The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 20 challenging a Michigan law allowing faith-based child placement agencies receiving taxpayer funds to deny services to same-sex couples because of religious objections. The 2105 law is similar to legislation…
Many Trump evangelicals worship ‘Old Testament God,’ researchers find
Eight years with a black president capped by state-by-state victories for same-sex marriage didn’t sit well with white evangelicals already feeling like victims in American society. The result was a victory for Donald Trump last November. While that may have…
Southern Baptists say Christian baker has right to refuse same-sex wedding
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is siding with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple in a case headed toward the United States Supreme Court.
Mississippi religious liberty law has day in court
An attorney defending Mississippi’s controversial law allowing state employees to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and various businesses to deny services to LGBT individuals claimed in federal court April 3 that individuals challenging the statute should not…
Baptist lawmaker seeks to remove the state from marriage debate
A Southern Baptist lawmaker is proposing a truce in the political battle over same-sex marriage by getting the state government out of the business of issuing marriage licenses altogether. Missouri State Rep. T.J. Berry, a member and deacon at First…
Anti-Trump protesters target Southern Baptist church
Anti-Trump protesters marched on a Southern Baptist megachurch whose pastor was among the president-elect’s most vocal evangelical supporters in a fourth night in the streets Saturday night. “This church right here is the mother Mecca of the hate that lives…
Poll finds consensus on contraception, division over gay marriage and transgender controversies
Two-thirds of American adults believe employers who have religious objections to contraception should be required to cover birth control as part of their employees’ insurance plan, according to a new Pew Research Center survey about recent controversies pitting claims of religious liberty…
Sue for religious freedom? It’s not just for conservatives, anymore
The number of religious freedom bills across the United States may give the impression that using the law to protect faith is a purely conservative pursuit. Well, it isn’t, says Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Survey suggests continuing resistance among Baptists to LGBT inclusion
A little over a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Baptists remain among the most resistant to LGBT inclusion among U.S. Protestant groups, according to new data from LifeWay Research.