With RFRA being in the news again as the Supreme Court recently heard arguments on the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties case, my mind drifted back to the last time it was in the news: when Jan Brewer vetoed…
Mississippi religion bill gets new life
By Bob Allen A revised “Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act” held up over concerns that it could legitimize discrimination against gays has passed the state legislature and is on its way to the governor. Both houses voted April 1 in…
ACLU defends student’s right to read Bible
By Bob Allen The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is speaking up for an elementary school student reportedly told he could not read the Bible during an after-school program funded by taxpayers. The group often in the news for…
Bad assumptions
I recently had the opportunity to read a stirring challenge to those most opposed to the still-controversial and legally-unsettled HHS mandate requiring all businesses to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees including four abortifacient drugs. The two prongs of the…
Saying goodbye to Christian America
By David P. Gushee Follow David on twitter: @dpgushee One day in a doctoral seminar at Union Seminary, my ethics mentor Larry Rasmussen said words I will never forget: “There are advantages and disadvantages in every power position for the…
Former Soviet-era prisoner fined in Kazakhstan
By Bob Allen An 87-year-old former Soviet-era prisoner of conscience and Baptist pastor has been fined for conducting religious activities without state permission in Kazakhstan. Forum 18, an international news service that monitors religious freedom violations, says Yegor Prokopenko, pastor…
Mohler says gay marriage a religious-liberty threat
By Bob Allen “Religious liberty has never been threatened in our lifetimes, and probably in terms of the American experiment, like it will be threatened with same-sex marriage,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned in a video…
Baptists fined in Belarus for illegal worship
By Bob Allen Four Baptists in Belarus paid fines after losing appeals for holding worship services without government permission. Forum 18, an international news service that specializes in religious-freedom issues, reported that Pastor Aleksandr Zolotarev, arrested in a Dec. 22…
Baptist, Catholic urge new religious freedom envoy
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist official and a Roman Catholic bishop signed a joint letter March 4 asking two U.S. senators to allow a vote on a bill that would create and fund a new envoy to promote religious…