Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty will expand its annual scholarship contest this year to include TikTok-style video submissions in addition to traditional written essays that explore the link between Christian nationalism and book bans.
“It’s critical for us to hear from the next generation in the United States,” said Janna Louie, BJC chief of staff. “Religious freedom connects to many other issues in our society, and students will live with the impact of book bans for years to come.”
Participating high school juniors and seniors will respond to the same prompt whether they submit written or video responses.
“Book bans are sweeping the United States, and they have significant implications for religious freedom,” the call for entries states. “Attempts to censor books are often justified with religious appeals for why no one should read the book. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented more demands to censor library books and resources in 2022 than any year since they began compiling data more than 20 years ago.”
“In an essay or TikTok-style video, illuminate the connection between Christian nationalism and book bans in the United States.”
The assignment is this: “In an essay or TikTok-style video, illuminate the connection between Christian nationalism and book bans in the United States.”
The grand prizes for the winning essay and the winning video are $2,000 each, and the runner-up in each category will receive $500. The contest has no GPA, extracurricular or religious requirements and submissions are due by March 15.
The segue into video submissions follows the Jan. 6, 2023, launch of BJC’s TikTok account to mark the second anniversary of the Capitol insurrection and to promote its surging Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.
In a year-end video highlighting the campaign’s 2023 accomplishments, BCJ Executive Director Amanda Tyler said TikTok is one tool in the effort to bring national awareness to Christian nationalism and to promote pluralism and religious freedom. The social media channel, which features numerous clips of Tyler testifying before Congress and speaking in interviews, attracted more than 40,000 followers and 600,000 likes before the end of the year.
Georgia McKee
“TikTok is one of the many places we are educating and mobilizing Christians to oppose Christian nationalism,” said Georgia McKee, BJC’s digital communications associate and a frequent personality in videos for the @endchristiannationalism TikTok channel. “Reaching people where they are allows us to communicate in an authentic way, expanding BJC’s audience and the base of support for religious freedom. We’re marshaling decades of BJC’s policy expertise in new and creative ways.”
BJC launched its annual scholarship contest in 2006 by asking participants to discuss subjects at the cutting edge of religious freedom, politics and pluralism. Essayists have tackled issues including Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement that the church should be the conscience of the state, not its master or servant (2007), President John F. Kennedy’s desire to promote absolute separation of church and state (2010), and how religious rights clash with other U.S. laws and rights in the U.S. (2011).
Since 2020, scholarship contestants have been challenged to discuss the placement of “In God We Trust” in public schools, the appropriateness of religious leaders seeking elected office, whether condemned prisoners have a right to a religious leader present at their executions, the importance of protecting indigenous and other sacred lands, and whether America is a “Christian nation.”
In 2017, BJC interviewed Yusra Ahmed, that year’s scholarship contest winner. Her essay, “Compassion Before Fear,” addressed the issue of using religious tests in U.S. immigration and refugee policy. As a Muslim, she said it was a topic all too familiar to her family.
“A religious test enacted by the U.S. government sends a message of fear and hate to the American people, fear that will incite discrimination on a civilian level. Fellow Americans who fit in the group of people being filtered out by the religious test may not face discrimination in terms of laws and policies but will face intolerance from those around them.”
The scholarship contest provides teens an opportunity to educate themselves about church-state issues just as they are nearing or reaching voting age, Ahmed added in the interview. “Right before (we’re) given a chance to vote, we’re not very much given any method to voice our opinions or give our voice in any situation. And for an issue like this — it’s very personal to many people. So having (high school students) engage allows their voice to be heard and their opinions to be given.”