Weekly Roundup: April 11
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week, we published a report from a vigil by religious groups opposing ICE raids in houses of worship and a report from a summit challenging Christian Nationalism.
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Flushing Remonstrance on Display for First Time in 7 Years at New York Public Library. Fiona André reported on the short public display of an important 17th-century document that helped inspire the First Amendment.
Review: Latter-Day Saint Theology Among Christian Theologies. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Latter-Day Saint Theology Among Christian Theologies by Grant Underwood.
Catholic Bishops End Refugee Aid Partnerships With US Government, Citing Funding Cuts. Peter Smith reported on the “heartbreaking” decision announced by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In Win for Faith Groups, Federal Judge Rules Trump Must Begin Admitting Some Refugees. Jack Jenkins reported on a win by three religious groups — HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Community Services Northwest — who sued the Trump Administration.
Pennsylvania Faith Groups Build Altar at ICE Office in Protest of Immigration Arrests. Reina Coulibaly reported on a creative protest by Jewish, Mennonite, Catholic, Baptist, and Unitarian clergy.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
While in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, I joined Andrew Seidel (vice president of strategic communications at Americans United for Separation of Church and State) to head over to Capitol Hill and give a presentation to the Congressional Freethought Caucus. We went to help congressional members and staffers devise ways to respond to false historical claims about America’s founders by Christian Nationalist figures like David Barton and Speaker Mike Johnson. I presented on Johnson reading a prayer in the House chamber earlier this year that he falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
The CFC, which includes more than two dozen congressmembers, was founded in 2018 and has been led by Rep. Jared Huffman of California and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Huffman is the only member of Congress who calls himself a humanist, while Raskin is Jewish and the CFC also includes members who identify as Christian, Muslim, and with other faith traditions. The CFC describes itself as a group of congressional members who “advocate for true religious freedom, church-state separation, and for public policies based on facts, science, and reason.” Last year, the CFC released a report warning about Johnson’s Christian Nationalism (that included cites to pieces from A Public Witness).
The conversation with the CFC was a delightful contrast to some recent interactions I’ve had with Missouri lawmakers about church-state separation issues. Here were members of Congress who appreciate the importance of church-state separation and who are earnestly trying to learn about Christian Nationalism and how to counter it. They were engaged and asked interesting questions on issues of public policy, history, and theology. There are a lot of congressional members pushing Christian Nationalism, but there are also some who want to be part of the solution.
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Other News of Note
President Donald Trump announced he’s nominating former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (also a former Southern Baptist pastor) to serve as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Walker previously attacked A Public Witness for reporting on his partisan politicking during church services.
The U.S. Senate confirmed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (also a former Southern Baptist pastor) as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
Heidi Schlumpf of the National Catholic Reporter profiled Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, an undiplomatic critic of Pope Francis.
Julia Carrie Wong of the London Guardian wrote about how Elon Musk and some Christian preachers are “waging war on empathy.”
Kiera Butler wrote for Mother Jones about “Christian Theobros” trying to build a utopia in Appalachia.
Bills mandating the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools moved in multiple states this week, including:
House and Senate committees in Alabama backed bills.
Lawmakers in Arkansas passed a bill, sending it to the governor’s desk for approval despite opposition from clergy.
“To advocate for the presence of the commandments among children while supporting political agendas that stand in opposition to the commands themselves is precisely what it means to ‘take God’s name in vain,’ a textbook violation of the third commandment.” —Rev. Preston Clegg, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, explaining in a Baptist News Global column why he opposes legislation mandating the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
The U.S. Naval Academy’s library purged nearly 400 books, including Maya Angelou’s autobiography, a book about the Holocaust, and books by Christian authors like Anthea Butler, Robert P. Jones, and Jim Willis about addressing racism in Christianity.
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote about Palestinian Christians who feel betrayed by American Christians.
Christianity Today reported on the divided evangelical responses in South Korea to the ouster of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Gail Cornwall wrote in The Atlantic about how the Quaker parenting approach of her parents lines up well with modern parenting research.
Photo of the Week
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