By Bob Allen A Baptist child care agency at the center of a 13-year legal dispute over the use of taxpayer funds by religious organizations is challenging a settlement between civil-rights and religious liberty advocates and Kentucky’s state government announced…
Ky. settles Baptist home lawsuit
By Bob Allen A long-running legal battle over taxpayer funding of a Baptist children’s home in Kentucky may have ended with a March 12 settlement of a 13-year-old lawsuit filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and…
Standing for principles in all situations
By Brent Walker Defending religious liberty by standing up for the separation of church and state sometimes results in unpopular outcomes. Saying no to a state-sponsored Ten Commandments monument in the middle of an Alabama courthouse will sometimes raise eyebrows….
Baptist named to White House post
By Bob Allen The White House announced March 13 that Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state specialist who formerly worked at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, will serve as special assistant to the president and director of the Office…
Poll: Gay-marriage right not absolute
By Bob Allen A majority of American adults view same-sex marriage as a civil-rights issue and nearly two-thirds believe it is inevitable that it will become legal throughout the United States, but opinions vary about what those rights should entail,…
House passes church-funding bill
By Bob Allen The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill Feb. 13 to allow houses of worship damaged by Hurricane Sandy to receive disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, despite warnings by advocacy groups that the…
AU opposes taxpayer repair of churches
By Bob Allen A religious-liberty watchdog group is urging defeat of a bill before Congress to authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue direct grants to churches and other religious institutions damaged last October by Hurricane Sandy. Americans United…
Contraceptive mandate opt-out expanded
By Bob Allen The Obama administration proposed a broader opt-out Feb. 1 for religious organizations that object to mandated coverage of contraceptives in employee health care plans, an effort to alleviate religious-liberty concerns behind a number of lawsuits challenging the…
Prayers by the Book
By Bill Leonard In his 1646 work, The Dippers Dipt, Anglican clergyman Daniel Featley published a scathing attack on the “Dippers” rampant in England. “Dipper” was an early name for Baptists and their practice of immersion baptism. Featley denounced such…