Religious Freedom

Religious freedom is the right of individual conscience; to believe as we will and to change our minds freely, without undue influence from government or from powerful religious institutions. The right to believe differently from the rich and the powerful is a prerequisite for free speech and a free press, the other two elements of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This makes religious freedom a progressive value by any measure – and is exactly why the rich and powerful of the 21st century are hell-bent on redefining it to their advantage.

The Christian Right is bringing a vast set of distortions into public life in the name of religious freedom. Their goal is to impose a conservative Christian social order with theocratic elements inspired by religious law. To achieve this goal, they seek to remove religious freedom as an integral part of religious pluralism and constitutional democracy, and redefine it to justify discrimination.

You Might Think They're Absurd but They're Quite Serious: Frederick Clarkson on The New Apostolic Reformation

Inform Your Resistance Season 3: Episode 3

A man in a suit talking with his hand raised.

This episode discusses the broad and far-reaching implications the New Apostolic Reformation has for democracy and religious freedom.

Podcast

Protesters standing around a mic, two people holding a banner that reads "no right to discriminate"

As Australia’s first Pentecostal Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, perhaps could not help but notice, the events of his first years in office had biblical connotations. “Floods. Fires. Drought. Pandemic. Mouse plague,” Morrison recently quipped to his…

Article

Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz Hasn't Gone Away

It's Just Gotten More Secretive

Older woman standing in crowd with both hands raised

In the Fall of 2019, the secretive Christian Right state legislative campaign, Project Blitz, became even more of a secret. When RD first reported on Project Blitz in April 2018 the website featured…

Article

The Christian and business Right has been steadily building political, policy and legislative capacity in the states since the 1980s. Since 2016, a Christian Right state legislative campaign called Project Blitz has become part of this …

Article

A professor offers a prayer during a rally by the LGBTQ Christian community at Azusa Pacific University to show support after the school reinstated a ban on same-sex relationships, October 1, 2018. Credit: Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

When Gary Campbell enrolled in Baptist Bible College (now Clarks Summit University) in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in 2001, he knew he was gay. He was among those students who, in an effort to repress their sexual orientation, choose the…

Article

Religious Freedom is the Cornerstone of Our Democracy

Religious freedom is a central issue of our time. It has figured prominently in recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was a major theme of the presidential election of 2016. And it has been a major theme of the Christian Right in both…

Article

Tony Perkins speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. on October 7, 2011. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

Paul Rosenberg recently published an essay at Salon that challenged the myth that the United States was founded as a Christian Nation. The occasion was the then-forthcoming annual celebration of Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the…

Article

Two men in suits and glasses standing in front of a background saying "FRCAction"

Originally published in 2011, the Culture Impact Team Resource Manual—which includes, among other things, sample voter guides and instructions for church-based voter registration drives—has served as the primer for church-based, Christian Right…

Article

Religious Freedom and the Christian Right's Masterpiece of Manipulation

Throughout history, people have used religion to justify a myriad of injustices. In the United States, for example, some Christians used their faith to defend slavery and segregation, citing scriptural references as moral justification for the…

Article

The Christian Right’s Growing Allegiance to Trump

As Donald Trump exited the stage after addressing the 2016 Values Voter Summit (VVS) in Washington, DC a year ago, the Rolling Stone’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” blasted from the speakers. The audience gathered together for the Family…

Article

The Meaning of the Nashville Line in the Sand

The hundreds of Southern Baptist and conservative Reformed leaders who initially signed the recent Nashville Statement, have always opposed all forms of sexuality and gender expressions outside of heterosexual marriage. But in the face of broad…

Article

Seventeen Years of Tracking the World Congress of Families

PRA first reported on the World Congress of Families (WCF) in 2000, noting its role within the coalition of Christian Right groups that was beginning to emerge as a well-organized and influential force at the United Nations. Writing for The Public…

Article

Profile on the Right: Alliance Defending Freedom

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is an international legal organization serving at the frontlines of the Christian Right’s effort to redefine religious freedom and insert its anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice agenda into every element of government and…

Profile on the Right

The President Gets Paradoxical about Religious Freedom

During the presidential campaign and since assuming office, Donald Trump has repeatedly promised the Christian Right that he would make religious freedom a priority. In an apparent bid for their support, Trump made clear that he would advance the…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 3

