Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we published an update on legal arguments over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spying on churches and a report from a European Baptist Federation conference in Albania.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Review: Live Each Season As It Passes. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Live Each Season As It Passes: Re-earthing Spiritual Practice by Daniel Cooperrider.
Barred From the U.S., a Pastor Leads his Wisconsin Church From Guatemala. Aleja Hertzler-McCain and Fiona Murphy reported on a Church of God pastor ministering remotely due to immigration issues.
Pope Leo Warns: Invoking God to Justify War Is to ‘Profane’ His Name. The pope has a word for leaders like Pete Hegseth.
Bishop Mariann Budde to Resign, Will Remain in Post During Lengthy Replacement Process. Jack Jenkins reported on the latest from the bishop who made news for challenging President Donald Trump during an inaguration event.
Donor Revives Fraud Claims Against Christian Worship Leader Sean Feucht Over a $250,000 Donation. The Christian Nationalist musician is accused of deceiving a donor.
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 a botched execution in Tennessee, religious issues in political campaigns, and Pete Hegseth's misuse of the Bible. And Beau shows off his White Sox papal hat! 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
Another week brings another heretical speech by Pete Hegseth.
The man who likes to call himself “secretary of war” is waging a battle against biblical interpretation. In a highly partisan speech to members of the military on Wednesday (Sept. 30), Hegseth invoked several Bible verses out of context to justify his Christian Nationalism.
Since May, he has repeatedly misused Isaiah 6:8. He once again conscripted that verse to morph the call of a prophet into a military recruitment meme. Hegseth also misused several other verses as he announced the creation of a so-called “Office of Religious Affairs.” Although the devil is still in the details, it sounds like an effort to proselytize in the military. He invoked Psalm 33, Ephesians 6, and Psalm 118 to justify his effort to unconstitutionally push his sectarian faith.
And to be clear, he is doing violence to Scripture to justify doing violence to people (in ways I unpacked in my book, The Bible According to Christian Nationalists). The “armor of God,” for instance, is not about strengthening an imperial military force. And it’s heretical for him to steal the words of a psalmist and declare, “The Lord is on my side,” while bombing a girls’ elementary school.
Pope Leo XIV was right when he explained this week, “To invoke God’s name in order to justify violence or oppression is to profane that name. Nothing that disfigures human dignity can claim to be inspired by God.”
Other News of Note
Lewis Brogdon wrote at Baptist News Global about an event with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear at a prominent Black Baptist church in West Louisville.
Another county in Texas voted to install a large
idolmonument with a highly edited version of the Ten Commandments at its courthouse.Hundreds of people attended a rally in a United Methodist church in Iowa to demand the release of a U.S. legal resident being prepped for deportation to an African nation she’s never visited.
Heidi Schlumpf of Commonweal wrote about the importance of Catholic voters in the upcoming midterm elections.
“A voter backlash against Christian Nationalism, combined with Democrats’ embrace of an alternative vision of Christian politics, could help tip the scales toward the Democrats and contribute to a broader transformation of the nationwide political landscape.” —Melissa Deckman and Ruth Braunstein in a Newsweek column.
Hunter Williamson of Christianity Today reported on the arrest of a Kurdish pastor in Syria.
Bobby Ross Jr. of The Christian Chronicle reported on a church in Dearborn, Michigan, that’s trying to love their Muslim neighbors as Islamophobic activists target the city.
Dan Simmons of The Washington Post reported on a Lutheran church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, trying to address the loneliness epidemic by turning a chapel into a taphouse.
John Blake of CNN reported on the coming “tsunami” of church closures in the United States.
The Chicago White Sox received a supportive letter from fan Pope Leo XIV just before the team’s first playoff game. The White Sox won.
Presbyterian News Service profiled the Washington, D.C., Presbyterian pastor who won an episode of Jeopardy! this week.
Photo of the Week
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