National News

BATON ROUGE, La. – Luke Ash, a bi-vocational pastor with Stevendale Baptist Church, has filed a lawsuit against the East Baton Rouge Parish Library system for violating his First Amendment right of religious liberty and for denying him protection against religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Melson to become president of Moody Bible Institute; Chinese authorities allegedly target Texas family.

WASHINGTON (BP) – Gene Mills, president of the nonprofit Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), has joined the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as an appointee of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

WASHINGTON (BP) – U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Southern Baptist who began supporting Donald Trump after first challenging him for the 2016 presidency, died suddenly July 11 after reportedly suffering an aortic tear at his Washington home.

PHILADELPHIA (BP) – The Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home was back in court July 7 defending its federally approved exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate in a case dating to 2013 and involving three Supreme Court victories.

The passage of the First Amendment, ratified in 1791, was the end of a long struggle for Religious Freedom in America.

Why was the persecution of Baptists more intense in Virginia than other colonies? How did that persecution lead to religious liberty in America?

With few exceptions, Baptists across the colonies, especially those who had experienced persecution, supported the American Revolution. Reasons included persecution, other grievances including taxation without representation, and the tyranny exhibited by the British crown and royal governors. Baptists hoped to gain both political and religious freedom by supporting the war.

CLINTON, Miss. — Whenever Duval Salvant thinks about representing Mississippi Christian University, the city of Clinton and the state of Mississippi as he leads the MC Marching Band down historic Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., during the 2026 National Independence Day Parade on July 4, one word repeatedly comes to his mind.

WASHINGTON (BP) – More than 1.3 million immigrants are set to lose their legal residency here after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Haitians and Syrians seeking an extension of Temporary Protected Status first issued decades ago.