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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

Experts Including BJC's Walker Advise Presidential Candidates on Using Faith

Posted on August 28, 2008
Over at the Washington Post's On Faith site, panelists including the BJC's Brent Walker are answering the challenge: Advise John McCain and Barack Obama on the role religion should play in their presidential campaigns. There are lots of interesting responses...

DNC Religion Watch

Posted on August 28, 2008
Steven Waldman reports on the character of the many faith-related activities throughout this week's Democratic National Convention. I was quite ready to be cynical about all this. Democratic operatives seemed to get religion less by reading scriptures than by exit...

What is the Most Religiously Diverse Community in America?

Posted on August 27, 2008
Flushing, NY. An openness to immigration and laws protecting religious freedom helped create the conditions for religious tolerance in the United States, says an expert on immigration, religion and urban issues in America who has researched a neighborhood in New...

Tuesday Morning Roundup

Posted on August 26, 2008
So many items out there today, how am I supposed to choose? The Baptist Standard reports on the keynote sermon delivered at the Texas Baptists Committed conference by , who argued that the heritage of Baptists - if observed -...

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Biology Teachers Struggle with Evolution in Difficult Religious Environment

Posted on August 25, 2008
Over the weekend, the NYTimes featured a fascinating profile of David Campbell, a high school biology teacher in Orange Park, Florida. Campbell is searching for effective ways to introduce his students to evolution, now that the curriculum in that state...

Democrats Highlight Faith in Convention, I Offer Some Guidelines

Posted on August 25, 2008
I'm keeping an eye on the DNC Convention in Denver, just getting under way. A key theme in coverage of the event has been the role of faith and religion in this 4-day national commercial for the Democratic Party and...

Youth Drug Prevention Program Returns Government Grant After Church-State Questions Raised

Posted on August 25, 2008
Teen Challenge of Kentucky still feels it is qualified for a federal grant, but didn't want to go to court over the $50,000 in question. Americans United had sent a letter to HHS questioning the propriety of taxpayer money going...

Joe Biden on Church and State, Religious Liberty Issues

Posted on August 23, 2008
Since he's just been picked as Senator Obama's running mate, I did a little looking for evidence of Joe Biden's attitudes toward the separation of church and state and issues related to religious liberty. During the primaries, the Pew Forum...

New Poll: Growing Majority of Americans Want Churches Out of Politics

Posted on August 22, 2008
The Pew Research Center has released a new poll showing that for the first time more than 50% of Americans surveyed believe churches should "stay out of politics" as opposed to "express views". The most interesting part is where the...

DC's Third Church Pursues Argument Over Building's Role in Religious Exercise

Posted on August 22, 2008
NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reported yesterday on the dispute surrounding a Washington, DC church building whose congregants want to tear down in favor of a more pleasant-looking and more functional building. The problem is the structure has been designated a...

Summum Response Brief Filed

Posted on August 22, 2008
Via Melissa Rogers, the Summum response brief has been filed in the case to be heard by the Supreme Court in November. You can read it here (pdf). Other than the City?s distaste for Summum or its beliefs (or both),...

White House Faith-Based Director Resigns

Posted on August 21, 2008
The Roundtable reports that Jay Hein is leaving the White House to care for his ailing father in Indiana: Hein, 43, the third director to head the White House faith-based office since its inception in 2001, has steered the Initiative...

Army Chaplain Says Publishing General's Book Endorsement a Mistake

Posted on August 21, 2008
The author of a book on Christianity for military personnel says he made a mistake in publishing Gen David Petraeus' glowing review on the jacket. Now that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has come down on Petraeus for saying every...

Florida Voucher Amendment Hearing Set

Posted on August 20, 2008
The Orlando Sentinel blog reports that the Florida Supreme Court has set oral arguments for September 8 in the challenge to controversial ballot initiatives. The amendment proposals in question would alter the state's constitution by removing a key religious liberty...

Add To Your Bookmarks

Posted on August 20, 2008
A new blog at beliefnet has 2 well-known contributors discussing issues of religion in politics and government. Jay Sekulow and Barry Lynn post at Lynn v. Sekulow -- Politics, Religion and the Public Square. Add Blog From the Capital to...

