The University of Oklahoma is the latest school to debase itself in deference to Donald Trump and evangelical Christians’ false claims of religious persecution. Trump and white evangelicals have this in common: Both claim persecution when they are instead the…
Lawsuits stack up, but Trump administration stonewalls challenges to Anti-Christian Bias Task Force
A constitutional watchdog group has filed a second lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force. The president created the commission in a Feb. 6 executive order directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch investigations into “anti-Christian conduct”…
Landor in Babylon — How a Rastafari’s Case against Prison Injustice Could Be Used to Weaponize ‘Religious Liberty’
Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, a case brought by Damon Landor after officers at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center forcibly shaved off Landor’s dreadlocks despite his Rastafari commitments.
What Christians Hold in Common with ‘Aspirational’ Conservatives
There are few terms more prone to misinterpretation today than religious freedom and conservative. Religious freedom could mean constitutional safeguards for practicing sincerely held religious beliefs, or it might mean a veiled justification for discriminating against those with whom you disagree.
Religious freedom is routinely curbed in Central Asia – but you won’t often see it making international news
Freedom of worship is tenuous around the globe. The Pew Research Center’s latest annual report found “high” or “very high” levels of government constraints on religion in 59 of the 198 countries and territories it analyzed – a new record. When Pew…
Proud to be [a Real] American — Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA’ and the Politics of the ‘Apolitical’
When you’re raised in an authoritarian Christian community you can never quite comfortably fit into, you learn early on about the ambiguity of language. Words like “love,” for example, mean very different things to a person who respects others’ bodily autonomy and…
‘Pro-family’ groups dislike transgender ‘cult’ but like Melania’s parenting advice
Politically conservative “pro-family” groups ended 2024 by calling to stamp out the “transgender cult,” opposing constitutional rights for Satanists, promoting Melania Trump’s parenting advice, warning against sympathy for immigrants, and celebrating Donald Trump’s second election as a source of spiritual…
Conservative Christians do not have sole ownership of religion, Jewish scholar says
Now as much as ever, people across the spectrum of faith must proclaim religious freedom to push back against conservative Christians claiming sole ownership of religion in America, rabbi and author Jill Jacobs said. “It’s really important that progressive religious…
Religious freedom faces even more peril in Burma
Religious freedom conditions have worsened in Burma this year as government influence continues to wane and armed ethnic groups amass power and territory in the nation’s ongoing civil war, according to a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious…
New USCIRF reports reveal the state of religious freedom in Eritrea and Nigeria
In the last two months, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released two major reports, each of which features an overview of the state of religion in two African countries — Eritrea and Nigeria. The reports reveal the…
Our most basic freedom — deciding one’s own religion
My most recent column was on Christian nationalism and the threat that movement poses to religious freedom. Some would say that is our most basic freedom — to make our own way through the thicket of religions that clamor for…
Countries repressing religious freedom are reaching beyond their borders, USCIRF report warns
Some nations notorious for oppressing religious freedom at home also waged campaigns of repression against ethnic and religious minorities living abroad in 2023, the U.S. Commission on International and Religious Freedom warned in its latest annual report. “These governments used…