Religious Freedom and the Christian Right

The right to believe differently from the rich and the powerful is a prerequisite for free speech and a free press. Separation exists not to limit religious expression, but to safeguard against creeping religious supremacism and the theocratic…

Article

Many are called but few are chosen during any presidential transition. That’s why it’s illuminating to consider who Donald Trump has chosen from the parade of possibilities for his transition team and senior administration appointments so far— and…

Article

Religious Freedom is a Progressive Value

To read press coverage about it, one might think that religious freedom is a concern only for religious and political conservatives, and not one of the most liberatory ideas in history. One would also think religious freedom and civil rights are at…

Article

A Forthcoming Fortnight of Demagoguery

Religious liberty is already a central feature of the 2016 election campaign. But the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) intends to enlarge and escalate the debate when it wages its fifth annual Fortnight for Freedom this …

Article

Trump, Cruz, & Dominionism

Some Christian Right Leaders Fear a Crack-Up

The 2016 Republican presidential campaign has transformed American politics, likely forever. Everyone is making adjustments, but two recent illuminating episodes suggest that some Christian Right leaders are finding the changes to be unusually…

Article

Dominionism is the New Religious Freedom

Historians may someday see the 2016 election season as the turning point in how our society understands the Dominionist movement that is seeking to recast society in its own image.

Article

When Exemption Is the Rule

The Religious Freedom Strategy of the Christian Right

Report

The Christian Right Does Not Want Us to Celebrate this Day

Religious Freedom Day provides an opportunity for us to think dynamically about the meaning of religious freedom in our time – even as the Christian Right seeks to redefine it beyond recognition.

Article

When the Exception Is the Rule: Christianity in the Religious Freedom Debates

The 2014 case of General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper was a landmark event because, although the case was ostensibly about opposition to marriage equality, the decision upheld foundational notions of religious equality and equal…

Article

Charleston Massacre An Attack on Christianity? Yes, But Not How the Christian Right Says

Immediately following the mass murder some Christian Right leaders jumped onto the airwaves to claim the shooting was an example of the campaign against religious freedom in America. It turns out they were onto something, just not what they had…

Article

When in Doubt, Religify!

Fear Mongering about Religious Liberty

So much of the contemporary religious liberty campaign being conducted by the Christian Right is demagogic fear-mongering designed to justify discrimination against other Americans, particularly LGBTQ people. While most of our attention is directed…

Article

The Right’s Dangerous Duo

Robert P. George & Rick Warren

The two men are experimenting with their own version of complementarity, each playing distinct roles in the manipulation of religious liberty arguments. In his usual behind-the-scenes way, George has been acting as one of the primary strategists,…

Article

Growing Mormon-Catholic Alliance

Quiet Partners Behind Christian Right’s Religious Discrimination Agenda

While Tony Perkins, Brian Brown, Bryan Fischer, and other Christian Right pundits of the more shrill variety may be easy to ignore as they demand a right to discriminate on Fox News, there is a more dangerous coalition emerging. One of the primary…

Article

Not All the Same

Christian Right's Hobby Lobbyization of State RFRAs

Since the Hobby Lobby v. Burwell Supreme Court ruling in 2014, Christian Right agencies like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Becket Fund, the Mormon Church, and their allies at the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, have pushed state…

Article

The Overlooked Indiana Outcomes that Could Haunt the Christian Right

The Christian Right’s strategy has suffered some powerful losses of late. It is good to take notice.

Article

The Campaign to Undermine Pro-LGBTQ Churches

The The Christian Right’s narrative that mainline church membership is declining primarily because of differences over things like marriage equality unravels when subjected to scrutiny. One of the primary reasons for the departures is a sustained…

Article

The Religious Right Operative Who Helped Write Utah’s Nondiscrimination Law

Was the non-discrimination/religious freedom law in Utah really the “historic compromise” it’s being touted as, or a Trojan Horse for the Religious Right’s agenda? There now seems to be little doubt with the discovery that one of the law’s authors…

Article

Utah LGBTQ Rights Bill a Trojan Horse for Religious Right’s Agenda

There were both cheers and tears as many in the Utah LGBTQ community celebrated the passage of a workplace and housing nondiscrimination law in the conservative Utah legislature. But behind closed doors, I suspect it’s actually the leaders of…