BJC's Brent Walker Critiques Warren's Religious Discrimination Question at Saddlebrook Forum

Posted on August 19, 2008
Writing at the Washington Post's On Faith site, the Director of the Baptist Joint Committee, Rev. Brent Walker, points to the bias evident in Rick Warren's question to the presidential candidates about faith-based funding and hiring discrimination. It is unfortunate...

Coverage of Lesbian Fertility Refusal Case

Posted on August 19, 2008
As I posted yesterday, the CA Supreme Court ruled against physicians who tried to claim a religious exemption allowed them to refuse a lesbian woman a fertility procedure. The court did maintain, however that the doctors could refuse, so long...

Having it Both Ways on Hiring Rights and the Faith-Based Initiative

Posted on August 18, 2008
Former White House Faith-Based Director Jim Towey writes an op-ed in today's Denver Post, in advance of next week's Democratic convention in that city. He used the occasion of Saturday's Saddlebrook forum, and Rick Warren's question regarding faith-based funding and...

CA Supreme Court Rules in Physicians' Religious Exemption Case

Posted on August 18, 2008
Today the California Supreme Court ruled that physicians must provide equal access to all, despite any religious objections they may have to for certain procedures on certain individuals. At issue here were fertility doctors' refusal to perform intrauterine insemination on...

Saddlebrook Transcript and Video

Posted on August 17, 2008
You can read a transcript of Rick Warren's forum with Senators Obama and McCain here. And you can access video at the links below: Obama: Part 1 || Part 2 McCain: Part 1 || Part 2 For the most part, the questions were not offensively religion-obsessed...

Questioning the Saddlebrook Forum

Posted on August 16, 2008
Not everyone's happy about the presidential candidates participating in a church forum today, hosted by Rick Warren. AU's Barry Lynn wonders if we haven't covered this ground already: ?Campaign 2008 is starting to feel like a Sunday school Bible drill,?...

The Presidential Campaign Goes to Church

Posted on August 15, 2008
In today's Christian Science Monitor, Jane Lampson previews Saturday's presidential forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. It's a sign of religion's importance in the 2008 presidential campaign. The event, back-to-back one-hour interviews at Mr...

Federal Judge Rules Against Library's "Religious Service" Ban

Posted on August 15, 2008
Via Religion Clause, the Columbus Dispatch reports on a federal judge's injunction requiring the Upper Arlington Public Library to abandon their policy against using library facilities for "inherent elements of a religious service." The library had created a "limited public...

Faith in the Democratic Party Platform

Posted on August 14, 2008
Jeffrey Weiss at the Dallas Morning News read the platform draft of the Democratic Party, looking for references to faith. Here's one key example he found, that indicates an interest in continuing faith-based funding while attempting to ensure religious liberty...

Florida Supreme Court to Hear Appeal of Voucher-Related Amendments

Posted on August 14, 2008
AP reports the legal dispute over Florida's ballot initiatives slated for November will be heard by the state's Supreme Court. A trial judge rejected a challenge by civil liberties groups to the amendments, which would allow a school voucher program....

ADF Asks Supreme Court to Consider "Student Expression" Case

Posted on August 13, 2008
The Allied Defense Fund has filed cert (pdf) with the Supreme Court asking them to review the 6th Circuit's ruling in favor of a Michigan school district. There, an 11-year-old had incorporated religious literature into a project in which students...

University of California Can Reject Course Credits From Christian High Schools [UPDATED]

Posted on August 13, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the decision by a federal judge allowing the University of California to continue denying credits for high school classes that don't meet standards. Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited...

Texas Judge Rejects Injunction Request by Teachers

Posted on August 12, 2008
The Texas State Teachers Association believes a new state dropout recovery, policy offering grants to nonprofits education alternatives, is in reality a school voucher program in disguise. They filed suit a week ago, requesting a halt to the program, but...

New From the Baptist Joint Committee

Posted on August 12, 2008
General Counsel Holly Hollman looks into the debate over the future of the Faith-Based Initiative, from the perspective of the BJC's history opposing government funding of religious organizations. The BJC has been a watchdog and critic of much of the...

Santeria Priest Gains Spotlight

Posted on August 11, 2008
Today's LATimes profiles Ernesto Pichardo, a Santeria Priest known for his legal challenges in support of the Afro-Cuban religion's ritual animal killings. According to the piece, Pichardo filed suit this summer over a police raid on the home where his...

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