International religion expert Knox Thames will be the featured guest for Baptist News Global’s first free webinar of the new year on Monday, Jan. 25, at 6 p.m. Central Time. Registration for the 75-minute webinar is free. However, registration is…
In Tennessee and Kentucky, religious freedom claims and COVID prevention plans are in conflict
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain the already contentious boundaries of religious practice versus public policy. In the same week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled New York may not restrict religious worship gatherings to prevent the spread of coronavirus, two…
Everything I know about separation of church and state I learned from my mother
I must have been in the third or fourth grade when Mama said to me, “When people want prayer in the schools, they are assuming the person who is praying has the same beliefs they do.” And then she added,…
The First Amendment and religious freedom compel me to refute Trump’s position on churches reopening
I come from people who had to “steal away” to worship God. Slaveowners could not prevent my ancestors from worshiping God and caring for others. No politician in the current version of U.S. slavocracy will do so.
Churches: Take the PPP money and walk
I think a decision not to participate in the PPP program would be a mistake. If your church does take the money, see it as an invitation to do more good in your community.
I’m in love with Christianity. I don’t need the government to be
No matter the misappropriated moral algebra that the Supreme Court used to come to its higgledy-piggledy majority opinion, the fact remains that the Christian cross is not fundamentally a secular monument any more than the American flag is a religious symbol.
Baptists, other Protestants spared from effort to restrict worship and evangelism
Issues of religious liberty in the United States are often discussed in terms of wedding cakes, taxpayer-funded church playgrounds and politics in the pulpit. In other parts of the world, it’s more about survival.
Hear our prayer, O Congress: A neo-establishmentarianism?
Events surrounding the dismissal and rehiring of “Father Pat” are more than a mere legislative kerfuffle. They provide important contemporary lessons in the enduring dynamics of church-state relations — old tensions, new twists.
BWA head protests Bolivia’s religion law
The head of the Baptist World Alliance has criticized a new law in Bolivia that various faith organizations say could curtail religious freedom. BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown wrote Bolivia’s legislature Jan. 17 voicing concern that ambiguity in the country’s…