As people spent the Fourth of July holiday with friends, family and local community, the United States continues to experience a slide away from universal religious liberty and a shift toward authoritarian government targeting religious beliefs and actions. The Baptist public theology…
Dan Patrick reiterates: ‘No separation of church and state’
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stood in the Oval Office last Friday afternoon and told the American people once again there should be no such thing as separation of church and state in America. Patrick, a Southern Baptist from Houston,…
Baptists know better than this
Baptists should not sit quietly while the federal government considers a report that would redefine religious liberty in the United States. The Presidential Religious Liberty Commission’s draft report deserves a direct Baptist response. It challenges church-state separation while advancing a…
US Supreme Court denies Rastafarian damages for illegal haircut
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 23 that inmates cannot seek damages if their religious rights have been abused or denied by prison officials. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines came in the case of Damon Landor, a Rastafarian whose…
Religious Freedom Faces Growing Pressures Worldwide
A sharp increase in religiously motivated harassment and violence pushed the number of countries dealing with high levels of social hostilities involving faith to its highest point in more than a decade, according to a Pew Research Center study released…
Democracy and religious freedom
This is the fifth in a BNG series of articles on Christianity and democracy that will lead toward the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The series has been curated by Carol McEntyre, senior minister at First Baptist Church…
Webinar explores religious context of America’s Founders
Understanding the nation’s founding requires insight into the religious context in which the framers lived and worked, political scientist Mark Hall said during a webinar hosted by Religion News Service. “In the late 18th century, about 98% of Americans of…
SBC Resolutions Committee wades into hot topics
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolution Committee has offered a preemptive strike in the battle over women’s roles in the church. The committee released its report June 1, just more than a week ahead of the SBC annual meeting to be…
America is imperiled, but Baptists can save it
Last week, the annual meeting of the National Leadership Council of the American Baptist Churches USA took place in Atlanta under the theme, “Claim, Distinguish and Proclaim the Markers of American Baptists.” That should be considered a big deal for…
Religious freedom is for Christians only, says Jenna Ellis
America’s guarantee of religious freedom is for Christians only, not Muslims, claimed former Trump election fraud attorney and podcast host Jenna Ellis and her guest, virulent anti-Muslim activist and “priest” Calvin Robinson, in a recent podcast, “America Under Divine Judgment.”…
Graham comes to Trump’s defense and Kinzinger calls him out
Once again, Franklin Graham has come to the defense of President Donald Trump, but this time former GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger isn’t having it. After the evangelist and Trump cheerleader posted a defense of Trump sharing an AI-generated image of…
‘Why would anyone want to trade religious liberty for oppression?’
The Baptist approach to the Christian faith was forged in the furnace of persecution and ostracism. The foolish might try to trace Baptist roots back to the first church in Jerusalem, but that is mere mythmaking. However, there certainly are…