Weekly Roundup: May 29
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to a review of a new book on religion in American history that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a look at how the Department of Homeland Security has been misusing the Bible recently.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Theo vs. the TheoBros. Sarah Blackwell reflected on her new Theo(logy) of noticing found in Allen Levi’s book Theo of Golden.
In Our Image. Kristel Clayville wrote about what the Christian tradition has to offer when it comes to thinking about AI.
In His First Encyclical, Pope Leo XIV Says AI Must Serve Humanity, Not the Powerful Few. In Magnifica Humanitas, Leo's 83-page manifesto on AI, the pope tackles the social, economic, and political challenges associated with artificial intelligence.
Review: Better Than Normal. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Better Than Normal: Virtues for an Off-Script Life by MaryAnn McKibben Dana.
These Houses of Worship Are Older Than America. How They Outlasted Wars, Schisms, and Lawsuits. Adelle M. Banks wrote about historic Baptist, Episcopal, and Jewish congregations that predate the United States.
by Jeremy Fuzy, Word&Way Digital Editor
This week, something remarkable happened in the world of religion and politics: the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy that reshaped early 20th-century Protestantism fully reared its head again. This time, with two Lone Star State politicians serving as its figureheads.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday (May 26) for the Republican Senate nomination. Paxton, a Southern Baptist who is backed by President Donald Trump’s endorsement, has endured numerous controversies, from accusations of marital infidelity that caused his wife to file for divorce citing “biblical grounds,” to criminal charges that led his own party to impeach him.
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in November. Talarico is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminarian who is most widely known for being the guest on the defunct Late Show with Stephen Colbert whose interview Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr intimidated CBS into posting only on YouTube instead of airing over broadcast. Talarico used this moment in the national spotlight to denounce Christian Nationalism.
So now, the conflicts regularly simmering below the surface between the more fundamentalist wing of conservative evangelicals and the modernist strand of mainline Protestants seem like they will routinely bubble over into the news cycle throughout the election.
Perhaps theologian Diana Butler Bass put it best when she wrote on Bluesky: “Talarico v. Paxton is going to be a straight up religious argument between Christianity as a religion of love for neighbor and Christian authoritarianism. There’s not been a public theological contest like this since the Scopes Monkey trail.” What a time to be alive.
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Other News of Note
Sydney Byerly of The Indiana Citizen reported on some rightwing Christians in the Hoosier State claiming “anti-Christian” discrimination to justify (and quotes Beau Underwood to refute the claims).
Local officials in Texas installed
graven imagesmonuments of the “Ten Commandments” on the grounds of the Rockwall County Courthouse and the Amarillo City Hall. Both monuments use a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments that’s not found in any Bible.Bob Smietana reported for NPR about how the worship song “How Great Is Our God” has become popular at political rallies (including at Pentagon worship services).
Sandi Villarreal of Texas Monthly wrote about the Republicans attacking Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico for calling God “non-binary” even though many theologians would agree.
A Kansas state senator seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate is claiming his primary opponent Rev. Adam Hamilton covered up sexual abuse at the Church of the Resurrection. But The Kansas City Star examined court records and found the attack on Hamilton and the church to be inaccurate.
“We need hymns that refuse to baptize national arrogance. We need hymns that expose the idols of violence, greed, fear, and scarcity. We need hymns that widen our vision beyond tribe and border.” —Rev. Stephen M. Fearing, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor and hymnwriter, during a webinar on “Hymns That Resist Christian Nationalism.”
Union University, a Southern Baptist school in Tennessee, is partnering with the rightwing legal group Alliance Defending Freedom to try to start a sectarian public charter school. This follows other efforts, thus far unsuccessful, to create sectarian public charter schools.
Anna Claire Vollers of Stateline reported on the trend of megachurches starting their own colleges, often without traditional accreditation.
After the University of Missouri cut designated funding for a historic Black student group, a prominent Black Baptist church in Virginia announced it would provide the funding for the student organization.
Anthea Butler wrote for MSNBC about Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI and the importance of him using the text to apologize for the Catholic Church’s participation in slavery.
UM News reported on how United Methodists in the Democratic Republic of Congo are responding to an Ebola outbreak.
Angela Youngman wrote for Religion Unplugged about cathedrals in the United Kingdom trying to cash in on the craft beer craze.
Photo of the Week
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