Weekly Roundup: July 25
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to a report on a Christian gathering in Australia that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a look at Stephen Colbert’s prophetic critiques and Christian faith.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
The Angels Are Playing Armstrong. Sarah Blackwell reflected on the connections between jazz, supporting young people, church life, and the kingdom of God.
Review: Christology in Early Christianity. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Christology in Early Christianity: Collected Essays by Brian E. Daley.
Progressive National Baptists Pan ‘Big Ugly Bill,’ Strategize to Help Communities. Adelle M. Banks reported on the annual meeting of the group that was the denominational home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Churches, Seminaries Among US Cultural Sites Awarded Funds to Preserve Black History. Fiona André reported on grants designed to preserve three faith-based buildings in addition to 21 other historical sites.
Brazil’s Environment Minister Fights Fellow Evangelicals on Amazon Protection. Helen Teixeira reported on a Pentecostal Christian who is also a longtime environmentalist trying to save the Amazon.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
Each day, thousands of children die from starvation and other hunger-related causes. More will die from the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign-aid programs, largely enacted because of the world’s wealthiest man (who has received billions in government handouts). And even as children die, the Trump administration is now set to turn life-saving food into ash.
Because of the dismantling of U.S. foreign-aid programs, nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food is going to waste. The high-energy biscuits, stored in Dubai, are enough to feed 1.5 million children for a week and were produced by the Biden administration to help children in Afghanistan and Pakistan this year. But Trump’s actions stopped distribution. So the administration will spend taxpayer money to instead burn the food.
This isn’t about saving money. It will cost an estimated $130,000 to burn the $800,000 worth of biscuits. We could’ve spent the money to distribute the aid but will instead burn the food. There’s no defense for such an action.
It’s bad enough for our government to cut programs and decide to do nothing while children starve. It’s worse for our government to support the genocidal starvation of people in Gaza. But the move to spend money just to burn food while children die is an even greater level of evil. Hell on earth is fueled by devilish plans to burn food.
Other News of Note
Publishers Weekly highlighted Brian Kaylor’s forthcoming book The Bible According to Christian Nationalists.
Mark Keierleber of The 74 reported on how pseudo-historian David Barton has been pushing bills across the country to mandate the posting of a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Daniel Walters of InvestigateWest reported on a group trying to make Idaho a “Christian” state and require Bible reading in public schools.
An influential Religious Right group in Texas has dropped its endorsement of Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate after his wife filed for divorce because of his adultery.
Christian Nationalist musician Sean Feucht has had several Canadian cities cancel permits for performances over concerns about safety. Feucht claims he’s being persecuted, though he’s controversially included a militia member charged in the U.S. Capitol insurrection as part of his armed security team.
Trumpian pundit Charlie Kirk thinks that the way to stop “radical feminism” is for more women to be like Mary, the mother of Jesus. Has he read Luke 1?
“There are Christians who are preaching and practicing the ministry of Jesus, the son of God, who himself was unhoused and undocumented and sided with the poor, the sick, the indebted, the incarcerated and the immigrant, while decrying the idolatry of tyrants. And then there are Christian Nationalists, whose religion of empire is more akin to the worship of Caesar than the Jesus of the scriptures.” —Rev. Liz Theoharis in a Salon piece about a Lutheran church in Pennsylvania pushing back against Christian Nationalist misuse of the Bible.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, wants a federal investigation into Belmont University, a Christian school, for what he called “injecting anti-gospel DEI ideology into its curriculum.”
KCUR reported on the harassment of school board members in St. Joseph, Missouri, by a group pushing “Christian education.”
A pastor in Easton, Maryland, with no criminal record is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A Catholic priest in Brazil has spent decades documenting slavery, abuse, and murder at a Volkswagen cattle ranch in the Amazon, pushing for the massive automaker to face justice.
Gordon Govier of Christianity Today reported on how the recent Israel-Iran war disrupted the main season for biblical archaeology.
Photo of the Week
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