A federal judge refused to block immigration actions near Minnesota schools while other courts consider Trump administration appeals to rulings in other lawsuits against raids at or near sensitive locations. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship alerted partner congregations this week that…
Springtime for war crimes
There is a song in Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers called “Springtime for Hitler.” In the show, two producers intentionally create the most offensive Broadway musical imaginable. They assume no audience would tolerate a Broadway number glorifying Adolf Hitler. The…
Second court rules sensitive locations out of bounds for raids
A federal court in Massachusetts has blocked a Trump administration policy that allowed immigration enforcement raids in sensitive locations such as churches, schools and hospitals. The ruling came Feb. 13 in New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, et…
‘Insert God here’
As a kid, I attended two elementary schools, three junior high schools and two high schools. Picture me this way: Scrawny, acne-faced, frizzy haired, shy. It is hard enough to make friends when you are 13; imagine always being the…
Student learning is another casualty of Trump’s fear campaign
The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is striking terror in the lives of children worried their parents could be detained at school drop-off or while they are in classes during the day, education and immigration advocates say. The stress also…
No safe spaces, no sacred places
Executive orders now say immigration officers can arrest migrants at schools and churches. The violation of the church or a school as a sanctuary is an anti-Christian act. If this administration claims Christianity, then why is everything it does opposed to…
Here’s why the new Texas school curriculum is so very, very bad
Last week I spent a day in Austin, Texas, to testify for the second time against the new (and newly named) “Bluebonnet Learning K-5 Reading Language Arts” curriculum. Despite significant opposition, the Bible-infused curriculum was approved, which should be unsurprising…
Proposed new Texas school curriculum infused with Bible stories
A new curriculum under consideration by the Texas Education Agency threatens to turn state schools into Sunday schools and violate the religious freedom rights of children and families, education and religious liberty advocates warned during a recent webinar. The Bible-based…
Christians’ promotion of corporal punishment harms bodies, minds and the gospel
“Spanking? Well, you know, the Bible says, ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child.’” Actually, it doesn’t. The harsh teacher Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow spoke this popular misquotation of Proverbs 13:24. Even the website of…
Oklahoma school board allows nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, despite legal challenges
Despite widespread opposition, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 Oct. 9 to allow the first publicly funded religious charter school in the nation. St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School would be operated by the Catholic Archdiocese…
For the love of literature: How book bans are whitewashing America
It’s back to school time and, in the latest effort of book banning, new state legislation will restrict literature allowed in Texas schools based on a vague rating system about sexual content. House Bill 900, which goes into effect Sept….
In Zimbabwe, churches turn from free schools to lucrative tuition-based schools
Zimbabwe used to be among Africa’s top five most educated nations in terms of literacy and basic education enrollment. Legacy Christian denominations that accompanied colonial subjection in the early 1900s provided the bulk of quality public education for 100 years….