Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we published a look at the religious implications of rhetoric about ICE leading up to the midterm elections and an analysis of a big religious story from the election results.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Review: Go and Do Likewise. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country by Andy Beshear.
Clergy Candidates’ Message of ‘Love Your Neighbor’ Powers Democrats’ Midterm Election Gains. The Associated Press looked at the midterms, with quotes from Adam Hamilton, LaKesha Womack, Brian Kaylor, and others.
Satanic Temple Wins Right to Stage Holiday Event in Iowa Capitol’s Rotunda. After years of state officials denying access to the Iowa Capitol following a controversial display, the Satanic Temple found salvation in court.
Episcopal Bishops Curry and Rowe Hold Funeral Service for Enslaved Africans’ Reinterment. Fiona André reported on a service to honor human remains excavated from a colonial-era cemetery in a 1993 archaeological search but not returned.
Bob Dylan Comes Knockin’ on Pope’s Door As Leo Welcomes Legend to Vatican. The man who dreamed he saw St. Augustine visited a self-described “son of St. Augustine.”
Dangerous Dogma
This week’s episode features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor, Lutheran minister and journalist Angela Denker, and Disciples pastor and author Beau Underwood. The conversation includes discussion about the results of the 2026 midterms and the role religion played in various campaigns. Listen to the audio version here (or wherever you listen to podcasts) or watch the video version here.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
Tuesday night’s election results, which are still trickling in for some tight races, brought so many changes that it remains easy to overlook some important shifts. Like with the attorney general’s race in Texas. The sudden blue hue for the Lone Star State received a lot of attention. While most of that rightly focused on big contests like the U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s race, the state attorney general’s result will also bring big changes.
When Ken Paxton leaves the office to spend more time with his mistress after losing the Senate election to James Talarico, he’ll be replaced by Democrat Nathan Johnson. On Tuesday, Johnson defeated Republican state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a leading Christian Nationalist figure in the Texas legislature. Middleton sponsored a bill pushing prayer time in public schools and backed one requiring public schools to post a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments. Middleton’s loss means he won’t replace Paxton in defending the so-called “Ten Commandments” law.
Many legal experts expect the U.S. Supreme Court to decide soon — perhaps next month — on whether or not to hear the issue. They will probably agree to hear the case, especially since an appeals court ruling in favor of the law contradicts an existing Supreme Court precedent. Most likely, it’s the Texas law that will be accepted, though a similar Louisiana case might be combined with it.
But here’s where the election results get interesting. Before the justices on the high court hear the case next year, Johnson will be the new Texas attorney general. And he told NBC News this week that he plans to change the state’s position in the case and no longer defend the law mandating the rewritten, gerrymandered version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
There’s precedent for this kind of switch by a state, including on church-state issues. The Trinity Lutheran case in Missouri had a wild ride as it started with Missouri defending church-state separation. But after the high court agreed in January 2016 to hear the case, Justice Antonin Scalia died. Senate Republicans refused to even consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, thus leaving the court with just eight justices for a record 422 days. Perhaps concerned about the potential of a 4-4 ruling, oral arguments in the Trinity Lutheran case (and in some other significant cases) were delayed to the next term. In the meantime, Republicans flipped both the governor and attorney general positions in the Show-Me State. The new Republican leadership switched the state’s position just six days before oral arguments. In an odd ruling, the justices ended up ruling against the state law that the state no longer defended.
Elections have consequences. And for Christian Nationalism, this year’s midterms could bring quite a few setbacks.
Other News of Note
Robert Downen of Texas Monthly wrote about how “the Christian Nationalist agenda is dead” in Texas following Tuesday’s elections that swept several leading Christian Nationalist politicians out of office.
With increasing scrutiny of Pete Hegseth ahead of a possible impeachment vote next week, some former Pentagon officials are specifically criticizing his monthly worship services. One former official who spoke with The Intercept mentioned Hegseth’s violent prayer at the March service (which was first reported by A Public Witness) and called Hegseth’s violent theology an “abomination” and “an affront to the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
Jonathan Larsen reported on a congressional effort to launch a new version of the “National Prayer Breakfast.” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is partnering with Republican Sen. Katie Britt to lead the “United States Prayer Breakfast” in the Capitol next February. As documented in Baptizing America, the National Prayer Breakfast has been a Christian Nationalist endeavor since its inception.
For a second time, a member of the Satanic Temple led a prayer at the start of a city council meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, sparking controversy and outcry during the meeting. Although some Christian Nationalists are protesting, the prayers occurred because of a new prayer policy enacted by Christian Nationalists.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments in a case where Catholic preschools in Colorado claim they should receive state funds without being required to follow the nondiscrimination rules that other schools must adhere to before receiving funding.
“The gospel is not served by untruths, and Haitians have suffered enough from rumors.” —Andy Olsen in a Christianity Today piece about false statements about Haiti made by U.S. Christians for decades.
An ICE agent was indicted in Texas after hitting a man with his car. The agent, Mario Alberto Morales, joined ICE last year during a hiring surge and is also a pastor at a charismatic church.
Beatriz Limón of Arizona Luminaria reported on how Mennonite, Presbyterian, United Methodist, and other churches are becoming places of refuge for migrants.
Outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted the sentences of all 548 people on state death row, changing the death sentences to life in prison without parole. The move, which removed about a quarter of all death row sentences in the United States, came on the same day that Alabama, Florida, and Indiana all executed someone.
Ruth Graham of The New York Times reported that former President George W. Bush is siding with his longtime Methodist pastor and church in seeking to leave the United Methodist Church.
Photo of the Week
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