Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to an excerpt from a forthcoming book and a conversation about Christians challenging ICE that are free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a look at a Christian Nationalist argument for public executions.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
‘The Elephant in the Room’ Is a Rom-Com for Our Political Moment. Jeremy Fuzy reviewed a new film from Emmy-winning writer and director Erik Bork.
Attention, Preachers: Read More! Rodney Kennedy made the case that fiction — short stories and novels — serve as a bridge to great preaching.
Review: Torah Wrestling. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Torah Wrestling: Embracing the Marginalized in Jewish Sacred Scripture and Discovering Moral Wisdom for Today by Rabbi Roy Furman.
How a Former Schoolteacher Became the Next Lutheran Presiding Bishop. Bob Smietana interviewed Rev. Yehiel Curry, the next leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
For a Small Charlotte Church, Selling Some Land Has Meant Finding Its Soul. Yonat Shimron reported on a Presbyterian church in North Carolina that sold some of its land to a nonprofit developer to create affordable townhouses.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
On Sunday morning, while people gathered in churches to worship a Savior who was homeless, President Donald Trump got angry about seeing homeless people on the way to his golf course. So he ordered they be evicted or arrested, as if not having a home is a crime. The next day, he announced the federal government was taking over the D.C. police and he was deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation’s capital.
Trump claimed he was taking these extraordinary moves because of “out of control” crime. Yet, violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low and continuing to drop. And the president made false claims about D.C.’s crime rates. Amid the lies and militarization of civilian streets, clergy in D.C. are condemning the administration’s moves.
Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., wrote about being “unsettled” by Trump’s move in a piece for her church’s website that included an AI-generated video of Roman soldiers marching into D.C. She added, “Governance by intimidation rather than collaboration feels more like occupation than partnership. The peace of God does not ask us to be silent in the face of injustice or poor governance.”
Similarly, a joint statement from several D.C. faith leaders — including Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, United Methodist Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Bishop Leila Ortiz, and several rabbis — denounced the “inaccurate and dehumanizing” rhetoric from Trump. They added, “From the White House, the president sees a lawless wasteland. We beg to differ. We see fellow human beings — neighbors, workers, friends, and family — each made in the image of God. … Safety cannot be achieved through political theatre and military force.”
Other News of Note
Amid efforts by lawmakers to put “chaplains” in public schools, Wendy Cadge and Amy Lawton wrote for The Conversation about divergent understandings of who a chaplain is and what they do.
With a new school year starting soon, thousands of copies of a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments are already hanging in public school classrooms. However, a lawsuit challenging that action is scheduled for today. Similar litigation has blocked such displays in Louisiana and Arkansas. A Houston Chronicle article about the legal battle in Texas includes a comment from Brian Kaylor.
Tess Owen of Wired reported on how Christian Nationalist militias are using Instagram and apparel shops to recruit.
Amid recent attention to Christian Nationalist preacher Doug Wilson (and his ties to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth), podcaster Peter Bell and journalist Sarah Stankorb held an event challenging Wilson’s theology in Moscow, Idaho, where he is based.
Ben Makuch of the London Guardian reported on how Pete Hegseth’s embrace of Christian Nationalism is dividing the military.
Michelle Goldberg wrote for the New York Times about a former “tradwife” who is now speaking out about the abuse she suffered trying to live in that far-right patriarchal vision.
“Small Town, Not Small Minds.” —signs in Celina, Tennessee, as local residents push back against an effort by some Christian Nationalist podcasters to buy property and move en masse to the community.
Churches in Columbus, Indiana, are working to welcome and assist immigrants as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is making plans to use a nearby military base as a detention center.
Presbyterians in San Gabriel, California, returned ancestral land to a Native American tribal government to “stand in solidarity with the Tongva people in their journey of healing and sovereignty.”
The Independent spoke with a British Baptist pastor arrested during a peaceful protest against genocide in Gaza. She explained: “I believe Jesus actually meant what he said and he modeled non-violent resistance to oppressive power.”
Photo of the Week
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