Sunday morning is becoming an increasingly divided time in America. “If Sunday morning was the most segregated morning in American life, it may also be one of the most politicized hours in American life, implicitly or explicitly,” said Bill Leonard,…
Trump border policies treat asylum seekers as criminals, advocate says
Separating immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border was bad enough, but it was even more tragic when asylum-seeking families were ripped apart while trying to get into the country, immigrant advocate Sue Smith says.
‘Nobody in their right mind’ would do what this peace activist has done
The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has grown a lot since its founding in 1984. Its focus over the years has expanded from poverty and nuclear proliferation to racial justice, gun violence and immigration, among other issues. And a…
Pastor: ‘Protecting borders’ was also the excuse for detention of Japanese-Americans
Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko, a Japanese-American mom and Baptist minister, says an unusual weariness crept over her this summer when news broke of the forced separation of immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border. “As the images and stories started…
Trump, Kavanaugh and their strange (religious) bedfellows
It’s not every day that the progressive Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the conservative American Family Association agree on something. But it’s happened thanks to President Trump, whose nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, 53, to the…
Opposition to Trump ‘zero-tolerance’ must go grassroots, organizers say
Public outrage over President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy has given way this week to controversial Supreme Court rulings, including one upholding the president’s Muslim-focused travel ban. But religious and other non-profit groups that serve immigrants have not taken their…
Baptist Joint Committee head ‘disappointed’ by Supreme Court decision upholding White House travel ban
The head of a Baptist religious liberty watchdog agency voiced disappointment with Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision upholding President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim ban. “We are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s refusal to repudiate policy rooted in animus against Muslims,”…
‘Zero-tolerance’ support thrusts Sessions into Methodist justice process
The political uproar over the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the southern border may have halted the Trump administration policy. There are even reports that some families have been reunited. But the theological uproar created when Attorney…
Powerful spiritual force needed to counter critical national, world challenges
Research shows that a slight majority of Americans believe religion can solve most of the world’s problems. According to Gallup, 55 percent of Americans hold that view. Broken down by politics, 71 percent of Republicans and 47 percent of Democrats express that…