Weekly Roundup: May 2
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to a look at a Supreme Court case out of Oklahoma that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a report on the revisionist Christian Nationalist history of an 18th-century Bible.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Review: Braving Difficult Decisions. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Braving Difficult Decisions: What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do by Angela Williams Gorrell.
Rev. William Barber Arrested in Capitol Rotunda After Praying Against Republican-Led Budget. Jack Jenkins reported on the unusual actions by Capitol police ahead of the arrest of clergy praying in the Rotunda.
Trump Cuts to Humanities Grants Undermine a Stated Priority: Restoring Religion. Yonat Shimron reported on how the elimination of federal grants is impacting efforts to document religious texts and figures.
White Evangelicals Remain Trump’s Staunchest Supporters, Pew Study Finds. New polling shows most Christians disapprove of Trump’s presidency, but his core religious base remains supportive.
SBC Membership Drops to Its Lowest Number in 50 Years. But Baptisms Are on the Rise. Bob Smietana reported on the 18th consecutive year of decline for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
An episode of the Jeopardy! Masters show this week featured a seminary. But I would quibble with the answer.
“Scripture is the sole authority for faith and practice if you study at SBTS, this theological seminary in Louisville,” host Ken Jennings said as he read the answer.
The winning question, which gained a contestant $1,200 on her board, was: “What is Southern Baptist Theological Seminary?” And while that makes sense for the last half of the answer — a seminary in Louisville with the initials SBTS — it doesn’t really fit the first half. Scripture is the sole authority for faith and practice at SBTS? Really, Ken?
SBTS was founded by enslavers and Confederates who taught White supremacy and yearned for the “lost cause” long after the Civil War. Yet, despite that, SBTS President Al Mohler insists the school should honor those enslavers and Confederates. Even worse, he still defends them for “their courageous affirmation of biblical orthodoxy.” If you’re praising enslavers as biblically orthodox, then Scripture is not your sole authority for faith and practice.
Mohler also demonstrates personally how the school reflects culture more than the other way around. He went from “Never Trump” in 2016 to endorsing Trump in 2020 to defending Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, to saying he was done with Trump in 2023 to again endorsing Trump in 2024. Now, in 2025, he’s even trying to downplay his past comments and record of flip-flopping. Being “tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine” is not a reflection of Scripture as your sole authority for faith and practice. I might just be a “liberal nitwit” to Mohler, but Jennings should stick to the trivia and leave the theological assessments to others.
Other News of Note
Brian Kaylor wrote for the Missouri Independent about why state lawmakers should reject a bill pushing “chaplains” in public schools.
Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global reported on Brian Kaylor and other ministers in Missouri advocating against a bill to mandate the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is suing to block the Des Moines Register from obtaining emails from her staff about her failure earlier this year to defend Iowa Lutherans from attacks by Elon Musk and other Trumpian figures.
Axios reported on Christian leaders criticizing the White House task force that’s supposed to be eliminating “anti-Christian bias.” The leaders of the Congressional Freethought Caucus also attacked the new task force.
Senate Republicans added a religious exemption to the Antisemitism Awareness Act, apparently to placate those who have falsely claimed the legislation would criminalize the Bible.
“History shows us there is a lot of danger when we let the state control or decide religious teachings, because once the government starts dictating something like the true text of the Ten Commandments, what is to stop them from dictating the true meaning of the gospel or the true meaning of the sacraments?” —Texas state Rep. James Talarico while speaking against a bill to mandate the posting of an edited version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
Cynthia B. Astle of United Methodist Insight wrote about how United Methodist colleges and universities are pushing back against the Trump administration.
A historic Black church in Memphis, Tennessee, suffered significant fire damage this week. The Clayborn Temple served as the organizing center for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final campaign before his assassination in Memphis.
Obit: Samuel Escobar, a Peruvian theologian who argued that evangelism and social justice are inseparable.
Watch: In between clips from a recent Oklahoma House debate, Brian Kaylor unpacked problems with a state resolution declaring that “Christ is King.”
Photo of the Week
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