Word&Way News: Aug. 9

Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. This week at A Public Witness, we published a look at Christmas-themed political rhetoric and a report on attacks against Tim Walz’s Lutheran church.

‘Two Very Special Words’

Political Attacks on Walz’s Church? Good Grief.

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Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. Review: Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation). Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation) by New Testament scholar Amy Peeler.

2. Resurrecting a Dead Metaphor. Rodney Kennedy considered the wisdom of the saying “where there’s smoke there’s fire” in today’s politics.

3. Progressive National Baptist Convention Leaders Hail Harris, Pan Trump, Urge Voting. Adelle M. Banks reported on political comments at a Black denominational meeting.

4. Meet Cathy, the New AI Chatbot and Episcopal Church Expert. Kathyrn Post reported on a new AI effort to provide Christian assistance.

5. One Church, Two Astronauts. How a Texas Congregation Is Supporting Its Members on the Space Station. Holly Meyer reported on a Baptist church praying for its members stuck in space.

Dangerous Dogma

This week: Tony Jones on the God of Wild Places

by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief

Today marks the 79th anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the second of two Japanese cities the U.S. nuked during World War II. Around 70,000 people died in the Nagasaki blast, nearly all of whom were civilians. Many more were impacted by health issues for decades due to radiation exposure. But the U.S. is boycotting the peace ceremony there today.

Officials from more than 100 nations will gather for a moment of silence in the Nagasaki Peace Park. But the Biden administration is refusing to send people because the city leaders disinvited Israeli officials as a result of the ongoing bombing of Gaza (Nagasaki has similarly not invited Russia or Belarus because of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine). City officials believe a ceremony denouncing the slaughter of civilians and calling for peace shouldn’t just be about the past.

There are a few other nations boycotting this year because Israel won’t be included. But the U.S. is in a different position. We dropped the bomb. We don’t get to tell the victims how they must remember the day. Our job is to show up and let them be in charge. The Biden administration is instead once again condoning genocidal attacks and harming efforts toward peace. After a moment of silence for Nagasaki, let us speak out to call our leaders to work for peace.

Survey Says…

(read more from Lifeway Research)

Other News of Note

• Decca Aitkenhead of The London Times reported on U.S. boys sent to an abusive institution in Jamaica and then abandoned by their parents, with an adopted son of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin among the victims.

• Alice Herman of The London Guardian reported from the recent Courage Tour in Wisconsin, a traveling tent revival of political charismatic preachers.

• Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post reported on the efforts of some evangelicals to shift the movement away from Trump.

• Angele Latham of the Nashville Tennessean looked at how Project 2025 could harm religious liberty.

• Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, who last year pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia for her efforts to overturn the 2020 election, this week agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in Arizona’s fake electors case in exchange for her charges being dropped. Ellis previously called A Public Witness “a bad actor” for reporting on her election lies.

“Charity is the work of the church, but it’s not just charity — there has to be justice. … Don’t keep giving people sandwiches without walking down the street to figure out why they are hungry every Tuesday.” —Rev. Jacqueline Thompson, second vice president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, during the denomination’s annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

• Forum 18 reported on a preacher in Russia facing criminal prosecution for an anti-war social media post suggesting Jesus would not have gone "to kill in Ukraine."

• Rachel Dobkin of Newsweek reported on the cancel culture problems on conservative Christian campuses as some academics are forced from their positions.

• A Christian college in Massachusetts is on the hook for $7 million in COVID-19 relief funds after losing a lawsuit claiming they were being discriminated against.

• Jack Herrera of The New Yorker profiled a Catholic priest working with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Jason DeRose of NPR reported on efforts by churches to get more children to attend Vacation Bible School.

• Jemar Tisby wrote at his Substack newsletter Footnotes about the historical blindness of a new book by a conservative Christian writer.

Megan Basham Needs to Learn More Black Church History

Photo of the Week

A woman holds up a placard reading “Bullfighting is a Sin” during Pope Francis’s weekly general audience at the Vatican on Aug. 7, 2024, as PETA urges Francis to cut the Catholic Church’s ties with bullfighting. (Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press)

Thanks for reading!