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Religion & Law

Blog From The Capital

Blog from the Capital is the weblog of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Baptist church-state separation advocacy group in D.C. for the last 70 years.

Post Frequency: 8.8/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2009 at 16:22:09

Huckabee "Clarifies" Constitution Remark

Posted on January 17, 2008
In a Beliefnet interview, Mike Huckabee was asked about his recent shocking (and wrong) statement that the Constitution should be amended to comply with God's beliefs. I'm not sure that this follow-up really helps his case, but see for yourself...

A New Offensive Against IRS Church Campaigning Regulations

Posted on January 17, 2008
Via Religion Clause, yesterday's Wall Street Journal ran an ad paid for by the Becket Fund containing an open letter from a pastor to the IRS' Acting Commissioner. The letter criticized the IRS for investigating churches and threatening their tax-exempt...

After AU Letter, Alabama Public School System Halts Christian Film Showing

Posted on January 16, 2008
After a Tuscaloosa (AL) school last year showed "Facing the Giants", a film with a decidedly Christian message, produced by a Georgia Baptist church, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State began receiving complaints from concerned parents...

School Discretion in Limiting Student Religious Expression is Affirmed

Posted on January 16, 2008
Where does a young student's First Amendment rights bump up against a public school's wide discretion in controlling curriculum and instructional content? The 6th Circuit waded into that territory in a decision released today, and affirmed the right of an...

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Religious Freedom Day Awards

Posted on January 16, 2008
On this anniversary of the nation's first religious liberty law in Virginia, three awards will be given this evening by the Council for America's First Freedom. Charles Haynes (First Amendment Center), John Witte (Emory University), and Jakob Finci (Jewish Community...

Interfaith Alliance Criticizes Nevada's Saturday Caucus

Posted on January 16, 2008
Interfaith Alliance President Welton Gaddy raises a good point: Nevada's upcoming caucus conflicts with the Jewish Sabbath, on which traveling is restricted. In a country that values religious liberty, no person should ever be forced to choose between practicing their...

Huckabee Would Bring Constitution in Line With "God's Standards"

Posted on January 15, 2008
According to MSNBC, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee last night called for changes in the Constitution for the purpose of making it more acceptable to God. "[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's...

Backwards Thinking

Posted on January 15, 2008
A lawyer in Florida argues that recently proposed new science standards for public schools could be asking for a church-state challenge. Did they require intelligent design, foolishly, in the science curriculum as some have tried? Or stickers on the textbooks...

On Display: Faith and Foreign Policy

Posted on January 15, 2008
Today's NYTimes offers a report on President Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia that begins this way: President Bush?s Christianity is so central to his life that it is not surprising that it would figure prominently in a visit to Israel...

President Bush Proclaims Religious Freedom Day

Posted on January 14, 2008
As is custom, January 16 has been declared "Religious Freedom Day" by Presidential proclamation. The freedom to worship according to one's conscience is one of our Nation's most cherished values. It is the first protection offered in the Bill of...

Virginia Intervenes in Case Involving Church Division

Posted on January 14, 2008
In today's Washington Post: The case in Fairfax County Circuit Court is over whether the conservative congregations, which left the national church over disputes related to the interpretation of Scripture and the acceptance of homosexuality, can keep the land and...

Candidates Speak from Pulpit as Elections Approach [UPDATED]

Posted on January 14, 2008
A couple of campaign stories caught my attention from Sunday. This account of the 11:30 service at Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Las Vegas - at which presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke - certainly leaves the impression that a...

Moment of Silence Rationale

Posted on January 14, 2008
In the Nashville Tennessean on Friday, columnist and Vanderbilt Professor of Medicine Frank Boehm offered a piece entitled "'Moment of silence' gives the body a needed timeout" Today, in the average home, children often awake to and eat breakfast with...

School Time and Personal Time

Posted on January 11, 2008
As I've posted before, the recently passed mandatory "moment of silence" in Illinois public schools will be argued in front of a district judge after a challenge from a student and her father, Rob Sherman. Today's Baltimore Sun outlines the...

Is Bush's Faith-Based Initiative on the Decline?

Posted on January 10, 2008
A new story at the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy looks beyond the current Bush Administration toward the future of his faith-based funding initiative. After all, the number of churches and other religious organizations seeking government funding is...

8th Circuit Denies Iowa Prison Ministry En Banc Request

Posted on January 10, 2008
Prison Fellowship Ministries had asked the entire 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear its case regarding the InnerChange program in Iowa, but the Court declined, AP reported yesterday. A lower court had declared the program unconstitutional, a ruling affirmed...

Missouri School District's Bible Distribution Ruled Unconstitutional

Posted on January 10, 2008
Missouri's South Iron School District has been embroiled in a series of legal battles since 2005 over their longstanding practice of allowing Gideon's to distribute Bibles to fifth-graders in their classroom during the school day. I have a hard time....

Saudi Academy Books Reviewed for Intolerance

Posted on January 10, 2008
A controversial Saudi school in Virginia is under renewed fire after translations of textbooks, reviewed for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, allegedly revealed intolerant passages, according to today's Washington Post: Commission member Nina Shea said the panel is...

Grassley Still Waiting on Ministry Response

Posted on January 09, 2008
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has yet to hear from most of the six television ministries he has questioned about finances in connection with their tax-exempt status. The Tampa Tribune reports today: "It's a new year and the ministries that have...

HR 888

Posted on January 09, 2008
HR 888is a mammoth resolution from Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) [remember him?] that would "affirm our nation's religious history" through some 75 statements - of various accuracy - about America's past, followed by 4 be-it-resolved conclusions: That the United States...

California Group Advises Pastors in Election Season

Posted on January 08, 2008
As I said below - in truly long-winded, rambly, late-night fashion - most churches do not engage in improper campaign activity. Most ministers - I feel certain - do not want to jeopardize their tax exempt status, even if they...

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