Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. This week we broke the news about a partisan church rally in Kansas and examined dishonest church politicking in Missouri.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Missouri Baptists Vote to Close Baptist Homes, but Transparency Lacking About Financial Troubles. Brian Kaylor reported on the demise of a 113-year-old ministry.
The Trump Show’s Declining Ratings. Rodney Kennedy reflected on Augustine and the theater of MAGA rallies.
Review: Fish With Feet. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Fish With Feet: Human Evolution and the Image of God by Janet Kellogg Ray.
Catholic Bishops Accuse White House of Manipulation Over Prayer Video. Several Catholic bishops complained after the White House shared a video of them praying over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
UMC Bishop Removes Ministers From Dallas’ Highland Park; Church Says They Will Stay. Yonat Shimron reported on the continuing drama after members of one of the largest United Methodist congregations voted ot leave the denomination.
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
On Wednesday (Oct. 28), a Russian court sentenced a 74-year-old Baptist pastor, in absentia, to five years in a penal colony because he prayed for peace and against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rev. Yuri Sipko, a former vice president of the Baptist World Alliance and former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, was convicted for supposedly disseminating “fake news” about the Russian military.
“I have been given a prison term for just a few words: ‘The Russian army, with all its might, has descended upon Ukraine, destroying people, cities, and villages — subjecting residents to the fear of death and forcing millions of Ukrainians to seek refuge all over the world,’” Sipko said in response to the conviction. “Apparently, this is considered ‘fake news’! But just look! What is the Russian army doing today? How many people have lost their lives since then?”
Sipko was not present for his trial since he fled Russia in 2023 after learning he would soon be arrested. I interviewed him via Zoom a couple of weeks after he went into exile. I was inspired by his prophetic courage as he was willing to stand up and say what few Christians in Russia have been willing to.
“I don’t think about myself too much. I continue to remain in the state of grief over the events that Russia’s involved in,” Sipko told me in 2023. “Russia continues to wage this war. There are still rockets that are being fired at Ukraine, at the Ukrainian people. … The evil continues to do evil.”
“I followed the word of God: ‘blessed are the peacemakers,’” he added. “My words of encouragement, my wishes are that Christians continue to look at Christ and listen to the word of Christ. As Christ said, ‘I was persecuted and so you will be.’”
As I noted in my piece three years ago, Sipko’s father spent five years in prison as part of the Soviet Union’s persecution of Baptists and other Christians. And now, Sipko has also been given a five-year sentence — though, given his age, being sent to a penal colony could be a life sentence. Instead, like the prophet Jeremiah, he remains in exile, lamenting for his country that he may see again.
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Other News of Note
The organization American Atheists is suing the U.S. Department of Defense to compel the release of public records related to the Pentagon revising its religious identification codes from 211 to 30.
A federal judge this week heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for sending proselytizing messages to USDA employees.
Dana Bash of CNN spoke with Jack Jenkins and David French about the high number of pastors and seminarians running as Democrats in the midterms.
Robert Downen of Texas Monthly reported on how a Christian Nationalist pastor working for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been helping push Islamophobia.
Pope Leo XIV has become the first pope in history to vote in a U.S. election.
“War can never be waged in the name of God. For us believers, to fight in the name of religion means attacking religion itself. There is no such thing as a holy war; only peace is holy.” —Pope Leo XIV, in a video message to an international meeting for peace.
Lubomir Martin Ondrasek wrote for Sightings about the problems with the religious freedom restrictions in Slovakia.
The son of a Baptist pastor from Cuba has been detained by ICE. Advocates are calling for his release amid fears that if deported he would be forced to serve in the Cuban military.
The United Methodist Church’s General Conference in 2028 will for the first time have a second concurrent location. In addition to the previously chosen Minneapolis, Minnesota, there will also be a site in Harare, Zimbabwe. The UMC is growing in Africa and there were concerns about increasing travel restrictions by the United States preventing people from being able to attend.
With Trump’s growing unpopularity, some Trump stores are going out of business. Last year, A Public Witness explored “the gospel according to Trump stores.”
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