Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we published a look on how churches responded to learning that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spied on them and a report on the latest worship service at the Pentagon (which featured a sermon by Mark Dever).
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
A Guide to Understanding the Biblical Showdown in Texas. Rodney Kennedy wrote about religious issues and character matters in the U.S. Senate race in Texas between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
Supreme Court Asked to Review Texas Law Requiring the ‘Ten Commandments’ in Public Schools. The nation’s highest court may decide to hear what could be a significant church-state case.
US Military Base Schools Put New Emphasis on Western Civilization and Christianity. Yet another way Pete Hegseth is pushing Christianity is in curriculum for schools on military bases.
Review: The Strain of Other Blood. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Strain of Other Blood: The Life of the Reverend Mother Ruth from Harlem by Patricia Allen.
If Jesus Showed Up Today, Would he Play Guitar? Bob Smietana wrote about how worship has evolved to prioritize music.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday (Aug. 20), multiple denominational groups officially alerted a federal judge that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had spied on a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, despite that judge issuing a federal injunction blocking warrantless DHS enforcement actions on that church’s property. The faith groups also asked the judge to consider holding DHS in contempt of court.
The filing was sparked by the news last week that DHS had spied on multiple churches in the Twin Cities and one in Michigan. As first reported by A Public Witness, one of those churches was covered by a federal injunction. That revelation quickly showed up in filings in the Minnesota case where several liberal activists face charges for anti-ICE efforts.
Now, the news of DHS’s actions in Minnesota has also sparked a legal filing in the original case where the judge granted an injunction protecting congregations in the American Baptist Churches USA, Alliance of Baptists, Metropolitan Community Churches and several regional synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (A similar injunction that protects churches in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and several regional Quaker groups in addition to a Sikh Temple in California was upheld this week by a federal appeals court.)
“Given the blatant and repeated nature of Defendants’ violations, the harm to fundamental rights of religion and expressive association, and the threat of future similar violations, Plaintiffs also respectfully request the Court’s expedited consideration of this motion,” Thursday’s filing by the denominational groups reads.
Sadly, it’s not a surprise that DHS would violate the injunction. They’ve ignored dozens of court orders and rulings. But we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to it. Faith groups should continue to work to hold DHS accountable and to protect the sanctity of houses of worship.
Other News of Note
Matthew Kelly of The Kansas City Star reported on a Republican super PAC attack ad that deceptively edited clips from sermons by Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist minister who is now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas.
The New York Times explored the rise of Islamophobia in Texas.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld a ruling blocking the installation of two large statues of Catholic saints at the entrance of a public building in Quincy.
The Satanic Temple and the ACLU of Iowa are suing the Hawkeye State for repeatedly refusing to allow The Satanic Temple to hold events or put up displays inside the state Capitol building even though other religious groups are allowed to.
After a public library in St. Charles, Missouri, banned LGBTQ items, a local resident protested by requesting they ban the King James Version of the Bible because of its violent content. The library trustees rejected the challenge.
An employee of a biotech firm is suing his company because they denied his request for a retirement investment plan that did not include fossil fuels. He’s claiming that as a United Methodist they are not sufficiently accommodating his religious beliefs, which includes caring for creation.
“I would not send my child to church to learn algebra; and I don’t send my child to public school to learn a government-mandated version of the Ten Commandments.” —Rev. Mara Richard Bim, a Baptist pastor who is one of the plaintiffs suing Texas over its law requiring the posting of a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools, in a Baptist News Global column about why she is part of the lawsuit.
As ICE ramps up its efforts to deport Haitians living in the United States after the Trump administration removed legal protections, a pastor in Springfield, Ohio, has been detained for possible deportation. Several other pastors and church leaders have been deported by the Trump administration.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on how William Jewell College, a Baptist school in Missouri, turned around its financial and enrollment decline even while many small liberal arts colleges have closed.
Hannah Herrera wrote for Christianity Today about how churches in Colombia responded to the recent earthquake.
Photo of the Week
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