By Bob Allen Southern Baptists will honor the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby next week in Baltimore for refusing to pay for employee insurance coverage for birth control methods as required by Obamacare. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and…
SCOTUS got this one wrong
With all due respect to my blogging colleague, Jonathan Waits and his blog post, the US Supreme Court got the decision wrong about the town of Greece, NY and their ceremonial prayers. How prayers are handled in government sponsored settings…
SCOTUS got this one right
The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a tight decision (5-4) that the town of Greece, NY did not violate the Establishment Clause in choosing to open their legislative sessions with prayer in spite of the fact that the prayers were overwhelmingly offered…
Alliance Baptists address racial justice, reconciliation in annual gathering
By Relma Hargus The Alliance of Baptists went north for its annual gathering this year, taking its theme of racial and economic justice to the church where in 1926 Hilda Libby Ives became the first woman ordained as a Christian…
Supreme Court upholds ceremonial prayer at public meetings
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 May 5 that overtly Christian prayers at government meetings do not violate the First Amendment’s ban on establishing religion. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the town of Greece,…
Church-state groups skeptical about Hobby Lobby Bible curriculum
By Bob Allen A group that advocates for separation of church and state says Hobby Lobby owner Steve Green’s new high school Bible curriculum is likely unconstitutional and warns that school districts that use it risk getting sued for violating…
SBC leader says cake-decorating mom helped shape his religious liberty views
By Bob Allen Southern Baptists’ top spokesman for public policy says he knows from personal experience that religious-liberty concerns such as whether a cake decorator can refuse service for a same-sex wedding are anything but trite. Russell Moore, head of…
SBC leader says evangelicals paying price for ‘narrow vision’ of religious freedom
By Bob Allen Loss of the historic Baptist commitment to religious liberty has left U.S. evangelicals ill-prepared for current threats to the free exercise of religion, the Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral and public policy concerns suggested April…
Do for-profit corporations have religious liberties?
By David Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee The now-famous Hobby Lobby (HL) case finally has been argued before the Supreme Court, with a decision expected in June. I believe their claim should be denied. Here is my analysis. It…