment.”

His second example was a time when he slept in and figured he would miss attending confession but felt like God told him to go anyway. He made it in time since “every single red light was green.” He added, “Maybe it was just a coincidence of the universe, but I felt the touch of God. I got in line in time.”

Vance didn’t just come up with the Pulp Fiction analogy on a whim during Tuesday’s interview. He actually told a shorter version of it in his memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith. In the book, he recounted the bar story and the time he heard a Gregorian-style chant of a Psalm while visiting a Catholic priest that was the same one he liked to listen to while traveling. Noting that skeptics would call those moments a “total coincidence,” he wrote (with the asterisks), “But to quote Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction: ‘You don’t judge s*** like this based on merit. Now, whether or not what we experienced was an ‘According to Hoyle’ miracle is insignificant. What is significant is I felt the touch of God.’ So yes, during little moments, I felt the touch of God.”

Mediate noted on Tuesday that Vance also told a version of his Pulp Fiction analogy during the 2024 campaign as he spoke at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event. Calling Jackson’s character in the movie “one of my favorite theologians,” Vance told the story with a bit of editing of the movie’s colorful language.

Praying for ‘Great Vengeance’

While Vance cites Pulp Fiction in his book and speeches, Hegseth’s recent viral moment with the movie came after he did not credit the violent film for inspiring a prayer. During the April worship service at the Pentagon, Hegseth read a violent prayer he said had been recited by U.S. military members at the start of a rescue mission in Iran. He also mentioned the prayer reflected Ezekiel 25:17. He did not mention that the language and the inaccurate Ezekiel phrasing were uttered by Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction. No additional accounts of the Iran rescue mission have confirmed the use of the prayer by military personnel.

After A Public Witness broke the news about Hegseth’s Pulp Fiction prayer, the incident quickly sparked headlines, late-night jokes, and online memes. Despite that, Hegseth has not addressed the controversy, even after a Democratic representative mockingly mentioned it while questioning Hegseth during a congressional hearing.

Hegseth’s use of the Ezekiel 25:17 bit in Pulp Fiction not only showed a lack of awareness of the biblical text but also of the film. While Jackson’s character recites it shortly before unloading his gun on an unarmed man (just before the “miracle” scene), he returns to the topic later in the film to reconsider how he thinks about God, Scripture, and violence. This is what Vance called the “ongoing religious journey” of the character following the “religious sort of epiphany.” But Hegseth’s use of the monologue to justify the war in Iran instead remained embedded in the first scene without the conversion experience.

“Hegseth even gets the Pulp Fiction version of Ezekiel 25:17 wrong,” explained Derek Hatch, a religion professor at Georgetown College, after the Pentagon service. “Hegseth sees a divine sanction of violence that providentially authorizes his military movements and justifies his death-dealing. However, within a movie like Pulp Fiction, thoroughly characterized by violence (and sometimes in a grotesque manner), we find that truly pondering and considering this passage (even though it is not actually Ezekiel 25:17) does not end with lethality but mercy.”

While Hegseth was the key advocate inside the Trump administration to start the Iran war, Vance reportedly was the leading voice who was skeptical about launching the military operation. Apparently, they don’t just disagree on how to interpret a Tarantino movie.

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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The Fourth of July, which Kristin Du Mez has rightly called the “high holy day of Christian Nationalism,” each year brings an unhealthy and even heretical mix of “God and country.” But special anniversaries are worse. And that’s where we find ourselves this week with the Semiquincentennial.

I’ve been warning about this year because of something I noticed while Beau Underwood and I were researching and writing Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism. We pointed out a spike in Christian Nationalist rhetoric and activity during the Bicentennial in 1976, which was particularly a temptation since that year July 4 fell on a Sunday. Realizing what had occurred that year, we noted in the book that came out over two years ago that we expected a similar spike for the Semiquincentennial.

“We have documented efforts by mainline Protestant preachers to speak out against Christian Nationalism. Some use the Sunday near Flag Day or the Fourth of July as a timely opportunity to offer this timely witness,” we wrote. “The need for this kind of approach might be particularly strong in 2026 as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday; the Bicentennial in 1976 resulted in a swell of Christian Nationalism in churches.”