Article

Coming Soon to Utah: An International Festival of Bigotry

An international network of some of the world’s most vitriolic Religious Right activists and self-proclaimed orthodox religious leaders is holding its ninth global conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in October 2015. The World Congress of Families’ (…

Article

Right-Wing Pastors Defy Law, Endorse Candidates

The Religious Right’s Campaign to Deregulate Campaign Finance Law

Five years ago, the Citizens United decision struck a major blow to the integrity of the American electoral system. Now, the Religious Right is seeking to make their own breakthrough — a free-flow of campaign dollars to candidates through tax-exempt…

Article

Previewing the Next Anti-Marriage Equality Manifesto

Top leaders of the Christian Right plan to issue a fresh manifesto against marriage equality in March. It may be the defining document for the anti-marriage equality forces in the run up to the legal show down at the Supreme Court this summer (not…

Article

U.S. Theologian Wants Martyrs Against America

Christian Right thinkers and leaders are considering their options, from varying degrees of accommodation and acceptance, to massive resistance and revolution.

Article

VIDEO: PRA's Frederick Clarkson Discusses Religious Freedom Day on the David Pakman Show

Political Research Associates’ senior fellow for religious liberty, Frederick Clarkson, joined The David Pakman Show to discuss Religious Freedom Day, and how the definition of religious freedom laid out by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison is now…

Press Hit

After Marriage Equality Advances, Christian Right Leaders Back Away From Jail Time Pledges

The Christian Right is often long on style and short on substance. Depending on the day many of its leaders may cast themselves as the second coming of the Founding Fathers, the living legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or even as facing…

Article

Taking Religious Freedom Day Astray

Religious Freedom Day may be the most significant national day that most of us have never heard of. Considering how central religious freedom is to the Christian Right’s framing of issues ranging from abortion and contraception, to LGBTQ…

Article

Seize the Day!

Well, what if we did?

The Christian Right does not want us to think about Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the enactment of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. And when I say that the Christian Right does not want “us” to think…

Article

Old Time Revisionism

Southern Baptists Seek to Redefine Separation of Church and State

A conference at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC a few months ago provided a platform to launch a trial balloon for revising the Christian Right’s contentious and often bizarre approach to separation of…

Article

The Christian Right Does Not Want You to Know About This Day

In the heat of our political moment, we sometimes don’t see how our future connects deeply to our past. But the Christian Right does — and they do not like what they see. The Christian Right has made religious freedom the ideological phalanx of its…

Article

Christian Right Undermines Marriage Equality With Religious Supremacism

The Christian Right has been operating on multiple fronts to stop—or at least limit—the scope of the advance of marriage equality, including seeking to enable business owners, civil workers, and elected officials to openly discriminate against LGBTQ…

Article

The Nullification of Religious Liberty

It’s true. Religious liberty is under sustained attack in America—but not in the way the Christian Right would have us believe. A theocratic (and sometimes Neo-Confederate) movement within the broader Christian Right is targeting the religious…

Article

New App Furthers Christian Right's Redefined Notion of Religious Freedom

Their analysis is as simple as their goals are ambitious. United in Purpose claims that too few Christians of the right sort are registered, participating in public life, and sufficiently grounded in a theocratic “Biblical worldview.”

Article

If Democracy is a Crime Under Religious Right's Biblical Law, What is the Punishment?

If the Old Testament Biblical Laws that are foundational to the contemporary Christian Right are to be the standard, then it stands to reason that the biblically prescribed punishments would, in their view, fit the crimes. If that is so, then many…

Article

VIDEO: Hobby Lobby Decision Restricts Religious Freedom

PRA’s executive director Tarso Luís Ramos joined The David Pakman show to discuss how SCOTUS’ Hobby Lobby decision actually restricts religious liberty. “Despite the rhetoric of Christian Right groups, the battle for the meaning of…

Press Release

PRA's Fred Clarkson Discusses Religious Liberty on Between The Lines Radio

PRA’s senior fellow, Frederick Clarkson, joined Between The Lines radio this week to discuss the SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, and the broader campaign to redefine religious liberty by the Religious Right.

Press Hit

Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos Explains Hobby Lobby Decision on Real News Network

PRA’s executive director Tarso Luís Ramos appeared on The Real News Network to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. “The decision effectively transforms the Framer’s notion of religious liberty as a shield against…

Press Hit

In Post-Hobby Lobby Era, Rick Warren Says He Is Willing to Go to Jail

Even though ERLC president Moore says he is confident Hobby Lobby will win their case, the panelists nevertheless agreed that Christians, and all people of faith, face creeping governmental “persecution.”

