Weekly Roundup: Dec. 19
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we published a review of a book about the religious and cultural power of Colorado Springs and we broke the news about what Franklin Graham and others said at the Pentagon’s “Christmas worship service.”
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Love in a Hopeless Place: An Advent Story. Juliet Vedral reflected on a personal story of a difficult pregnancy to ponder finding love in hopeless places this Advent.
Review: A Beautiful Year. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance by Diana Butler Bass.
Would Jesus Attend a Trump Rally? Rodney Kennedy wrote about how Jesus often appeared in places where he was unexpected, but would undoubtedly say some confrontational things to the crowd.
Why Do Some People Stay in Their Religion and Others Leave? A New Pew Report Has Some Clues. Bob Smietana wrote about new research exploring differences between Americans who keep their faith and those who don’t.
Faith-Based Entertainment Sees a Revival in Hollywood. Defining What It Is Can Be a Challenge. Krysta Fauria wrote about various faith-based films coming out and different approaches to dealing with religious topics.
Unsettling Advent
Our Advent series continued this week, with devotionals by Sophie Day, Jorge Bautista, Nori Ochi, Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood, J. David Maxson, Hannah Kardon, and Michael Woolf. The series will continue through Christmas Eve.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
Interfaith Alliance launched a new “Choose Love Not ICE” campaign. They urge people to affirm: “This holy season, ICE cruelty is threatening our religious calling to love our neighbors — in our houses of worship and in our communities. As faithful Americans, as an expression of our values, we demand that the federal government stop the attacks on our neighbors and we call on our political and religious leaders to stand in solidarity against their cruelty.”
To advance this message of love not ICE, Interfaith Alliance released a powerful ad that hauntingly contrasts ICE actions with a child singing “O Holy Night.” Give it a watch. As we read the Christmas stories in the Bible we hold in one hand, may we not ignore the news on our phone we hold in the other hand.
Other News of Note
Brian Kaylor appeared on The State of Belief podcast with host Paul Raushenbush to talk about prayer services at the Pentagon and The Bible According to Christian Nationalists.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down controversial new K-12 social studies standards for unlawfully promoting Christianity.
Zachary Schermele of USA Today reported that “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which is popular with Christian Nationalists and was carried by some in the Jan. 6 insurrection crowd, is on display in the office of a top official in the U.S. Department of Education.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the London Guardian reported on how the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom is expanding its work internally.
A Catholic bishop in Minnesota led a prayer service outside an ICE office in Minneapolis after a parent of a local Catholic school student was grabbed by ICE.
People gathered outside a Home Depot in Concord, California, to sing Christmas carols during a protest of ICE raids at Home Depot stores and elsewhere.
“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion. Believers must actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God.” —Pope Leo XIV in a message for the World Day of Peace.
Mark Wingfield of Baptist News Global wrote about revelations from court documents that Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham was privately advising a Southern Baptist professor accused of clergy sexual abuse while publicly criticizing his accuser.
Jayson Casper of Christianity Today wrote about an effort by Christians and Muslims in Lebanon to tell the contested history of the nation’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.
K. Wilson wrote for Current Affairs about visiting the Museum of the Bible and discovering it focuses more the Old Testament than Jesus.
Russell Contreras of Axios wrote about how some churches are using AI content for Christmas. We do not wish you AI merry Christmas.
Photo of the Week
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