Flash forward and it’s even worse than we anticipated given all that’s occurred since then, especially with Donald Trump returning to the White House and thus supporting Christian Nationalists with the presidential bully pulpit. Throw in the rise of Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials like Secretary of Pulp Fiction Pete Hegseth and we’re experiencing a torrential downpour of fake Christian Nationalist history, dangerous attacks on church-state separation, and heretical claims that treat the nation like an idol.

As an example of what I mean, let’s tune in on a Christian Nationalist service from Sunday (June 28) where the red, white, and blue replaced the red letters of Scripture and Old Glory supplanted God as the center of the worship service. Honestly, there are numerous services we could choose from to see this phenomenon at play. Beau and I highlighted a few in Baptizing America, and a couple of years ago I unpacked at A Public Witness the service just before the Fourth of July at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

But for this issue, let’s virtually trek deep in the heart of Texas to see how “God and country” too often looks more like country as god. We’re off to Prestonwood Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch, for a service featuring Trump evangelical advisor Jack Graham, Christian music star Michael W. Smith, the U.S. military, some fake history quotes, and more red, white, and blue decorations than you’ll find in a Hobby Lobby.

‘Stars and Stripes Forever’

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. Review: The Book of Love. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Book of Love: A Better Way to Read the Bible by Richard Beck.

2. Which Bible Passages Are in Texas’ Proposed Student Reading List? Here’s What the Sections Reveal. Ellie Ashby reported on the biblical stories and translations in controversial new public school curriculum.

3. Asbury Theological Seminary Cut by United Methodist Church Over Same-Sex Marriage Issue. Other schools no longer recognized include Northeastern Seminary in New York, Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and Luther Seminary in Minnesota.

4. As Supreme Court Clears Way to Deport Haitians and Syrians, Faith Leaders Grieve, Prepare for What’s Next. Many Christian leaders are denouncing a 6-3 ruling that could see hundreds of thousands of people deported.

5. As Reports of Anti-Christian Incidents in Israel Increase, Advocates Press Police to Act. Michelle Chabin reported on the growing violence against Christians in Israel.

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by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

A lot of bad Supreme Court decisions came out this week on 6-3 votes. One that shouldn’t be overlooked is the ruling by the rightwing majority in Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections. The justices ruled that a prisoner could not sue prison officials who knowingly and egregiously violated his religious liberty rights.

Damon Landor is a devout Rastafarian who, in following his faith, had not cut his hair for 20 years. After being allowed to keep it that way in two prisons, he was held down and forcibly shaved with just three weeks left in his sentence. This occurred even after he literally provided the guards with a copy of a federal appeals court ruling affirming the right of imprisoned Rastafarians to keep their hair long.

Despite this assault that violently attacked Landor’s religiosity, the justices want to shrug and say there can be no accountability. This ruling is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for states, which means religious liberty rights are not protected by actual laws or rulings but just by the good manners (if they exist) of state officials.

This case makes it clear that it’s false to claim the Supreme Court’s majority cares about religious liberty. While they do frequently rule for Christian plaintiffs, they don’t actually uphold true religious liberty for all. That’s why advocates for religious liberty — like Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty — were quick to denounce the ruling on Tuesday. It’s troubling that as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we have a majority on the highest court in the nation that wants to strip away foundational rights. I dissent.

Other News of Note

• The Presbyterian Church in America’s general assembly voted to affirm a partial report condemning Christian Nationalism, which we reported on last week along with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) statements condemning Christian Nationalism that passed the committee level this week and will now go to the full general assembly.

• Matthew Taylor wrote about what it means that Tucker Carlson is embracing the “Appeal to Heaven” flag that’s popular with Christian Nationalists.

• The New York Times published an interactive piece highlighting John Leland, a colonial Baptist leader who helped create the constitutional separation of church and state.

• Jason DeRose of NPR traveled to Rhode Island to report on the birth of religious liberty as he visited the oldest Baptist church and the oldest Jewish synagogue in the United States.

