I’m no legal expert when it comes to religious liberty. Not like Brent Walker or Holly Hollman. Neither am I a political pundit or a talking head who takes an extreme view in order to satisfy the base. I write…
Catholics, Baptists join in religious liberty battle over gay marriage
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic leaders issued a joint statement April 3 concerning acrimony over religious liberty and same-sex marriage going on in Indiana and other states. Philadelphia archbishop Charles Chaput and William Lori of the Roman…
Georgia tables controversial religious liberty bill
By Bob Allen As lawmakers fought over religious freedom legislation in Arkansas and Indiana, time ran out in Georgia on a similar measure that divided opinion among the state’s Baptists. The 2015 General Assembly of Georgia adjourned April 2 without…
Baptist ministers oppose tax break for ‘Ark Park’
By Bob Allen Four Kentucky taxpayers — two of them Baptist ministers — say giving tourism tax credits to a Christian ministry building an amusement park featuring a life-sized Noah’s Ark would effectively compel them to subsidize a religious ministry against their…
Why do so many Christians think we need government to prop up Jesus?
In a recent Facebook post, Franklin Graham praised Indiana’s House of Representatives for passing a “religious freedom” bill “that would protect business owners who want to decline to provide services for same-sex marriages.” Religious freedom, which has been a hallmark…
Same-sex marriage and the intractable knot of freedoms
Same-sex marriage has tied American society into a seemingly intractable knot. Advocates of one great value pull a thread that ultimately tightens and restricts another cherished principle. And vice-versa. Human rights vs. religious liberty.
Southern Baptist ethics czar defends Indiana religious liberty bill on MSNBC
By Bob Allen In an interview March 30 on national television, the Southern Baptist Convention’s top expert on public policy denounced corporate boycott threats over Indiana’s new religious freedom law as “a confluence of sexual libertarianism and crony capitalism” attempting…
Supreme Court won’t force NYC to allow after-hours worship in public schools
By Bob Allen The United States Supreme Court refused March 30 to hear a case challenging a New York City policy of not allowing churches to worship in public schools. The high court declined without comment to review an April…
Is religious liberty declining around the world? One panel thinks so.
By Ken Camp Repressive governments, radical Islamists and reluctance by Western leaders to confront human rights abuses combine to create the worst global climate for religious liberty in recent history, say a university president with expertise in constitutional law, a…
Scouting for tolerance
In June of 2013 the Boy Scouts of America announced a policy change. The organization would reverse a longstanding policy and allow openly gay scouts to participate in the organization. I wrote then that the BSA’s attempt to please everybody…
BJC defends Muslim woman’s right to wear hijab to work
By Bob Allen In a closely watched case argued Feb. 25, a Baptist religious-liberty group urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a Muslim woman to wear a religious head-covering to work. The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based…
Uncoerced faith remains a burning question
By Bill Leonard On Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, the terrorists who call themselves an Islamic State released a lurid video showing the decapitation of 21 Egyptian laborers working in Libya. Taken hostage in January, largely because they were Coptic Christians,…