Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to a report on how the Department of Homeland Security justifies spying on churches that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a look at various issues related to revelations of such “church invasions by ICE.”
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Review: How Western Christianity Got It Wrong. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed How Western Christianity Got It Wrong: Replacing the God of Fear with a Spirituality of Healing by Randy Woodley.
Raphael Warnock Has Done It. Adam Hamilton Wants to Follow as a Pastor-US Senator. David Crary looked at how someone can simultaneously serve as a local pastor and in Congress.
Two Pastors Detained, a Student Dead: Haitians in Ohio Turn to Faith Amid Fear of ICE. Kathryn Post reported from Springfield, Ohio, as the Trump administration targets the Haitian community there.
As the Far-Right in Germany Aims to Take Power, Churches Are Fighting Back. Liam Adams reported from Germany about how some clergy are resisting the rise of anti-immigrant politicians.
Wendell Berry, Writer and Farmer, Was Extolled by Many as a Modern-Day Prophet. The Kentuckian died this week at age 92.
Dangerous Dogma
This week’s episode features a conversation between Word&Way Editor Brian Kaylor and Robert P. Jones, author of the forthcoming book Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy. 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
When President Donald Trump sparked a gerrymandering battle in multiple states last year, one of the first states where lawmakers started drawing new maps was Missouri. Republicans in the Show-Me State invoked Christian values to justify the need to shift one U.S. House seat from Democrats to the GOP. I showed up to testify against the gerrymandering to specifically criticize such rhetoric. After all, the goal of this gerrymandering was literally to force out of office a United Methodist minister!
Missourians responded to the move by invoking a state constitutional right to block legislative measures via a statewide ballot referendum. After months of delay tactics by the Republican secretary of state, the Missouri Supreme Court yesterday (Sept. 3) unanimously ruled that the gerrymandered map cannot go into effect for the midterms, with the referendum instead going on the ballot. The justices noted that the constitutional standard was clear and any “confusion, expense, and practical difficulties” occurring as a result of the ruling are wholly the fault of the secretary of state for misreading the Constitution and delaying the issue.
Republicans are upset, making lots of absurd claims like calling the justices “liberal” (which is absurdly false). But let’s not miss the significance of the unanimous ruling. The effort to rig the district lines to drive out a Black pastor failed. And that means the Republican state senator nominated for the seat, who is one of the biggest proponents of White Christian Nationalism in the state legislature (see my earlier quick take on him), is now on a path for a big defeat in November. It’s good when democracy and constitutional order win. But it’s still frustrating to see so many Christian leaders supporting the anti-democratic and often racist measures like the blocked gerrymandering plan in Missouri.
Other News of Note
Kristin Kobes Du Mez wrote for The New York Times about the politics of Christian kitsch geared for women.
Jason DeRose of NPR reported on two Democratic candidates for the U.S. House in Iowa who are both mainline Protestant ministers.
President Donald Trump appointed a pastor and longtime supporter to serve as an adviser on tobacco-related health issues with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mehdi Hasan wrote for The Guardian to criticize the U.S. Senate campaign of Mike Rogers in Michigan for choosing controversial MAGA pastor Lorenzo Sewell to lead the campaign’s faith outreach. (Sewell has also been invited to lead worship events at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)
A Unitarian Universalist minister in Idaho was convicted for protesting anti-transgender bills in the lobby of the governor’s office.
Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, was arrested for contempt of court after not turning over financial documents in a case involving his divorce and child support. He was arrested “on the set of a Christmas movie” while playing the role of a “featured extra.”
“We are here to bear witness. … When people have little power, the church has a responsibility to stand beside them.” —Rev. Eunice Vega Perez, a United Methodist minister in New Jersey, during a United Methodist rally outside a federal immigration detention center.
Rev. Travis Norvell, a Baptist pastor in Minneapolis, wrote for MS NOW about how some mainline Protestants in the Twin Cities have experienced a revival after standing up to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mary Sanchez of The Beacon reported on deportation concerns amid the Haitian community in Kansas City, Missouri, which includes at least four Haitian churches.
Rev. Robert Perry, a retired Baptist pastor in Springfield, Missouri, who has for months been visiting individuals detained by ICE, was arrested for protesting the detention of individuals without charges. As a result, a local interim sheriff is barring Perry from visiting and ministering to people being detained.
Andy Olsen of Christianity Today profiled a Honduran father who became the unofficial “pastor of Plymouth jail” after being detained by ICE.
Photo of the Week
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