https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to separation of church and state en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/02/10/70th-national-prayer-breakfast-made-cosmetic-changes-biden-delivered-same-old-tone-deaf Last week, Americans were forced to endure this year’s National Prayer Breakfast —the 70th since the unfortunate tradition, which ought to have been dropped as an embarrassing relic of early Cold War excess decades ago, was launched by the authoritarian… Fri, 10 Feb 2023 04:21:22 EST Chrissy Stroop 5a726a5a-a97c-4642-85ac-491c7fecbba8 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/01/20/todays-inauguration-was-reconsecration-sacred-space C’mon, admit it: you had the Kleenex handy while you watched the swearing-in of the 46th president with all of the attendant ruffles and flourishes. I certainly did. I doubt that any other presidential inauguration in any of our lifetimes… Wed, 20 Jan 2021 04:28:24 EST Peter Laarman 0778af85-7c2c-41c0-b104-426e4d2fde2e https://religiondispatches.org/2020/12/15/inevitable-megachurch-abuse-ppp-funds-coming-light-private-jet-included “The federal government can’t take our money and give it to Joel Osteen or Robert Jeffress or Paula White—even in the wake of a pandemic,” I wrote back in May. But that’s exactly what Trump’s Small Business Administration has done… Tue, 15 Dec 2020 04:54:54 EST Andrew L. Seidel c665be66-1185-4c7d-8f98-910022f8b667 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/04/22/government-prayer-isnt-inclusive-lets-not-pretend-otherwise In the run up to Easter and the National Day of Prayer, chaplains and guest chaplains around the nation have sowed religious division and discord as they delivered prayers at state legislatures, and now, federal courts are giving them their stamp of approval. Mon, 22 Apr 2019 12:48:17 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 26281079-f56c-42aa-8be8-8569fae45a47 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/04/01/if-you-dont-have-peace-you-dont-have-jesus-preacher-tells-georgia-house-representatives The past couple of weeks have shown the country that, even though the Supreme Court has said prayers are constitutional, government bodies should stop organizing them. They are divisive, intimidating, coercive—and certainly unbecoming in bodies that represent our increasingly pluralistic communities. Mon, 01 Apr 2019 12:44:42 EDT Andrew L. Seidel dd7ccb69-aea3-498f-a5b8-708e2f5653a9 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/02/28/alito-activism-sloppy-lemons-3-takeaways-bladensburg-cross-oral-argument Far from sending a troubling message, as Justice Alito contends, removing unconstitutional crosses maintained by the government on government land would send a clear and simple message: In the United States, the Constitution rules. Thu, 28 Feb 2019 05:41:44 EST Andrew L. Seidel c470112b-35c8-497f-82ac-008a0ca7db6c https://religiondispatches.org/2019/02/25/scotus-likely-support-memorial-cross-should-we-even-care Every court to decide on such a cross has said that it must come down or be moved to private property, but the conservative Supreme Court majority may rule in its favor. Have we simply forgotten how well separation of church and state has worked? Mon, 25 Feb 2019 04:14:16 EST Andrew L. Seidel d1809eab-4f22-42af-a5a8-6bf711ec3610 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/02/24/jesus-my-savior-and-i-oppose-bladensburg-cross-memorial The army inquires about soliders’ faiths because it doesn’t assume the people dying to defend this nation are Christian. When one views the cross in that light, it seems antithetical to the ideals for which those same soldiers fought. Sun, 24 Feb 2019 12:50:00 EST Judd Lienhard 7a8aeb6b-6d48-4746-ac65-1704d0f8fcac https://religiondispatches.org/2017/06/27/whats-so-troubling-about-funding-playground-how-trinity-lutheran-undermines-first On Monday, the Supreme Court took a dramatically new approach to the First Amendment, though you wouldn’t have known it from reading the brief, oversimplified opinion. In Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer the Court held that—at least… Tue, 27 Jun 2017 02:30:13 EDT Elizabeth Platt ee2bebec-e9fb-4e45-9271-9f43c865a63f https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/04/why-trumps-religious-liberty-order-whole-lot-nothing This morning’s presidential signing of an executive order “promoting free speech and religious liberty” isn’t the broad license to discriminate against LGBT people that many activists feared. Instead, it’s a vague, largely symbolic gesture that seems intended to appease the… Thu, 04 May 2017 06:47:36 EDT Sunnivie Brydum 081ec1d1-7c23-4ddd-92a8-871317920a62 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/02/16/why-religion-or-politics-wrong-question No wonder Americans are so unhappy—we have made a virtue of denying ourselves integrity in favor of psycho-somatic division. Thu, 16 Feb 2017 01:19:23 EST Kate Blanchard 66de28de-0625-4605-ac21-4c012f6b5f42 