Word&Way News: Nov. 10
Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. This week at A Public Witness, we published a look at public mischaracterizations of the Old Testament and a report on a church that removed sermons by now-U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
SBU Accreditation Reaffirmed After Probation. Brian Kaylor reported on the latest development after years of conflict over theology and control at a Baptist school in Missouri.
Review: Pluralism in Practice. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed Pluralism in Practice: Case Studies of Leadership in a Religiously Diverse America by Elinor J. Pierce.
In Wake of Ohio Abortion Victory, Some Clergy Rejoice, Others Mourn. Kathryn Post reported on faith responses to a constitutional ballot initiative in the Buckeye State.
How a Bucolic Tennessee Suburb Became a Hotbed of ‘Christian Nashville-ism.’ Bob Smietana wrote about Christian Nationalism and White supremacy in affluent Nashville suburbs.
American Baptist Churches USA To Be Led by Rev. Gina Jacobs-Strain. Fiona André reported on a new leader for one of the most diverse denominations in the nation.
Dangerous Dogma
This week: Kathryn Brownell on 24-7 Politics
Other noteworthy podcasts this week:
Brian Kaylor appeared on The New Abnormal to talk about Speaker Mike Johnson and Christian Nationalism (segment starts at 20-minute mark).
Amy Butler joined host George Mason on Good God to talk about the danger of weaponizing religion.
by Brian Kaylor & Beau Underwood
This morning, we turned in the manuscript for our forthcoming book on how mainline Protestants helped build Christian Nationalism. Phew! Now it’s naptime.
There are still some steps left as Chalice Press prepares it for publication in 2024, but it’s great to have the content essentially locked in. We’re looking forward to seeing it out in the world and hopefully impacting the ways people think, talk, and act in response to critical church-state issues.
We’ll obviously let readers of A Public Witness know more about the book and its release once we can. We appreciate the support and encouragement that readers like you provide us each week. The next 12 months will likely be an important but controversial season at the intersection of faith and politics. Through it all, we’ll try to offer a faithful Christian public witness.
Once the book is available, we’ll let you know. Until then, we’ll keep showing up in your inbox with news and analysis you won’t find elsewhere.
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Other News of Note
Bradley Onishi and Matthew Taylor wrote for Rolling Stone about Speaker Mike Johnson hanging a Christian Nationalist flag outside his congressional office.
Laura Jedeed of Politico reported on Speaker Mike Johnson’s ties to conservative evangelicals organizing to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.
Ryan Burge wrote for Religion Unplugged about how the religious composition of Republican and Democratic voters has changed over the past 50 years.
“Even before visiting the old Jewish quarter in Vilnius, I felt the acute sense of Jewish absence in that grand old town. I asked my Christian scholar hosts about it and they told me, with sadness, they felt it too. I have felt that absence all over Europe.” —David Gushee reflected on Jewish and Holocaust history during a recent visit to Lithuania.
Josh Alvarez of Texas Monthly wrote about the “outsized” influence of John Hagee and his San Antonio church in pushing Christian support for Israel.
Media Matters reported on conservative Christian commentators excited that the Israel-Gaza war could bring the “end times.”
Jayson Casper of Christianity Today wrote about a former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church whose family is stuck in Gaza (and Word&Way has reported on the relief efforts of another former pastor of the small congregation).
A Presbyterian church is the latest Christian building in Sudan destroyed by military shelling.
The Catholic Church in South Africa is helping a lawsuit on behalf of coal miners, arguing their plight is part of the “enduring and painful legacy of apartheid.”
Photo of the Week
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