• A poll of the Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate seat in Kansas shows Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist minister, leading a crowded field of candidates. He garnered 18%, with the next highest candidate at 10%.

• A member of Western Australia’s Parliament is calling for an end to the practice of starting sessions with the Lord’s Prayer. (We previously covered an unsuccessful effort in 2022 to scrap the Lord’s Prayer from Australia’s Senate.)

• Hernán Restrepo of Christianity Today reported on the divided evangelical reaction in Colombia as a rightwing outsider candidate won the presidency.

• The Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted to return the land of a closed church to an Indigenous community organization.

• The Episcopal Church is seeking to sell its 12-story headquarters building in New York City, which is less than half-occupied by staff of the denomination or affiliated groups after declining membership and the rise of remote work.

• On the podcast Highest Power: Church + State, host Rick Pidcock led a conversation with Baptist New Global writers (and Brian Kaylor) about Christian media and partnerships:

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Since Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself “secretary of war,” started his monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon in May 2025, each service until this month featured a sermon from a rightwing evangelical. In addition to Wilson, two other previous services included a pastor in Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, while seven had sermons from a Southern Baptist preacher (including two Trump administration officials), two had sermons from a member of the Graham family, and one included an NFL player-turned-businessman and evangelist (in addition to another former NFL player as one of the Southern Baptists). The evangelical slant of the services has stood in contrast to the more Catholic services that were held at the Department of Labor until Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer was ousted.

Now, a rightwing Catholic has also been invited to the Pentagon pulpit. Jonathan Morris left the priesthood with approval from Pope Francis in 2019 in order to pursue marriage and raise a family. The next year, he married an ABC News producer and they now have two children. In addition to his Fox News gig, Morris is an executive coach and author (and he served as a theological advisor to Mel Gibson for The Passion of the Christ).

Even before leaving the priesthood, Morris joined Fox News as a contributor and analyst, frequently appearing with Hegseth. In a Fox News segment during the 2020 presidential election, Hegseth and Morris accused Democratic candidates of being inauthentic and just invoking their Christian faith for political gain — all while praising Donald Trump. In another segment, the two (along with Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress) attacked the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America during the first Trump administration for pledging to offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. More recently, Morris did say Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV were “not helpful,” but Morris still defended the Iran war waged by Trump and Hegseth and attacked “liberal” Catholic cardinals who criticized the war.

In addition to Morris, the June service also featured a prayer from an MLB pitcher who recently was in the news amid allegations that his team punished him for his Catholic faith. In May, a conservative activist known for secretly filmed videos (that are often deceptively edited) released footage of a Washington Nationals executive appearing to admit on hidden-camera footage that the team doesn’t highlight Williams on social media because of Williams’s outspoken religiosity and public criticism of the Los Angeles Dodgers for inviting a performance from a group of satirical drag queens dressed like nuns. The Nationals executive, who also said on tape that they invited Hegseth to games in hopes of getting more sponsorship money from defense contractors, was quickly fired by the team and another executive apologized to Williams.

Republican politicians like Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri criticized the alleged treatment of Williams as “anti-Christian.” More recently, Hawley also led efforts against the MLB after some San Francisco Giants players were initially warned for putting Bible verses on their hats in protest of a Pride Month emphasis.

For the first time, Hegseth completely missed the service, although his wife and children were sitting in the front row as usual. He was instead on Capitol Hill meeting privately with Republican politicians to drum up support for the administration’s goals for increased military funding. Normally, he prays and offers some remarks, such as in April when his prayer came from a Samuel L. Jackson monologue in Pulp Fiction.

‘Battle for the American Soul’

Wednesday’s service included the invocation of several biblical prophets. From Isaiah to John the baptizer to Elijah, the prophets were conscripted to serve the U.S. Department of Defense.

The chaplain who opened and closed the service started by reading from Isaiah 40, where “those who hope in the Lord” are promised that they “shall mount up on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” The chaplain insisted the Pentagon services showed that they were the ones who wait and trust in God.

