Faith groups cannot claim religious belief and doctrine as exemptions from lawsuits that include issues of secular law, a federal court has ruled in the case of an Orthodox priest who sued church officials for defamation. The Aug. 17 opinion…
Don’t take preaching lessons from Christian nationalist Gen. Flynn
I’m attempting to wrap my mind around the idea of a former Army general telling me I should preach from the U.S. Constitution. I mention this only because Michael Flynn has been occupying American pulpits, recommending the Constitution as a…
‘The problem with a theocracy is everyone wants to be Theo’
No sooner had the Supreme Court of the United States begun releasing its summer decisions than the word “theocracy” started trending across social media in headings like, “Supreme Court Accused of Starting A ‘Theocracy’ Following Public School Prayer Ruling” and…
Church-state separationists join Justice Sotomayor in blasting the Supreme Court’s ruling in a Maine school voucher case
Church-state separationists lambasted a June 21 decision of the United States Supreme Court that granted parents in Maine access to taxpayer-funded vouchers to send their children to private religious schools. Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a scathing dissent from the…
Letter to the Editor: Wingfield is wrong on ‘performative Christianity’
Letter to the Editor May 11, 2022 Dear Editor: Mark Wingfield’s recent editorial on “performative Christianity” and religious liberty was both devoid of nuance and ill-informed of history. The “religious liberty” he advocates is no liberty at all, but the…
At the Supreme Court: The First Amendment on the 50-yard line
Next Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Kennedy v. Bremerton, a dispute involving high school football coach Joseph Kennedy, who refused to stop holding post-game prayers on the field and later sued the Bremerton, Wash., school…
Samford and Candler grad at center of Tennessee controversy over Bible history class in public schools
A middle school teacher with an undergraduate religion degree from a Baptist university and a master of divinity degree from a Methodist seminary now finds herself at the center of a controversy over alleged hate speech against Jews. Moreover, Chattanooga’s…
Supreme Court wants to hear Death Row inmate’s request to have his Baptist pastor comfort him at time of execution
The nation’s debate over capital punishment took an unexpected turn Sept. 8 when the United States Supreme Court intervened in a Texas case where the man sentenced to die wanted his pastor to hold his hand while he drew his…
Another Friday night, another Supreme Court rapid ruling on churches and COVID
For the second time in two months, the United States Supreme Court on Friday, April 9, issued a late-night, end-of-the-week ruling on a California church’s challenge to public health restrictions due to COVID-19. But there’s something different about the latest…