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…
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…
The religious war on freedom
By Bruce Gourley What is the enemy of religion? While evil is often the answer, a poll focused on religious liberty in America and released this month by the Barna Group points in a much different direction. When asked if…
So help me God?
By Molly T. Marshall The afterglow of the great national celebration of our democracy lingers. Inauguration ceremonies offered a vision of who we are becoming as a people and called us to craft a future more progressive, more inclusive and…