Word&Way News: June 7
Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. This week at A Public Witness, we published the video from the virtual launch event for Baptizing America, our annual list of recommended summer books, and a preview of partisan politics at next week’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
Southern Baptist Ethics Committee Says IVF Is Immoral, Tells Christians To Oppose It. Bob Smietana reported on growing opposition to in-vitro fertilization by the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Latino Episcopalians in the Spotlight With Gutiérrez Presiding Bishop Nomination. Aleja Hertzler-McCain looked at Latinos in the Episcopal Church ahead of the denomination’s general convention later this month.
Faith-Based Agencies Denounce Biden’s Executive Order at the Southern Border. Ellie Davis reported on criticisms of President Joe Biden that echo those similarly leveled against the Trump administration.
Poll: Religious Groups Think Trump’s Actions Immoral in Hush Money Case, Split on Whether He Broke the Law. Jack Jenkins reported on new survey data exploring the possible electoral impact of Trump’s conviction.
Review: Thinking About Good and Evil. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Thinking About Good and Evil: Jewish Views From Antiquity to Modernity by Rabbi Wayne Allen.
Dangerous Dogma
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
Analysis by the Washington Post found that billions of taxpayer dollars are now being funneled to religious schools through state voucher programs. And this will grow in the near future as more states are creating or expanding voucher programs. This is bad news for public schools.
Redirecting money from public education hurts us all. Unlike private schools, public schools accept everyone. They serve all children, regardless of their faith, race, disability, or any other factor that some private schools do not accept. With fewer dollars for public schools, our most vulnerable kids are impacted, widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Some lawmakers pushing for vouchers insist that parents who send their kids to private schools should get the funds since they’re not using the public school system. But that “logic” would also suggest that people without school-age children shouldn’t have to support public schools either. Such a mindset will slowly tear down our communities. It’s like demanding a refund from the highway tax for every road you don’t drive on — even though you benefit as your mail shows up and the local economy is improved because of that road. The same is true with public schools. They make the whole community better, not just for the families of children enrolled there.
Sadly, the effort to dismantle public education is often coming from Christians. Let us instead recommit to defending the flourishing of all our neighbors. Public funds should fund public schools.
Other News of Note
Andrew Whitehead interviewed Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood about Baptizing America at his Substack newsletter American Idolatry.
James Preston reviewed Baptizing America at his Substack newsletter No Particular Place to Go, calling it “revealing” and “well-documented.”
Brian Kaylor was quoted by the Paris newspaper L’Opinion about evangelicals reactions to Donald Trump’s trial in New York City.
Salem Media Group, which bills itself as a conservative Christian company, apologized and said it would stop airing “2000 Mules,” a film by Dinesh D’Souza that pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. They made the move because they were sued by someone attacked in the film.
Eric Killelea of the Houston Chronicle reported on the “spiritual warfare” political rhetoric of a Trumpian Southern Baptist megachurch pastor in Texas.
Ed Pilkington of the London Guardian profiled a Black Pentecostal minister in Ohio who is trying to win Black voters for Donald Trump.
David Brockman reported for the Texas Observer about the New Apostolic Reformation.
“For the state to rip a religious text from its context in Holy Scripture and manipulate it for the state’s secular purpose is poor public policy and distasteful theology. Let the state take care of potholes, water systems, and providing public schools where students can learn reading, writing, and algebra.” —Shane McNary, coordinator of ministry for the Great Rivers Fellowship, as he joined more than 100 pastors and lay leaders urging Louisiana’s governor to veto a bill that would require the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Ahead of Missouri’s planned execution of David Hosier next week, Katie Moore of the Kansas City Star wrote about Hosier’s relationship with his spiritual advisor, Jeff Hood, and talked with both men. Hood, who has been in execution chambers ministering to multiple men, has been a guest on Dangerous Dogma and wrote an Unsettling Advent devotional last year.
A jailed Jesuit priest who had advocated on behalf of Indigenous people died in India. His tragic case shows the erosion of democracy in the nation.
Richelle Wilson of Wisconsin Public Radio reported on efforts to repurpose the properties of churches that close.
Robert P. Jones wrote at his Substack newsletter White Too Long about evangelical reactions to Donald Trump’s felony convictions:
Photo of the Week
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