Asked in a 2011 by Christianity Today magazine about his greatest regret, evangelist Billy Graham famously said, “I would have steered clear of politics.” That regret now haunts him in death in form of a debate about whether or not his body should have laid in honor at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump education pick worries church/state separationists
Advocates of church-state separation found little comfort in Donald Trump’s Nov. 23 announcement that he plans to nominate DeVos, a leader in the self-described school reform movement for more than two decades, to head up the U.S. Department of Education.
Do No Harm Act seeks to rein in RFRA claims
Some who 23 years ago worked for passage of a law ensuring broad protection of religious freedom say now the Religious Freedom Restoration Act needs tweaking so it can’t be used to discriminate against others. Groups including Americans United for…
Supreme Court sidesteps constitutional challenge to Obamacare
The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped the constitutional question May 16 of whether Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate substantially burdens the rights of certain faith-based organizations to exercise their religion, sending seven cases back to lower courts after both sides conceded there may…
Legislation would bar religious discrimination in immigration
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty joined 30 other religious and religious-liberty organizations in a broad coalition urging passage of legislation making it illegal for Donald Trump, if elected president, to bar Muslim immigration. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) unveiled the…
ERLC says taxpayer funding of recycled tires on church playground not an establishment of religion
Churches should be allowed to participate in government programs on equal footing with other civic organizations, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy agency argued April 21. The SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed a brief in a case before the…
Bill termed anti-gay authored by Baptist lawmaker
The Mississippi Senate has passed what critics call the most sweeping anti-LGBT legislation in the United States, sponsored by a Baptist layman who is a trustee at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, a member and former…
Georgia governor vetoes anti-LGBT ‘religious liberty’ bill
Georgia’s Baptist governor announced March 28 he would veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill that opponents said would foster LGBT discrimination. Gov. Nathan Deal, a member of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-aligned First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., said he had no…
Online tool tracks ‘faux religious freedom’ claims
By Bob Allen Americans United for Separation of Church and State enumerated five of the year’s worst legislative ideas — so far — in a new online tool tracking “religious freedom” bills in state legislatures and Congress that AU believes are intended…
AU says Christian printer has no ‘religious freedom’ right to discriminate
By Bob Allen A Kentucky printer’s religious beliefs do now entitle him to refuse to make T-shirts for a gay-pride event, Americans United for Separation of Church and State argued in a legal brief filed Dec. 28. The friend-of-the-court brief…
Church/state group says county clerk must issue marriage licenses to gays
By Bob Allen A group that advocates for both the free exercise of religion and separation of church and state says in a brief filed with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Kentucky county clerk must issue marriage…
Lawmaker says longer summer would buoy Ark park tourism
By Bob Allen A Kentucky lawmaker is proposing a bill to postpone the start of the school year in hopes that more students will travel to visit a creationist theme park under construction in his district. State Sen. Damon Thayer…