As with a 2018 ruling involving a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest foray into a free exercise of religion claim is so narrowly written as to offer little future…
On Roger Williams, freedom of conscience and its (sometimes well-intentioned) enemies
I don’t like being told what to do, think or say. You got a problem with that? I know that sounds excessively pugnacious and not very Christian, considering the ugly divisions and hatreds roiling Americans in recent years. But I…
Advocacy group that fought COVID church closures in California awarded $2.1 million for legal fees
The conservative Christian advocacy group that fought the state of California’s mandates on church closures during the coronavirus pandemic will be reimbursed by the state for more than $2 million in legal fees. Separate settlements were announced between the state…
Separation of church and state looks different through the eyes of minorities, BJC speaker says
The First Amendment and concepts such as separation of church and state and freedom of religion seem to signal that religious diversity is strong in the United States. “Well, that’s not really true,” Khyati Joshi, author of White Christian Privilege:…
How an upcoming Supreme Court decision on ‘religious freedom’ could undermine religious freedom
Baptists care deeply about religious freedom, so we should care when this cherished freedom is misused and undermined. That’s why we should all pay close attention to the United States Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which will…
Losing my religion
Do we really wonder why so many people are leaving organized religion? A new Gallup poll has found that for the first time, the proportion of Americans who say they are members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped…
Attacks on Critical Race Theory are ‘attempt to maintain the status quo’
Critical Race Theory, the continued racial segregation of U.S. churches and the need to include African Americans more fully in religious liberty campaigns were among the topics discussed during “Religious Liberty Has Been White Too Long: Voices of Black Scholars,”…
Texas takes the spotlight as statehouses across the nation seek to restrict trans teens and voter access
Some Texas legislators want to outdo Georgia and Arkansas with a combination of bills restricting transgender teens and voting access for poor and minority citizens. The Texas bills — four concerning transgender health care, six concerning transgender athletes and two…
‘Pandemic acknowledges no religious exemption,’ interfaith group warns state legislatures
“The pandemic acknowledges no religious exemption,” a group of faith leaders wrote to state legislators across the nation April 12. The interfaith group — which includes the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Home Mission Societies, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious…
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…
In state legislatures, a push against trans teens, for churches as ‘essential’ and seeking to define ‘religious freedom’
Ensuring the absolute right of churches to meet during a global pandemic, amending religious freedom legislation and enacting legislation against transgender youth have emerged as key faith-based actions in state legislatures across the nation this year. All three issues are…
Canada labels Uyghur repression ‘genocide,’ but that’s not as exemplary as you might think
This week, Canada’s Parliament voted to label China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority as “genocide.” This makes Canada the second country in the world after the United States to describe Beijing’s egregious repression as it is. A bit of…