It’s been an intense year so far for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Advocacy ministry, Director Jennifer Hawks said. “What a year it’s been for all of us,” she said during a breakfast at the CBF’s June General Assembly in St….
‘No vouchers, no cuts’ rally opposes ‘big beautiful bill’
A coalition of education and religious freedom groups rallied near the U.S. Capitol urging senators to defeat a Republican spending plan that would create a federal school voucher program and impose deep cuts to social service programs like Medicaid. “Today,…
Hawks and Felton to lead CBF advocacy efforts
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is expanding its advocacy work with the addition of two new staff members announced Nov. 30. Jennifer Hawks, associate general counsel for Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., has been named CBF’s director…
Speaker Mike Johnson betrays core Baptist value
It didn’t take long for Baptists who care about religious liberty to learn just how far astray Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, has drifted from our traditional support for church-state separation. Based on his remarks from the…
Advocacy involves a range of issues, shares a core faith, CBF panelists say
The range of advocacy is as varied as the people who need others to speak on their behalf, but it is grounded in a sense of calling, a panel of advocates said during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly in…
Texas is first step in a national plan to install ‘chaplains’ in public schools instead of professional counselors
A Texas proposal to allow unlicensed “chaplains” to take the place of public school counselors undermines religious liberty, according to Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and others. The Texas Legislature is considering House Bill 3614 and Senate Bill 763,…
What Mike Law got right
The talk of the Baptist world for the past week has been the list of female pastors serving at churches purportedly affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Mike Law of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., created this partial…
When is a ‘church’ not really a church? Only when defined by the IRS
Not only are conservative evangelicals seeking to redefine religious liberty to their favor through court rulings, they’re also quietly using a provision of the IRS code to shield their flourishing nonprofit ministries from financial reporting obligations and to aid in…
How the Constitution’s original religious freedom guarantee almost didn’t happen
On this day 234 years ago, the U.S. Constitution was signed and sent to the states for ratification, not only proposing a much-needed new system of government but also taking one of the first concrete steps to protect religious freedom….
House passes bipartisan resolution against blasphemy, heresy and apostasy laws
It turns out there is something Republicans and Democrats can agree on about religious liberty in the current lame-duck session of Congress. On Monday, Dec. 7, the House of Representatives passed on a 386-3 bipartisan vote House Resolution 512, calling…
Public schools getting short shrift (again) in coronavirus relief package
“Reopen schools” is a good slogan, but it is far from a plan. The coronavirus continues to challenge public school administrators, teachers, parents and students who want a safe return to the classroom. Congress should do its part to support…
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.