The Trump administration will disburse billions in education funding it has withheld from public school districts for weeks. “The White House will release $5.5 billion in frozen education funds, administration officials announced on Friday, bringing an end to a chaotic…
MAGA is making an ‘all-out assault on Black life’
It is naïve and uncritical to describe the racial injustice dominating American culture and politics as simply the latest iteration of bigotry to plague the nation, Willie Francois III said during the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s 64th annual session in…
Tennessee governor urged to commute death sentence of intellectually disabled man
Advocates and families of people with intellectual disabilities are pleading with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to halt the Aug. 5 execution of an inmate suffering from brain damage, dementia and lifelong cognitive impairment. While federal legal precedent and state statute…
Trump administration arrests ‘Interfaith Imam,’ setting off protests
Tensions are boiling over in Ohio as immigration authorities continue to detain Imam Ayman Soliman, a former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain whose asylum status was revoked last month. More than a dozen demonstrators have been arrested at vigils organized since…
Baptists in Australia, New Zealand and Canada wrestle with LGBTQ inclusion
Like it long has in the U.S., disagreement over same-sex marriage and congregational autonomy are also driving a wedge between Baptists in Australia. Divisions began to simmer in 2022 when the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory Baptist Association…
Trump administration won’t consider violence against women in immigration
The Justice Department has determined women no longer may cite gender-based violence as grounds for seeking asylum in the U.S. The agency’s Board of Immigration Appeals ruled July 18 “that a particular social group defined by the alien’s sex or…
New book explores missions from viewpoint of MKs
Mission work historically has been key to evangelical self-understanding and their view of the United States as a Christian nation favored by God, historian and author Holly Berkley Fletcher said. “Christian nationalism is based on this grandiose idea of what…
Florida parents fight for right to get books restored
Three parents are appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit contending Florida violated their constitutional right to contest the removal of books from public schools. The target of the initial lawsuit and the appeal is a 2023 state law providing a…
Trump administration ordered to admit pre-screened refugees
The Trump administration has been ordered by a federal judge to admit about 12,000 refugees whose arrival plans were canceled when the president took office in January. U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle said his order includes refugees from…
‘Protecting the right to vote is protecting every other right we have as citizens’
Standing up for voting rights is essential in pushing back against the social and political chaos consuming the nation, activist Moya Harris said during a July 15 organizing webinar. “Protecting the right to vote is protecting every other right we…
Florida pastor arrested and deported by ICE
A Florida congregation is reeling after its pastor was arrested by federal immigration agents and deported to Guatemala. The Tampa Bay Times reported Maurilio Ambrocio, 42, was expelled to his native country July 2 after being detained by Immigration Customs…
Trump policies and actions are more cruel than last time, panelists report
The “volume and viciousness” of President Donald Trump’s legal and policy actions against marginalized communities has far outpaced the cruelty displayed during his first term, said Cecillia Wang, national legal director of American Civil Liberties Union. “The Trump administration came…