Article

Greasing the Line

Multiple Court Rulings Advance Government Sectarian Prayer

The combined case of Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius and Conestoga Wood v. Sebelius may be one of the most important religious liberty cases in American history. But the recently decided—but less well known—case Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway should not…

Article

Corporate Religious Freedom

The 3 Possible Outcomes in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby

In March, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which was combined with Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius. No matter how the cases are decided, they may well be two of the most pivotal Supreme Court…

Article

Southern Baptist Leader Takes Religious Liberty Arguments to the Absurd

Like other Christian Right leaders, Moore continues to rely on historical revisionism, bogus science, dubious claims of religious persecution, and hints darkly of tyrannical governmental violence to come. But his arguments in favor of discrimination…

Article

PRA's Jay Michaelson Discusses AZ's SB 1062 on CNN

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ explosive report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Liberties, joined CNN to discuss how Arizona’s SB1062 is only the beginning of the Right’s push to…

Press Hit

Jay Michaelson Discusses Arizona Anti-LGBTQ Bill On NPR

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ Redefining Religious Liberty: the Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, joined NPR to discuss how the Right has twisted the meaning of “religious liberty” to advance a bill in Arizona that…

Press Hit

"Accidental Activism" and Redefining Religious Liberty

Accidental Activist illustrates not only the considerable efforts of the Religious Right to foster paranoia about anti-Christian persecution but also the intentionality and sophistication of the narrative. Through its melding of conservative racial…

Article

AUDIO: PRA's Jay Michaelson Discusses "Religious Liberty" on NPR

Jay Michaelson, author of Political Research Associates’ report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, joined NPR’s All Things Considered program over the weekend to discuss the Right’s claim that…

Press Hit

A rainbow flag outside a church with the words "All are welcome"

A well-funded network of conservative Roman Catholics and evangelicals is using a “religious liberty” framework to attack same-sex marriage, antidiscrimination laws, access to contraception, and abortion rights—not on moral grounds, but because they…

Article

Right to Discriminate: HuffPost Live Discusses Religious Liberty

“Religious liberty was meant to be a shield, not a sword,” says Jay Michaelson, author of PRA’s Redefining Religious Liberty report (pdf). “Religious liberty has become a code word, kind of like family values.”

Press Hit

New PRA Report Exposes Right's "Religious Liberty" Campaign

Consider the following situation: Because of her religious beliefs against same-sex marriage, a New Mexico photographer refuses to shoot a lesbian couple’s wedding. The photographer claims taking the pictures would infringe on her religious liberty…

Press Release

As New Pope Inaugurated, New Report Exposes Catholic Church's and Right's "Religious Liberty" Campaign

As a new pope with hardline stances against reproductive and LGBTQ rights is inaugurated, a new report documents how a network of conservative Christian organizations, beginning with a group of ultra-conservative Catholic organizations, has…

Press Release

VA Bill Allowing Campus Groups to Ban LGBTQ Students Awaits Gov. Signature

The Virginia state legislature passed a bill yesterday that would allow religious and political student groups on college campuses to discriminate and still receive public funding. The bill, which would prevent universities from implementing wide-…

Article

The New Religious Freedom Argument

Gay Marriage in the 2012 Election

A rainbow flag with the words: Bigotry disguised as "Religious Liberty" is still Bigotry!

The political world was abuzz this spring when the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential battle plan to block LGBTQ marriage rights became public in a Maine lawsuit and the Human Rights Campaign posted it for the world to see.

Article

Religious Liberty Not Threatened By Gay Marriage, says Rev. Katherine H. Ragsdale, Director of Political Research Associates

Opponents of gay marriage in Massachusetts are misleading in saying that religious liberty is threatened by its legalization in the state, says The Reverend Katherine H. Ragsdale, an Episcopal priest and director of the Somerville, MA think tank…

Statement

Person's hand turning a page of a Bible.

Reading Stephen Carter is a frustrating exercise. His points are argued in reasoned tones, without the bombast or rhetoric of so many Black conservatives. In fact, he argues that he is not a conservative. He frequently assures the reader that he…

Article

Search

Research