Weekly Roundup: Feb. 20
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. Over the past week, we published a report on a significant legal ruling, broke the news about Doug Wilson preaching at the Pentagon, and analyzed problematic legislation on what to teach as history in public schools.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Interfaith America Engages the ‘Promise of Pluralism’ Ahead of Trump’s State of the Union. Jeremy Fuzy reported on a panel conversation on the current state of religion and democracy.
A Pacifist Response to the Minnesota Killings. Rodney Kennedy reflected on current events in light of various Bible verses.
Bay Area Pastor, Shot With a Pepper Round, Files $5M Claim Against Federal Government. Rev. Jorge Bautista, a United Church of Christ minister, is seeking to hold the government accountable for its violence.
Review: Dispatches From Mormon Zion. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Dispatches From Mormon Zion by Ryan W. Davis.
‘I Am Somebody!’: Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader Who Ran for Presidency, Dies at 84. Adelle M. Banks wrote about the passing of a Baptist preacher who impacted religious and political life.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
PRRI this week released the results of an important study looking at Christian Nationalism in the United States. Here are a few findings worth considering:
One-third of Americans qualify as Christian Nationalism Adherents (11%) or Sympathizers (21%).
White evangelical Protestants (67%) and Hispanic Protestants (54%) are the only major religious groups among whom a majority hold Christian Nationalist beliefs. Meanwhile, the Christian groups least likely to hold such beliefs are Hispanic Catholics (26%) and White mainline Protestants (35%).
A majority of Republicans qualify as either Christian Nationalism Adherents (21%) or Sympathizers (35%), compared with one-quarter of independents (7% Adherents and 18% Sympathizers) and less than one in five Democrats (5% Adherents and 12% Sympathizers).
Support for Christian Nationalism is positively associated with lower education levels and older age.
Another interesting aspect of PRRI’s study is they did not just look at the United States as a whole. They also analyzed adherence rates to the ideology by state. The states with the highest levels of support for Christian Nationalism are Arkansas (54%), Mississippi (52%), West Virginia (51%), Oklahoma (49%), Wyoming (46%), Louisiana (44%), and Missouri (44%). Meanwhile, the states with the lowest shares of Christian Nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers are California (22%), New Jersey (22%), New York (21%), Washington (18%), and Massachusetts (15%).
Better understanding Christian Nationalism and who is attracted to the ideology can help us create more effective responses, both civically and theologically.
Other News of Note
René Marsh and Steve Contorno of CNN wrote about ways that the Trump administration “has chipped away at the long-standing wall between church and state” (with quotes from Brian Kaylor).
In a viral interview that CBS refused to let Stephen Colbert air on The Late Show, Texas state Rep. James Talarico criticized Christian Nationalism and defended church-state separation.
A House subcommittee in Oklahoma passed a bill to mandate public schools create a time for prayer and the reading of religious texts.
The Tennessee House passed a bill to require public schools post a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments, and similar bills are advancing in states like Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. This kind of legislation has already passed in other states (but has been blocked so far by courts).
After years of efforts like “Project Blitz” creating model Christian Nationalist legislation for state lawmakers to copy and introduce, a new effort to counter that is urging state lawmakers to introduce a bill to protect the rights of school students against religious proselytization. The model bill is called “Keep Proselytizing Out of Public Schools Act” (or KPOP Act).
“It’s important for the church to be part of this place, out of respect for the dignity of those women and men.” —Catholic Cardinal Joseph Tobin, on why he started Ash Wednesday with a service for people held in an ICE detention facility in New Jersey.
Harriet Riley reported for The Presbyterian Outlook on how clergy in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are assisting migrants targeted by ICE.
Emily Belz reported for Christianity Today about churches in the Twin Cities in Minnesota helping refugees who are being targeted by ICE.
Freedom Watch Media created a 15-minute documentary featuring Rev. Michael Woolf, an American Baptist minister who has been protesting ICE in Illinois.
Providence Christian College, a Reformed liberal arts school in California, will close at the end of the academic year amid rising costs and declining enrollment.
A campus pastor at a Southern Baptist megachurch in Orlando, Florida, was put on leave and forced to apologize publicly after criticizing the senior pastors for agreeing to host an event for Turning Point USA (the MAGA political group founded by Charlie Kirk). Then, without explanation, the TPUSA event scheduled at the church was apparently canceled.
Photo of the Week
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