In his prayer during Wednesday’s service, Williams invoked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and expressed his hope that we would be “not merely as a nation of laws but as a people who acknowledge [God] as the source of these laws.” Noting that the service was occurring on the Catholic feast day of the Nativity of John the Baptist, Williams borrowed from Zechariah’s prayer over his newborn John as a prayer for the nation: “’In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and guide our feet into the way of peace.’ Our Lady of Victory, pray for us. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Morris used as his primary text for his sermon the incident in 1 Kings 19 when the prophet Elijah heard the voice of God not in a mighty wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a “calm, quiet whisper.” Morris urged those present not to listen to “the father of lies” who tells them “you are nothing,” but instead to listen to the whisper of God. Morris did not mention the context of the story of Elijah, who was not in the halls of power but in the wilderness while hiding from the ruler threatening to kill him with a powerful military.

Morris, who warned that there is a “battle for the American soul,” also urged those present to live out the “fruits of the Spirit” as listed by Paul in Galatians: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Without any sense of irony, the supporter of Trump and Hegseth added, “We see it all the time: backstabbing, self-aggrandizement, lying, bullying, blaming, anger, power-games, passive-aggressive behavior. We’ve seen it in our leaders. … Think about how different [the fruit of the Spirit] is than that low-security leadership that we talked about, of the backstabbing, the passive-aggressive, the we can go on and on, self-aggrandizement.”

After the short homily and the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer, two uniformed military members led congregational singing of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Goodness of God,” and the “Doxology.” Before the service started, recordings of several Christian worship songs were played as people assembled in the hall, including “Our God is Greater,” “God’s Not Dead (Like a Lion),” 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord),” “Lord, I Need You,” and “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail).”

After a short benediction, the chaplain who led the service urged those gathered in the Pentagon to “depart in peace.”

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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“Women in ministry has also been a part of the DNA of our fellowship for as long as we’ve been around,” declared Rev. Tanya Parks, a pastor in Louisiana who has served the past year as moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

The longtime denominational home of the late Jimmy Carter, CBF’s general assembly featured not just a woman presiding over the business of the denomination but also women preaching and serving in other ministry roles. And in the current Christian Nationalist context where the nation’s largest Protestant denomination is attacking women while supporting an administration that’s stripping away civil rights for women, Black people, LGBTQ individuals, and others, we shouldn’t ignore Christian denominations offering a different kind of witness.

Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School and author of The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing, preached during the CBF assembly about the importance of learning, remembering, and telling stories of resistance, including those of women who have often been left out of church histories and honors.

“It’s almost hard for us to grapple with the subversive nature of the gospel: its embedded belief in a messiah who came to turn the world upside down, one who came to dismantle systems and powers and principalities,” she explained during a dinner sponsored by Baptist Women in Ministry. “These memories are dangerous, and they should be kept alive. They were kept alive by the first-century Church through the oral tradition. Long before anyone wrote anything down, they would tell the stories of this Jesus, they would tell the stories of this resurrection. Long before anyone thought to compile it into a canon and call it sacred Scripture, they would tell the stories of this dangerous memory of someone who death could not defeat.”

“Long before they wrote it down, in the time between Mary in the empty tomb and her telling others about the good news, the dangerous, dangerous memory they want us to forget is that for a brief moment the entire gospel was contained in the memory of one woman,” Pierce added. “For those who suggest that women dare not preach the gospel, there is no gospel unless the woman at the well and the women at the tomb and the women at the cross had told the truth about a risen savior. That is the dangerous story that we have to keep telling.”

And so this issue of A Public Witness treks to Jacksonville to recall more dangerous stories that were told during the CBF general assembly, as those gathered were urged to resist Christian Nationalism and advocate for the rights of their neighbors.

Challenging ‘Rotten Religion’

Rev. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, knows what it means to lead a church in publicly standing against injustices. The historic Black congregation that sits just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., traces its history to 1806 as enslaved Black Baptists worshiped under the eye of White Baptists until receiving independence in 1850. Last year, he led the church to be one of the first groups to pull its programming from the Kennedy Center shortly after President Donald Trump started taking it over (and even before Trump’s name was illegally added to the building). The megachurch moved its massive Christmas program to another venue in protest of the administration’s policies.

