The Religion Unplugged column from Sacred Sector Director Chelsea Langston Bombino will explore religious freedom in the United States.
This month the Supreme Court issued an order that overturned California’s limits on religious gatherings in people’s homes, such as prayer meetings and scripture readings. Religion Unplugged interviewed Dr. John Jackson, President of William Jessup University, a California-based private Christian university in the Sacramento area. In our conversation, Dr. Jackson explored the spiritual and practical impacts of COVID-19 on the Jessup community, reflected on recent jurisprudence challenging religious freedom during the pandemic and offered a vision of religious freedom lived responsibly and stewarded for the benefit of others during the pandemic.
On Thursday, June 17, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, unanimously upheld the religious freedom of foster parents Sharonell Fulton and Toni Simms-Busch, advancing their ability to continue partnering with Catholic Social Services (CSS) to provide loving homes and families for vulnerable children.
A Texas court ruling is sparking debates about an obscure First Amendment doctrine that exempts religious institutions from certain civil lawsuits to protect them from government interference in their internal matters. The ruling’s interpretation raises concerns about how lay people can hold these institutions accountable when abuses happen.
Critics point out that the Equality Act would scrap exemptions for religious freedom, setting up various conflicts between the act and religious groups.
The Fairness for All law is a balanced, principled approach to protecting the real and felt needs of both LGBTQ communities and religious communities.
On Feb. 14, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order reestablishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships — an office largely ignored by the Trump administration — and announced Melissa Rogers as executive director. Rogers served the same role in the Obama administration.
The Supreme Court recently reversed California’s discriminatory ban on indoor worship in a case brought by two churches against Governor Gavin Newsom. The churches claimed the state’s extreme prohibitions on all indoor religious services discriminated against religious institutions while permitting other large indoor venues to open, like Hollywood soundstages and large, nonessential department stores.
Biden’s emphasis on uniting our nation, and his implicit reference to the role of faith in declaring his “whole soul” was in it, are significant. It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will advance an approach to working together across differences, particularly between government and diverse faith-based and community-based organizations. Whatever approach the Biden administration takes, it will be building upon over two decades of bipartisan principles advancing faith-based and government collaboration.
Just days ago, in the heart of Advent, the Supreme Court upheld the religious freedom of Muslim Americans whose most sacred capacities to live out their faith were deeply violated by those in power in the federal government. This Supreme Court decision should be celebrated by Christians. And the spiritual import of the season in which this ruling came down should not be lost on Christians.
On Jan. 6, a group of people who felt disenfranchised were led to do something incredibly destructive. These people were not just bad actors. Their sense of disenfranchisement was exploited by those with political power. The events of violence at the Capitol on Wednesday were a horrific assault on our essential democratic institutions.
