Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we published a review of a book by a disabled scholar-practitioner and the only report published anywhere covering the latest Pentagon worship service.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
What’s in Ten Thousand Names? 250 Years of the Faithful Fight Against Religious Establishment. Nathan L. Taylor reflected on the 1776 Dissenters’ Petition of Ten Thousand Names and connects it to our religious freedom today.
Finding the Love in God’s Apocalyptic Plan. Michael Mellette wrote about the prophet Jonah as a path to bypassing the apocalypse by becoming worthy of God’s love and presence.
Review: Vulnerable God. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions About God — and Shows Us How to Be Human by Kenneth Tanner.
Taxpayers Are Funding Private School Tuition. It’s Helping Classical Christian Schools Expand. Tiffany Stanley reported on how state programs using public money for private schools are helping fund those connected to Doug Wilson and other Christian Nationalists.
Faith Leaders Unite Across Religions to Counter Voter Intimidation on Election Day. Deepa Bharath reported on clergy who are preparing to serve as “poll chaplains” on election day.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
On Tuesday (Oct. 20), a federal appeals court handed a victory to more than two dozen religious denominational bodies seeking to block the Department of Homeland Security from conducting warrantless immigration enforcement actions at houses of worship. As a quick reminder, there are three major lawsuits seeking to block DHS enforcement actions at houses of worship — and two have already resulted in federal injunctions.
In the first successful case, a judge last year granted an injunction to protect congregations affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and several regional Quaker groups in addition to a Sikh Temple in California. Earlier this year, a different federal judge granted an injunction to similarly protect congregations in the American Baptist Churches USA, Alliance of Baptists, Metropolitan Community Churches, and several regional synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. That judge is now considering whether to hold DHS in contempt for repeatedly spying at a Baptist church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, covered by the injunction.
The other case initially saw a different result as the district court judge ruled against the plaintiffs. Now that the appeals court overturned it and argued the plaintiffs have proven standing and harm from the Trump administration's policies, it seems likely the judge will grant an injunction. Among the plaintiffs in the case are mainline Protestant groups like the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, Episcopal Church, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Mennonite Church USA, and some regional United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church bodies. Additional plaintiffs include a Hispanic Baptist convention in Texas, multiple Jewish groups, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the state council of churches for Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
“The D.C. Circuit’s decision recognizes the real harm that DHS inflicted on religious communities when it rescinded the sensitive locations policy that had protected places of worship from immigration enforcement activity for over three decades,” Kelsi Brown Corkran, lead counsel for the religious groups and an attorney at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, told Newsweek. “It is an important victory for the millions of people of faith represented by the 27 Jewish and Christian denominations and organizations that came together to file this suit in defense of their right to worship and serve their communities without fear of intrusion by ICE officers.”
The religious resistance to DHS continues to bring victories.
Survey Says…
Other News of Note
After Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed offered a viral answer about religion in response to a questioner at a campaign event in Michigan, journalist Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket reported on the Christian Nationalist connections to Josh Hawley, Sean Feucht, and more of the person who challenged El-Sayed.
David Gibson wrote for The Verge about the “dizzying religious and sociocultural philosophy” of Peter Thiel after obtaining recordings of his lectures about “the antichrist.”
Mark Wingfield wrote for Baptist News Global about some new controversies involving churches serving as polling locations as pastors run for office or engage in partisan politicking.
Episcopal Bishop Mark Edington of the American Cathedral in Paris criticized "how little the vice president knows about France" in Sunday's service after J.D. Vance blamed immigration for unrest in France. Edington also defended concerns of students protesting and criticized "idolatry" of AI companies.
“This is not the first time Christians have had to learn how to be faithful without being in control. Our tradition was born among people who lived under an authority that used brutal force as a public spectacle. Their answer was not to return the brutality or find someone more vulnerable to make afraid. It was to become more deeply bound to one another.” —Colin Martinez Longmore, in a Sojourners column about ICE’s electric-shock gloves
Harriet Riley reported for The Presbyterian Outlook on the impact on a North Carolina church when its ruling elder was deported.
An Anglican priest who became reliant on a wheelchair due to health issues that developed during 13 months in an immigration detention center was ordered to be released by a judge but had to be carried out since ICE took away his wheelchair.
Rishabh Jain wrote for Religion Unplugged about how Christians in Japan are wrestling with a rise of nationalism in the country’s politics.
Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas is now requiring faculty to sign a statement on “sexuality, gender, and marriage,” which is sparking resignations and criticism.
Ruth Graham of The New York Times reported on the turmoil and changes at Christianity Today as the publication has lost about half of its staff.
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