At CBF, Wesley challenged those present to stand up, especially against those who misuse Christianity to justify violence toward others.

“There’s a lot that claims the name Jesus Christ, but the closer you get to it, it does not live like, look like, or love like our Lord and Savior,” he said. “And don’t get me wrong. It wears a cross around its neck. It carries a Bible and quotes Scripture. It has a steeple on top of its roof. But when you get close to it, it really doesn’t look like Jesus Christ.”

Preaching about what’s often called “The Parable of the Good Samaritan,” Wesley particularly criticized those who misuse Christianity to justify ungodly behavior toward their neighbors. Warning about those who have “weaponized the Bible,” he insisted that just because someone is quoting Scripture, that doesn’t mean they’re acting Christlike.

“One of the very first signs of rotten religion is that it quotes a whole lot of Scripture, but very little of it is in red. It knows law, but it can’t quote grace. It’s heavy in Moses and in Paul, but it is light in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is good in the laws of who’s going to hell, but it does not embrace the teachings of grace that encourage us all to live right in the eyes of God. It is heavy in Scripture that’s light on Jesus,” he argued. “This is one sign of rotten religion in America: when Scripture has been weaponized to hurt and not to help, to deport and not to deliver, as a bullet and not a balm. There is something wrong when you only use Scripture to justify who you hate.”

“Our foremothers and forefathers of my people understood this. They were skeptical of ‘slaves, obey your master’ because there was no Jesus in it,” he added. “Be careful of folk that use words like ‘reprobate’ and ‘abomination’ but don’t have any Jesus attached to it. Watch out for folk who say that women ought have no authority over men in the church when they’ve got no Jesus attached to it. Be careful of folk that tell you that every elected official is God-ordained and then you have to obey them without question and challenge when there’s no Jesus attached to it.”

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, similarly emphasized the need to challenge Christian Nationalism and work for the freedom of everyone.

“The 250th celebrations already have, and will continue to perpetuate the myth of the United States as a Christian Nation. A glorified and fictional account that sanctifies the founders and sacralizes the founding documents,” explained Tyler, author of How to End Christian Nationalism. “We have to tell the truth about who we are. This takes vulnerability, bravery, and openness on everyone’s part. It takes a culture that is willing to complicate a narrative that has been propped up by divine sanction to justify all kinds of evil in God’s name. … And it requires all of us to call out the ‘Christian nation’ myth for what it is: a lie that perpetuates White supremacy and bigotry.”

“This honest history instructs us that no document — not the Declaration of Independence, not the U.S. Constitution, not the Bill of Rights, not the Emancipation Proclamation, not the Voting Rights Act — guarantees freedom. Freedom depends on the commitment of all of us to freedom,” she added. “And in the words of Baptist freedom fighter Fannie Lou Hamer, ‘Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.’”

‘Gasping for Air’

A key issue throughout the general assembly was how to push back against ICE as it threatens houses of worship and targets our immigrant neighbors. Rev. Michael Woolf, senior minister of Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, shared his story of getting body-slammed and arrested while peacefully protesting outside an ICE detention center in the Chicago area. He urged those present tp do something, even if their advocacy might look different than his.

“Paul has this metaphor, this mystical idea of the body of Christ. We each have things that we can do. I wouldn’t actually recommend going to get slammed on the ground. Not that fun,” said Woolf, coauthor of Confronting Islamophobia in the Church. “There’s something for everybody to do. And I think it’s really important this time as we struggle with fascism, as we really look at our Republic — and I don’t know what the future’s going to hold — I think it’s really important that we do our best and to live out our faith in the world and find some way to bring our values into the public square as Christians.”

Similarly, Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman talked about the importance of faith leaders standing up against ICE and on other issues. Democracy Forward is representing CBF in a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block ICE actions on the property of houses of worship (and Democracy Forward is also representing several other mainline Protestant groups in a similar suit filed later). She praised CBF for being one of the first faith groups to stand up against the administration on this issue.

Speaking on Juneteenth in the city where the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written and first performed, she connected that historical struggle for freedom with the need now to push back against fresh efforts to curtail civil rights.

