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…
From Massachusetts to Missouri, faith-based schools seek to shield governance under religious exemptions
The highest court in Massachusetts ruled this month that a social work professor at a nondenominational Christian college is not a “minister,” meaning she may proceed with a discrimination suit against the college. Meanwhile, a Baptist university in Missouri claims…
Christian America’s betrayal of the kingdom of God
The storming of the American Capitol on Jan. 6 — with its profusion of Bibles, crosses and other Christian symbols — placed a gigantic exclamation point on the unease American Christians always have felt with the First Amendment to the…
New book recalls story of challenging mandatory chapel at U.S. military academies
David Vaught went to the U.S. Military Academy in 1965, war raging at home and abroad, to defend the Constitution. Fueling his patriotism was a deep-seated Baptist faith imbued with a passion for the First Amendment. But those values led…