Word&Way News: Oct. 25

Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. This week at A Public Witness, we published a review of a book on Christians opposed to democracy, an analysis of false claims about a Kamala Harris rally, and a report on political sermons.

Review & Giveaway: American Heretics

When ‘Jesus’ Becomes a MAGA Rally Chant

Pastors Preach Against Missouri’s Abortion Ballot Measure

Support our journalism ministry by upgrading to a paid e-newsletter subscription today!

Top 5 at wordandway.org

1. Review: The Violent Take It by Force. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy by Matthew Taylor.

2. Disease, Disgust, and Demons: A Trilogy of Toxic Tropes. Rodney Kennedy wrote about dangerous rhetoric in the presidential campaign.

3. Stop Taking Bonhoeffer’s Name in Vain, His Relatives and Scholars Warn Eric Metaxas, Project 2025. Bob Smietana reported on efforts to push back against co-option of a famed German theologian by those justifying political violence today.

4. Christian Nationalism Is Growing Among U.S. Hispanics. Scholars Explain Why. Aleja Hertzler-McCain reported on the embrace of Christian Nationalism by some Hispanic Protestants.

5. Faith Groups Use Election Scenarios to Prepare Spiritually, Mentally for What’s Next. Adelle M. Banks reported on Presbyterian and Episcopal congregations planning dialogues and worship focuses for the period after the election.

Dangerous Dogma

This week: Michael Austin on American Christian Nationalism

Other noteworthy shows this week:

• Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow talked about faith and politics on Straight White American Jesus.

• 1A looked at Christians pushing back against Christian Nationalism, with guests Katherine Stewart, Curtis Chang, and Jim Wallis.

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

President Joe Biden will formally apologize today for the U.S. forcing Indigenous children into boarding schools. The system that started in the 19th century to “civilize” Native Americans ended in 1969. In addition to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the schools, recent investigations have found 973 deaths of children (though the actual number is likely much higher as they were often put in unmarked graves).

Hopefully, the apology by Biden will encourage more churches and denominations to also engage in more truth-telling and acts of repair. About half of the 408 boarding schools for Indigenous children in the U.S. were supported or even operated by religious groups.

Some have been wrestling with this history. For instance, the Episcopal Church, which helped run at least 34 such schools, has been working to uncover its own complicity and tell that story honestly within the denomination as they seek ways to respond. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has similarly been working on truth and healing efforts to honestly engage with their role in running boarding schools and other ways they harmed Indigenous peoples. And in 2022, Pope Francis apologized in Canada for the Catholic Church’s role in Indigenous boarding schools there.

Apologizing doesn’t change the past, but it is an important move for the present and future. We must engage in truth-telling and acts of repair for the injustices by our nation and our religious institutions.

Other News of Note

• The Living Church, a magazine for Episcopalians, published a review of Baptizing America. Rev. Charles Hoffacker wrote: “Reading this book by two mainline Protestant pastors was for me a helpful and even hopeful exercise. … Baptizing America presents valuable history lessons.”

• Kacen Bayless of the Kansas City Star reported on a controversial charismatic pastor running for a state senate seat in Missouri (with comments from Brian Kaylor)

• Lisa Hagen of NPR reported on the religious-political MAGA campaigning of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA.

• Ruth Graham and Clyde McGrady of the New York Times reported on Kamala Harris’s political outreach to Black churches.

• Catholic Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, told a statewide ecumenical gathering that Christian Nationalism distorts the gospel and is an oxymoron.

“Christian Nationalism departs from the life and teachings of Jesus — Jesus who was always on the side of the marginalized and the oppressed; Jesus who was killed by the state for speaking truth to power.” —Amanda Tyler, author of How to End Christian Nationalism, during a book launch event at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

• United Methodists in Colorado are looking at ways to repent and make amends for Methodist participation in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre that resulted in the murders of more than 230 members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.

• Christians gathered in Texas last week to protest an execution, which was halted at the last minute. Robert Roberson still faces the death penalty despite having been convicted on “junk science.”

• After political rhetoric demonizing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, new billboards are popping up in the community with a message on the importance to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

• Even as fighting escalates between Israel and Hezbollah, many Lebanese Christians refuse to leave their homes.

• A theater in Flint, Michigan, set the musical Godspell in a swimming pool.

Photo of the Week

Brother Luke, an Orthodox Christian monk, holds his 10-week-old German shepherd Pyrena on the grounds of the New Skete monastery, where he directs the dog breeding program that has provided both financial and spiritual support for decades to the community outside Cambridge, New York. (Giovanna Dell’Orto/Associated Press)

Thanks for reading!