“Democracy is now gasping for air,” she warned. “This nation has always been struggling to achieve true democracy for all people. We’re kidding ourselves if we think that we somehow had finally achieved it. Juneteenth reminds us we are in the midst of an old fight in a new time.”

Perryman particularly argued that in this moment, Christians must follow the command to love our neighbors as ourselves.

“There is a major role for people of faith, and there is a major role for this community of faith,” she said. “We have to remember who we are, and as followers of Christ we know that loving the neighbor is the way.”

“I’m a very skilled lawyer, and I promise you that I can do mental gymnastics with the best of people. But there is just no way to square this circle. It’s love your neighbor. There’s no exceptions,” she added. “As followers of Christ, we know that no powerful person, no institution, no cultural movement can get us out of that command. We have to love our neighbors. And we can’t sit by while children are torn from their families, while hate is used as a political tool to stir up controversy and try to make us think that we are more different than we are the same.”

One way she encouraged those present to do this is by helping people be able to vote. She emphasized that churches shouldn’t tell people how to vote, “but we do need to make sure that everyone is afforded the basic dignity of being able to vote.”

CBF is working to live out Perryman’s call by using the general assembly to roll out a new effort to assist churches in helping people get registered to vote and turn out to the polls. Calling it “Love Your Neighbor to the Voting Booth,” the nonpartisan initiative will include resources for churches to use in assisting people to get registered and overcoming barriers to voting.

Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, also encouraged advocacy efforts at the state and national level. Calling Florida a “model” for much of what is now being implemented in Washington, D.C., she argued that faith communities must be part of the work of pushing back. After recounting efforts — including by her parents — during the civil rights movement to expand voting rights, education access, and more, Jackson lamented that those issues are being litigated again.

“While I am proud to be here to stand on their legacy, I am devastated that instead of expanding their work, I must fight the exact same battles,” she said. “Each new restriction demands a response. Each unconstitutional law requires legal action. … Each assault requires that we educate our community, that we organize, and that we engage.”

“I also want to tell you that I’m not living here in grim despair. I actually have a lot of hope,” Jackson added after telling stories about slavery, lynchings, segregation, and the current moves in Florida and nationally to strip away civil rights and democratic freedoms. “This climate we are living in is not new. People in this nation have experienced and survived it more than once. So the operative question is not how can we survive this, but how will each one of us each one of us choose to show up? If we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams, who will our descendants be to us? The survivors of our silence? The victims of our complicity? The inheritors of status and wealth without civil rights? Or, will we seize this moment to make our descendants proud?”

As a public witness,

Brian Kaylor

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. ‘Cast Aside the Clouds’ Removes the Veil on Baha’i Persecution in Iran. Juliet Vedral reviewed Cast Aside the Clouds, a new film set in modern-day Tehran that is both a forbidden love story and a depiction of the steadfast faith of the Baha’i community amidst ongoing persecution.

2. Review: Love Your Neighbor. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Love Your Neighbor: How Psychology Can Enliven Faith and Transform Community by Katherine M. Douglass and Brittany M. Tausen.

3. ‘They Have Already Suffered Enough’: Central African Clergy Respond to US Deportation. Tonny Onyulo reported on growing criticism of the U.S. government’s deportation efforts.

4. Oklahoma Pastor Who Was Backed by Trump Exits GOP House Runoff After Reports of Inappropriate Texts. The founder of “Pastors for Trump” saw his bid for a U.S. congressional seat derailed by a moral scandal.

5. Astronaut Victor Glover Is Still Trying to Find the Spiritual Words to Describe His Moon Mission. Jack Jenkins spoke with an Artemis II astronaut about his recent flight around the moon.

Dangerous Dogma

This week’s episode features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about the Southern Baptist Convention's push against women in ministry, the Pentagon changing how it codes the faith of military members, and the latest in the world of sports. Listen to the audio version here (or wherever you listen to podcasts) or watch the video version here.

Follow Us on Bluesky

by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

Last week, Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler successfully pushed the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to vote against women in ministry. This week, he joined Doug Wilson on a podcast to gloat about the vote and laugh about churches who affirm that women are equal before God.

