Word&Way News: Sept. 27
Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. This week at A Public Witness, we published a review of a book about the New Apostolic Reformation and a look at the controversy over a Catholic political event.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
The Fundamentalist Roots of Trump and Vance’s Nativist Attacks on Immigrants. Rodney Kennedy considered current issues in light of early 20th century Baptist fundamentalist pastor J. Frank Norris.
William Barber Joins Faith Leaders at Vigil in Springfield to Defend Haitian Migrants. Kathryn Post reported on a faith effort to push back against political lies about immigrants in Ohio.
Mark Robinson May No Longer Be the Headliner. But NC Evangelicals Still Back Him. Yonat Shimron reported from an American Renewal Project luncheon in North Carolina as their favorite candidate faces significant scandals.
Settlement Talks With Johnny Hunt Fail. SBC and Former President Likely Headed to Trial. Bob Smietana reported on a defamation lawsuit against the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for outing one of its own leaders for sexual abuse.
Review: The Quest of the Historical Muhammad. Robert D. Cornwall reviewed The Quest of the Historical Muhammad and Other Studies on Formative Islam by scholar Stephen J. Shoemaker.
Dangerous Dogma
This week: Lore Ferguson Wilbert on the Understory
Another noteworthy podcast this week:
Brian Kaylor appeared on Just Liberty to talk about Baptizing America and Christian Nationalism.
by Jeremy Fuzy, Word&Way Digital Editor
One of the most striking images from 20th-century history textbooks is a protest flag that flew between 1920 and 1938 on Fifth Avenue in New York City: “A man was lynched yesterday.” It would have been accurate to hang it again on Wednesday (Sept. 25) as my home state of Missouri, with the approval of the U.S. Supreme Court, murdered an innocent black man named Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams.
Don’t just take my word that these two things are connected — the NAACP, which flew that protest flag and was formed as a direct response to that era of lynchings, said as much. And since the innocence claim in this case was so strong, a state execution — which often gets swallowed in a typical news cycle — became a national story. English business magnate Richard Branson even took out a full-page ad in the Kansas City Star attempting to persuade Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency. It was good to see so much moral outrage aimed at this morally outrageous act.
I happen to have a personal connection to this since my wife is a social worker and part of Williams’s legal team. Seeing them fight on the side of justice against a racist and inhumane criminal legal system is inspiring. But the toll state-sanctioned killing takes on everyone surrounding the condemned person — from the defense lawyers to the prison guards to the family members — is also a travesty. Someone they love and have known for years is callously taken from them. And Williams was only one of five people put to death in the last seven days.
And for what? The local prosecutor’s office, the victim’s family, and even some of the misled jurors who originally sentenced him to death made it clear that they did not want him executed. All of this was just about a deeply flawed system running on autopilot, combined with a lack of empathy from some politicians, law enforcement officers, and judges who fear admitting when that system got it wrong.
As Williams’s team said in a statement after his execution, “The hardest thing to explain, and what we cannot understand, is how rote application of a process to protect finality outweighs finding truth and achieving fairness.” This shameful injustice cannot be undone. But in the same way that Williams used his gifts to advocate for justice beyond himself, so should we all.
Other News of Note
J.D. Vance is set to appear this weekend at the Courage Tour in Pennsylvania, a traveling rally mixing worship, “prophecy,” and politicking that’s led by Trumpian preacher Lance Wallnau.
Molly Olmstead of Slate reported from the Courage Tour in Michigan, highlighting the preaching by Lance Wallanu and others about spiritual warfare, and why God has chosen Donald Trump.
A Baptist leader in North Carolina used denominational letterhead to urge pastors to push members against “Marxist” Democrats.
Heidi Schlumpf wrote for U.S. Catholic about the uses of apocalyptic rhetoric in today’s politics.
Mara Richards Bim wrote for Baptist News Global about confronting Christian Nationalism in mainline Protestant churches, with a shout-out to Baptizing America.
“Because it is immoral, I believe Christian Nationalism is inevitably doomed. But in the meantime, the pain, suffering, and injury it will inflict will be enormous — just consider women facing difficult pregnancies, trans children seeking care, librarians attacked for certain books.” —Rev. Rob Schenck in a Mother Jones piece, “Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist.”
Marc Roscoe Loustau wrote for The Christian Century about a Methodist leader in Hungary facing persecution from his country’s Christian Nationalistic government.
Ruth Graham of the New York Times wrote about the new trend in Generation Z where men are outnumbering women in churches.
Craig Nash of Good Faith Media reported from the “Nevertheless, She Preached” conference.
Shea Watts wrote for The Presbyterian Outlook about a Presbyterian church in Charlotte, North Carolina, that removed stained-glass windows honoring Confederates.
Andrew Whitehead wrote at his Substack newsletter American Idolatry about the connections between Christian Nationalism and anti-immigrant beliefs:
Photo of the Week
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