More than 2,800 evangelical Christians called on the U.S. Congress to act promptly to address the situation of Dreamers who benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program but now find their legal status imperiled.

A letter drafted by the Evangelical Immigration Table highlighted the dilemma faced by young adults who were brought to the United States as children.

About 616,000 of these individuals—often called Dreamers—live and work legally in the United States under DACA, but a recent court decision jeopardizes their legal status. It also blocks the program from accepting new applicants who otherwise would be eligible.

Dreamers “should be offered an expedited process to apply for permanent legal status and eventual citizenship,” the letter stated.

More than 250 Texas evangelicals—including some prominent Texas Baptists—signed the letter.

Jesse Rincones, executive director of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, asserted a permanent DACA solution would offer many benefits to the state—and the nation—in general.

“The almost 1,100 Hispanic Baptist churches in Texas are at the forefront of promoting the values that give Texas and America a hopeful future—faith, family, education, leadership and justice,” Rincones said.

“Providing a permanent DACA solution is the most pro-family, pro-education, pro-economy and pro-faith step that Congress and the president can take on this issue. Their failure to do so will have effects that reach far beyond the more than 100,000 DACA recipients in Texas.”

Gus Reyes, director of Texas Baptists’ Center for Cultural Engagement and the Christian Life Commission, voiced concern both for “the vulnerable among us and our civil authorities’ responsibility to promote both civil order and the common good.”

“Therefore, it is of vital importance our members of Congress work together to fix our broken immigration system,” Reyes said. “I am particularly concerned with the situation facing our Dreamers, whose futures have been imperiled for far too long. Now is the time for Congress to act.”

The Evangelical Immigration Table letter, called on lawmakers to forge “a bipartisan consensus on immigration policy,” voicing support for restitution-based immigration reform that honors the law while also prioritizing family unification.

“Reforms to our federal immigration laws are long overdue, and we see the negative impacts of a broken immigration system on the immigrant families within our congregations and our communities,” the letter stated.

“Guided by biblical principles, we believe that our immigration system should both facilitate legal immigration—including to protect those fleeing persecution, to reunite families and to strengthen our economy—and ensure secure borders. We can be both a welcoming nation and a safe nation.”

Myles Werntz, director of the Baptist Studies Center at Abilene Christian University, emphasized the biblical mandate to welcome the stranger.

“Those fleeing for their lives and seeking to be a part of a new people should not be turned away but should be welcomed, assisted and enabled to flourish,” Werntz said. “This is the biblical vision of immigration—that the outsiders should be welcomed in and treated as though they always belonged here.”

WASHINGTON (BP)—A Southern Baptist senator introduced an amendment that reinstates a ban on the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.

During consideration of a budget resolution, senators approved in a 50-49 vote the amendment by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.

In addition to barring federal funds from being used to pay for abortions, the amendment also blocks funding for government programs that discriminate against individual health care professionals or institutions that object to abortion.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., provided the deciding vote for the measure. He joined all the Republicans who were present in the evenly divided chamber in support of Lankford’s amendment. Manchin joined his Democratic colleagues to approve the amended, $3.5 trillion budget plan by a single vote.

Southern Baptist public policy specialist Chelsea Sobolik described Lankford’s effort as “certainly helpful for the pro-life cause.”

“As lawmakers craft legislation, they should start from a foundation that protects life—something that has been a source of bipartisan agreement for decades,” said Sobolik, acting public policy director of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “This amendment restores that policy in this budget process.”

The ERLC urges the House of Representatives “to follow the Senate’s lead and ensure these important pro-life riders are part of the budget resolution,” she said.

In a July 30 letter, the ERLC had urged Senate leaders to restore long-standing, pro-life policies removed from spending bills by the House. The House had approved appropriations bills in late July that eliminated the Hyde Amendment and other measures that either prohibit federal funding of abortion or, as in the case of the Weldon Amendment, protect the conscience rights of pro-life health care workers and institutions.

Retains protections of Hyde and Weldon amendments

The Hyde Amendment has barred federal funds in Medicaid and other programs from paying for abortions in every year since 1976. The Weldon Amendment has prohibited since 2004 government discrimination against pro-life health care providers and insurance plans.

Messengers to the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in June approved a resolution that denounced any attempt to rescind the Hyde Amendment and urged the retention of all pro-life “riders,” which must be approved each year in spending bills.

In the budget reconciliation process, only a majority is required for passage, rather than the normal requirement of 60 votes to invoke cloture and halt a filibuster. The Senate-passed resolution provides guidance for its committees in writing the actual budget bill for fiscal year 2022.