Wilson, who leads the denomination that Secretary of Pulp Fiction Pete Hegseth is part of (and has preached at the Pentagon this year), is a self-described “paleo-Confederate” who believes women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. An advocate for Christian Nationalism, Wilson wants to ban public worship by Catholics and those of other religions. He’s also been a longtime apologist for the American system of chattel slavery and has been accused of creating a culture of abuse within his churches.

For Mohler, Wilson is now an ally with whom he’s writing a book to push Christian Nationalism. But a woman preaching the gospel? That can’t possibly be good in the worldview of Mohler.

Last year, I told the Associated Press that Wilson used to be “fringe” in the evangelical world but now is increasingly mainstream. Mohler is proof of that. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

As Mohler moves further into the world of fundamentalist patriarchy, racism, and Christian Nationalism, we must reject his claim that he’s just holding to “orthodox” Christian positions. His fight against women in ministry is just one more front in this effort for domination, which is why this matters for all of us. As the words of Fannie Lou Hamer remind us on this Juneteenth: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Survey Says…

Other News of Note

• Ian Ward of Politico wrote about an effort to create a rightwing Christian community in Tennessee.

• County commissioners in Rockwall County, Texas, rejected a call that they remove a new graven image monument of the “Ten Commandments” on the county courthouse grounds. They insist the monument is constitutional, but didn’t mention that it’s a made-up version not found in any Bible.

• Robert Downen of Texas Monthly wrote about an effort in Texas to force public schools to teach about the so-called “Black Robe Regiment” even though it’s a myth (and such fake history has also been pushed by legislators in other states).

• Renzo Downey of The Texas Tribune wrote about the anti-Muslim rhetoric at the Texas Republican convention (including by a pastor) and how it impacted Muslim delegates.

• Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, is navigating issues of religion and race as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Ohio.

• Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global reported on an event promoting “Religious Liberty for All” that included remarks from Rachel Laser, Fish Stark, Holly Hollman, Rep. Jared Huffman, Terri Hord Owens, Skye Perryman, David Saperstein, and Corey D.B. Walker.

• After anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota were indicted this week, several religious groups added their voices to those condemning the arrests as an effort to silence First Amendment rights.

• Chinese police raided a church during its Sunday worship services, detaining dozens of members.

• Jessica Janvier wrote for Christianity Today about the Baptist pastor who, in 1979, got Texas to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.

Photo of the Week

Thanks for reading!

You could say the exact opposite about progressive religious political actors. They have garnered relatively little attention because they are perceived as organizationally fractured, politically weak, and socially inconsequential. As a result, they garner little attention from journalists and scholars.

Well, the acclaimed sociologist Robert Wuthnow would like a word. His new book, The Religious Left: What It Does and How It Can Do Better, puts the activities and advocacy of faith-filled progressive actors front and center. He seeks to both illuminate what has been hidden and to add complexity where a story has been too simply told.

“My contention is that the Religious Left has massively reinvented itself in recent decades,” Wuthnow explains in reference to the way the movement now structures itself, the way it tries to exert influence, the allies it chooses, and the technology it deploys. Yet, he writes, “its core convictions are undiminished. Progressive faith communities’ moral strength comes from their faith that God cares about the good of humanity, wants the world to be better than it is, and encourages people of faith to be engaged in acts of mercy and kindness.”

The chapters of the book document how those ideals are concretely enacted with regard to specific issues and historical episodes, revealing both the reach and the limits of the Religious Left. Some of the examples, like environmental advocacy and the reduction of gun violence, are well known. Others, such as the coalition that pushed for international debt relief under the Jubilee 2000 banner, garnered less popular attention.

A close student of how religion and politics intersect within the contemporary United States will find a lot of the ground this book covers to be familiar, but there are still nuances and insights to be gained from re-examining the terrain with Wuthnow as an expert guide. Those looking for an introduction to progressive faith activism or those who harbor suspicions of it — either because they disagree with religious roots or political values — will find this volume a useful conversation partner for grasping an important vehicle for social change that has too often been ignored.

