Religious Liberty

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.

WASHINGTON (BP) – The United States Supreme Court ruled Friday (June 27) that parents of public-school children in Montgomery County, Md., have a right to opt their kids out of classroom reading times with books the school board labels as “LGBTQ inclusive.”

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state's public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON (BP) – The Supreme Court has ordered New York courts to reconsider some of their previous decisions in light of the High Court’s ruling in the Wisconsin Catholic Charities case earlier this month.