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/05/mega-church-and-state-separation-not-election-year David Eagle reports in The Christian Century what many small-church pastors have known for a while: megachurches are where parishioners go when they want a great (big) youth program for the kids and not a lot of involvement for themselves… Thu, 05 May 2016 01:12:37 EDT Daniel Schultz 80185a5b-3adb-41c9-a46a-90bdb62d8f7a https://religiondispatches.org/2016/04/19/bible-too-holy-be-tennessees-state-book What does the Bible have in common with a raccoon, a Barrett M82 rifle, and square-dancing? Soon, like all these unlike things, the Bible may be part of the state of Tennessee’s official symbology, since the sponsors of House Bill… Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:22:51 EDT Adam Shapiro c1876258-4ef1-40b1-bc60-b3d8e9dffee2 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/08/20/more-pressure-obama-fix-his-religious-freedom-legacy Today over 130 civil rights, religious liberty, educational, feminist, and LGBT rights groups wrote a letter to President Obama, urging him to instruct the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to “review and reconsider” a 2007 legal memorandum… Thu, 20 Aug 2015 05:40:27 EDT Sarah Posner 10fbd3eb-83ff-4e6b-9dfb-4206931f0d22 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/08/06/how-fringe-theocratic-movement-helped-shape-religious-right-we-know-it A Q&A with Julie Ingersoll on the history of Christian Reconstructionism as told in her new book: Building God’s Kingdom. Thu, 06 Aug 2015 04:04:04 EDT Sarah Posner c6ad1b46-8082-4352-b795-ec01e9214635 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/07/07/uncertain-post-obergefell-world-religious-exemptions Today Americans United for the Separation of Church and State launched a new project, Protect Thy Neighbor, aimed, organizers said, at the overuse of religious exemptions in legislatures and the courts. The most immediate concerns of the project, launched less… Tue, 07 Jul 2015 02:43:06 EDT Sarah Posner 757d9362-173e-4d44-a244-5c092029fe92 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/02/06/michael-sean-winters-right-pope-francis-should-not-address-congress No religious leader has ever addressed a Joint meeting of Congress—so, why now? Fri, 06 Feb 2015 04:38:47 EST Patricia Miller dadcce67-b92a-4f1e-b12d-8707258c84a0 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/10/15/houstons-pastor-subpoenas-meme-made-fox-news The conservative media world is today aflame over subpoenas served on pastors, by the City of Houston, in litigation brought by activists who claim the City wrongfully rejected their effort to put a recently-passed amendment to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance… Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:33:31 EDT Sarah Posner 003bc859-be6e-4005-9406-9570d734a8a6 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/07/25/will-anti-lgbt-government-contractors-have-rfra-claim Religiously-affiliated government contractors, responding to President Obama’s executive orders barring discrimination by federal government contractors based on sexual orientation and gender identity, believe they may have a claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) should they lose, be denied… Fri, 25 Jul 2014 01:12:37 EDT Sarah Posner cfff5920-ca62-4204-9b1d-48d072be9461 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/scotus-tackles-government-prayer-greece-v-galloway Arguments in the Supreme Court’s first public prayer case in 30 years are more complicated than they at first appear to be. Thu, 12 Dec 2013 02:32:52 EST Becky Garrison 6a98f568-d336-4fb0-bd52-8c7590a83c2c https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/04/will-irs-crack-down-church-politicking Church-state separation advocates say agency has waited too long to reform rules. Wed, 04 Dec 2013 12:16:59 EST Sarah Posner c8f670f1-5a0d-44f5-97ae-abcc795a5aae https://religiondispatches.org/2013/09/10/unholy-battle-over-ground-zero-cross Do atheists have a case? Tue, 10 Sep 2013 05:31:39 EDT Becky Garrison 33243e36-a6a4-4fb6-9e46-133e057db90c https://religiondispatches.org/2013/04/03/are-culture-wars-over-look-states It’s still too soon to say social conservatives are finished. Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:13:32 EDT Sarah Posner fd626443-147d-4670-86db-c1f6f78c27c4 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/02/01/why-religious-exemptions-matter Drawing lines, protecting church-state separation. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:30:24 EST Sarah Posner f12098f5-bcaf-4849-bfeb-680df927b918 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/11/18/let-my-preachers-endorse-modest-church-state-proposal In response to churches that refuse to quit electioneering Church-State watchdogs are demanding action… but what if there were a way for churches to constitutionally endorse candidates and do all the electioneering they like? Well, here it is… Sun, 18 Nov 2012 09:38:33 EST Michael Leo Owens 738bfdfb-2fb3-48ea-a677-232002829fab