At a time of intensifying Christian Nationalism, others will be intrigued by the insinuation of the subtitle that there’s practical wisdom to be found here that will increase the effectiveness of progressive people of faith in our nation’s public life and policy debates. Some of this is to be found in the lessons provided by the historical examples Wuthnow highlights and analyzes. Additionally, he names three places that serve as the foundation of the Religious Left’s current and future vibrancy, or lack thereof.

The first are local congregations and faith communities. These are spaces where people find meaning, support, and inspiration to act. They are also organizing hubs where like-minded individuals can connect, plan, and take action. It’s one more reminder, especially in a time when many are choosing to disengage from formal participation in religious communities, that nurturing the vitality of congregations can be beneficial far beyond the sanctuary walls of a church, synagogue, or mosque.

Next is the work of progressive faith leaders, who give voice to the ideals and desires of those they lead, represent, and serve. Through their networks, these leaders foster connections that expand the movement’s reach and make its power visible. Their voices also provide a contrast to the perspectives of conservative faith leaders who try to claim the moral high ground for their side with little opposition or contestation.

Finally, there is the importance of progressive advocacy organizations whose resources and expertise create the potential, sometimes realized and other times not, for a symbiotic relationship with the progressive faith movement. They must also overcome mutual suspicions and find strategic alignment on both means and ends.

The hope, Wuthnow states at the end, is that “the bad news for an authoritarian regime is that religion’s voice is not easily silenced. When religious groups are motivated to take action, they know how to express their moral convictions. … Faith communities have the potential to be that prophetic voice even in democracy’s darkest hours.”

Perhaps you identify as part of the Religious Left or just want to know more about this side of faith-based activism. Robert Wuthnow has graciously agreed to send a signed copy of his new book to one of our paid subscribers, so upgrade today to support our award-winning writing and ensure you’re eligible for that drawing.

As a public witness,

Beau Underwood

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The RCA traces its roots to the founding of a Dutch Reformed congregation in New York City in 1628, a congregation that expanded to various church buildings and continues today in four Collegiate churches in the city. One of them, Marble Collegiate Church, was led for decades by Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking and the pastor who had a significant influence on both Richard Nixon and Donald Trump as they attended the church. A branch of the Dutch Reformed Church until 1819, the American group adopted the Reformed Church in America name in 1867 and is now headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Meeting for its general synod in Nashville, Tennessee, the RCA statement on Christian Nationalism passed with 96% approval as they called “on all Christians to renounce this error and work for justice, wholeness, and peace for all.”

“We have a necessary voice in the public debate but, as Christ’s body, gathered around Word and sacrament, we must not conflate national identity with God’s reign, lest we mute our prophetic voice and replace discipleship to Jesus Christ with political ambition,” the statement explains. “We belong to Jesus Christ, not to anyone or anything else. We are called to influence the public square through persuasion rather than coercion, to work for unity among all people and nations, to reconcile everyone, and to stand in God’s Spirit without the corrupting influence of temporal power.”

Although the RCA is a small mainline denomination — with fewer than 600 congregations — it’s still important when a group decides to speak collectively and publicly against Christian Nationalism. And while their statement unfortunately does not acknowledge any complicity, it’s still good for mainline Protestants to address this ideology since, as Beau Underwood and I documented in Baptizing America, mainline Protestants helped build Christian Nationalism (and that’s why we especially urged denominations and churches to learn about and repent of their own ways in pushing it).

The RCA is not alone. We’ve previously covered other denominational statements, including those by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2024, the Episcopal Church in 2024, the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society in 2024, and the Baptist World Alliance in 2024 (as I led the resolutions committee).

Other denominational bodies have also been working on resolutions and reports this summer to tackle Christian Nationalism, including both the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbyterian Church in America, as well as various regional bodies of the United Methodist Church. So this issue of A Public Witness looks at how these groups are speaking out against what the RCA rightly called a distortion of the gospel.

Presbyterians In, Not Of, America

The two largest Presbyterian bodies in the United States have significant differences. The largest, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a mainline denomination with more liberal positions. The other, the Presbyterian Church in America, is an evangelical group that’s much more conservative. But both are reckoning with Christian Nationalism.

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