Religious Liberty

SEATTLE (BP) – World Vision qualifies for a ministerial exception in refusing to hire a married lesbian expectant mother as a remote customer service representative, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – Liberty Counsel has filed the opening brief to seek dismissal of a wrongful termination case brought by a former Liberty University employee who hid his steps to transition and identify as a female during the hiring process.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP) – A recent memo by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) further expands religious liberty protections for federal employees.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (BP) -- The University of California agreed July 29 to pay $6.13 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the school of antisemitism in its handling of 2024 campus protests that excluded Jews from sections of the campus.

On July 7, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reached an agreement with plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit concerning free speech for churches. In a joint motion, the parties asked the court to settle the dispute, reinterpreting the Johnson Amendment and clarifying that churches are no longer restricted from speaking about political issues or candidates. 

DAYTON, Tenn. – Austin Peay profoundly misjudged the moment when he, with the swoop of a pen and the authority vested in him as Tennessee’s governor, signed the Butler Act into law on March 21, 1925.

NASHVILLE (BP) – For distributing the Bible and sharing the Gospel in the Soviet Union, Aleksei Kharlamov’s great-grandfather was sent to Siberia and never heard from again. His grandfather and father both were persecuted for being Baptist pastors. Growing up in post-Soviet Moscow, Kharlamov was called a cult member for being a Baptist.

As the echoes of Fourth of July fireworks fade and we turn our attention to the week ahead, Southern Baptists also will take a moment to celebrate a key freedom that Americans have long enjoyed and that Baptists have continually sought to defend.

WASHINGTON (BP) – Russia continued to persecute pastors and shutter churches within its borders and in territories it occupies in Ukraine in 2025, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said June 30 in an updated report on Russia.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal judge denied the Chatham County Board of Commissioners’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by The Summit Church and partially granted the church’s request for a preliminary injunction against the county’s decision to deny The Summit’s application to rezone approximately 50 acres of land for a new worship facility.