Weekly Roundup: Feb. 28

Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week, we published a piece on Trump’s inaccurate criticism of Ukraine, an update on a legal effort against a new Trump policy, a look at a problematic use of the Bible during a legislative debate in Oklahoma, and a review of a new book about practical ways to live out the call to love our neighbors.

Russia, Ukraine, & the Truth

Judge Freezes ICE Raids at Quaker & Cooperative Baptist Churches

State Senator Spanks Proverbs

Review & Giveaway: To Love Our Neighbors

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. An Interfaith Response to Trump’s Attacks on Religious Communities. Jeremy Fuzy reported on a briefing from Interfaith Alliance featuring Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rev. Adam Nicholas Phillips, and Rev. Jennifer Butler.

2. Review: Bring Back Your People. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Bring Back Your People: Ten Ways Regular Folks Can Put a Dent in White Christian Nationalism by Aaron Scott.

3. The US Christian Population Has Declined for Years. A New Survey Shows That Drop Leveling Off. Tiffany Stanley reported on new Pew Research Center data showing that the rise of the “nones” has plateaued.

4. Educators, Clergy Object to Lack of Training Requirements in School Chaplain Bill. The faith-based opposition to “chaplains” in public schools continued this week with legislative testimony in Iowa. (Earlier this month, Brian Kaylor testified against a similar bill in Missouri.)

5. Boycotts Accompany Prayer As Faith Leaders Prepare for a Lent of Protest. Adelle M. Banks wrote about Lenten efforts seeking to move the season out of church sanctuaries.

by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

Amid growing disagreement with some Trump administration moves — and especially the gutting of life-saving programs by Elon Musk’s DOGE — some Republican members of Congress have started receiving vocal complaints at public events back in their districts. Even in small, conservative communities like Belton, Missouri, which is in a county where Donald Trump nearly doubled Kamala Harris’s votes with 65%-33% support.

However, U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, who won both of his elections with more than 70% of the vote, faced an angry, vocal townhall crowd on Monday (Feb. 24). As Alford stood in a local coffee shop and tried to defend massive layoffs of federal employees, he decided to try a theological argument.

“So I would encourage anyone who finds themselves in this situation to realize that we are going to get this economy turning again. There are jobs available. God has a plan and purpose for your life,” said Alford, who is a member of an Assemblies of God megachurch in Kansas City.

That comment didn’t go over well with the crowd as the shouts grew to include complaints about “your God.” Invoking a trite platitude was an effort by the congressman to shield himself from criticism by hiding behind God. But instead, he dragged down the witness of God. And with his comment, he suggested it was God’s will — and not the fault of the world’s wealthiest man — that people were losing their jobs. But as Jesus taught us, we cannot serve both God and Mammon. Alford has shown us where his allegiance lies.

Other News of Note

• Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood appeared on The Great Collide podcast to talk about Baptizing America, mainline Protestants, and Christian Nationalism.

• Sarah Stankorb wrote for The New Republic about a Christian Nationalistic effort to disenfranchise women voters.

• The New York Times interviewed a woman who fled Iran because she converted to Christianity but who is now targeted for deportation by the Trump administration.

• Rachel Leingang and Alice Herman of the London Guardian reported on Christian Nationalism in Oklahoma as a “testing ground for Project 2025.”

“As you see the news of people losing their jobs, don’t think of the sloths in Zootopia. Think of your Sunday School teachers, the men in the Baptist Brotherhood, the women in [Women’s Missionary Union], the deacons, the choir members, and the neighbors around you.” —Chris Davis, a pastor at Groveton Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, about DOGE layoffs of government employees impacting people in the congregation and community.

• Starlette Thomas of Good Faith Media reported from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.

• Bill Tammeus wrote for Flatland about how the National Catholic Reporter newspaper has been impacted by being based in Kansas City, Missouri.

• Clark Gilpin reflected at The Christian Century about Martin Marty, who died this week at the age of 97.

Photo of the Week

A woman attends an interfaith prayer service at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London to mark the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2025. (Kin Cheung/Associated Press)

Thanks for reading!