Statute of limitations reform legislation died last Friday after the Missouri Legislature adjourned without passing at least one of the companion bills, SJR-93 and HJR-130, despite the Against the Clock advocacy campaign urging voters to call their representatives and emphasize…
Cindy Clemishire Act does not advance in Oklahoma
Last week, the Oklahoma legislation known as the “Cindy Clemishire Act” died after the state Senate adjourned early, without calling the bill to a floor vote. This came just one day after its unanimous passage out of the Senate Judiciary…
Author debunks America’s ‘Christian past that wasn’t’
The audacity of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick only scratches the surface of the lies generations of Christian nationalists have been telling in order to remake America in their own religious image, according to Warren Throckmorton, author of The Christian…
Chick-fil-A franchise sued by EEOC for religious discrimination
Chick-fil-A’s practice of closing on Sundays did not spare one of its franchisees from being sued for religious discrimination by the federal government. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced May 14 it has sued Hatch Trick, a Chick-fil-A franchise…
American historian debunks Rededicate 250 revisionism
“The United States of America was not founded as a Christian nation,” historian Heather Cox Richardson insisted in her May 17 “Letters from an American” column. The professor of history at Boston College used her Sunday writing to comment on…
James Robison, Southern Baptist turned Pentecostal influencer
James Robison — a fiery Southern Baptist evangelist who became a Pentecostal TV personality — died May 17 at age 82. Robison began preaching as a teenager, growing up mainly in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. His official biography tells…
Diversity of faith missing from Rededicate 250
Any observance of the nation’s 250th anniversary should celebrate the diversity of faith in U.S. history, but that’s not what Americans will see during the Trump administration’s prayer and worship service May 17, religious and civil rights leaders say. Rededicate…
Tyler testifies for religious freedom for all people
Anti-Muslim legislation and policies violate the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that government remain neutral in matters of religion, said Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Tyler offered the perspective during a May 13 House Judiciary subcommittee…
AOC testifies at Ebenezer Church
“We are living in terrifying times, but we are people of faith,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told members of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta last Sunday. The New York Democrat made a surprise appearance May 10 at the historic church,…
Texas jury awards Southwestern $7 million from insurer
The already twisting legal case involving Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s defense of claims it failed to protect a female student from sexual abuse took another odd turn May 7 in a Fort Worth, Texas, courtroom. A Tarrant County District Court jury found the seminary’s…
Trump has put his scowling face and name everywhere
The man who once put his name on steaks, bottled water, perfume, wine and a real estate “university” that Marco Rubio called “an absolute scam” is now doing the same with government institutions and programs he controls. President Donald Trump…
Six-state tour seeks to empower opponents of Christian nationalism
A faith-based advocacy network has launched a tour of six red states where overwhelmed activists need encouragement and support in opposing Christian nationalism. What the pro-democracy movements in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Texas don’t need, however, is any…