In a speech on the Senate floor before the vote, Lankford said his amendment would be consistent with the Hyde Amendment. Hyde “reflects a decades-long consensus that millions of Americans who profoundly are opposed to abortion should not be forced to pay for the taking of human lives of children or incentivize it with their taxpayer dollars,” he said.

“Millions of Americans of faith and of no faith know that the only difference between a child in the womb and outside the womb is time,” he said. “Just because they are smaller people doesn’t mean they should be any less protected by law.”

Lankford’s amendment was one of more than 40 such measures considered during a lengthy “vote-a-rama,” as it is known, that did not conclude until nearly 4 a.m. EDT on Aug. 11. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota was absent because of a medical need in his family.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Russell Moore, Southern Baptist ethicist-turned-public theologian, said that knowing people who became seriously ill or died from COVID-19 may be causing some vaccine-hesitant individuals to change their minds.

“One of the things, I think, that is moving the needle a little bit, more than anything else, is the experience of seeing great suffering,” he said Aug. 10 in a Washington Post Live interview.

“Sadly, many people are seeing people that believed themselves to be invulnerable getting sick or dying,” he continued. “And there’s a great deal of concern about that so, that, I think, is having more of a motivating factor than even all of the public service announcements and information that we can give.”

Moore resigned as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in May and has become a minister in residence of a Nashville, Tenn., church that is not affiliated with the SBC. He is the new director of Christianity Today magazine’s Public Theology Project.

Misinformation drives hesitancy

In a discussion with Washington Post senior writer Frances Stead Sellers, Moore said some people in certain sectors of evangelicalism—particularly Pentecostalism—may say, “God will protect me; I don’t need a vaccine.” But, he said, it is primarily misinformation that’s driving the hesitancy to access vaccines.

“I hear from pastors often, who are saying, ‘I’m trying to encourage my people to be vaccinated, showing them all the things that we can do together if we are,’” he said. “But there’s a great deal of misinformation that comes through on social media feeds and sometimes cable news networks, and that simply is much more time in the week than an hour or two hours on Sunday.”

A recent survey by Public Religion Research Institute found vaccine hesitancy has fallen among all religious groups. But the trend was less pronounced among white evangelicals, whose acceptance rate increased from 45 percent to 56 percent between March and June. That religious group remained the one with the highest percentage of vaccine refusers: 24 percent (compared to 26 percent in March).

Conspiracy theories feed uncertainty

Moore added that conspiracy theories and uncertainty, rather than pastors, are driving the evangelical hesitancy or refusal to get the vaccine. Pastors, he said, are often encouraging vaccinations and ministering to those who are sick.

“I don’t encounter many people in evangelical life—at least who are churchgoers—who are anti-vaxxers,” Moore said. “But I do encounter a lot who are just wondering, who do I trust and what do I believe? And so sometimes that takes a long time.”

Moore also said he rarely hears someone say, “I’m a supporter of QAnon.” But the conspiracy theories spread by QAnon and similar groups are reaching people who may not know their source, he added.

A growing issue is the number of younger evangelicals who are seeking advice on how to educate their parents who have bought into these kinds of theories, Moore insisted.

“They’re worried about them and want to know how to connect with them,” he said. “That’s almost a mirror image of the conversations I would have been having 10 years ago, when parents would be saying, ‘Help me to know how to talk and connect to my children.’”

‘We can do without some institutions’

Moore also was asked about his decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention, a move that was followed by the release of leaked correspondence in which he bemoaned racism within the institution and accused some SBC leaders of trying to delay attempts to address sexual abuse allegations.

“I think the decision was more about how best to carry out the calling that I think God has put on my life,” he responded.

“In a time when institutions are often not trusted, not just because of the cultural moment but because in many cases those institutions have failed, we can do without some institutions. But we cannot do without the church of Jesus Christ, in my view. So that’s going to require some new ways of connecting and being together.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As police escorted a demonstrator in a wheelchair away from the chanting throng descending on the U.S. Capitol Aug. 2, fellow protesters turned to watch the person go. The group paused for a moment, then altered their call.

They screamed in unison: “Thank you! We love you!”

The lone protester nodded, fist raised. The crowd erupted in applause.

It was a moment that played out again and again over the course of the afternoon.

According to Capitol police, more than 200 faith-led demonstrators were arrested while praying, singing and protesting in the street, hoping to draw attention to voting rights and a slate of other issues participants argued impact the poor and low-wage workers.

The sprawling demonstration was organized by the Poor People’s Campaign, an advocacy group led by ministers William Barber II and Liz Theoharis that tends to support left-leaning policies.

One in a series of recent demonstrations

Monday’s action constituted one of the largest mass-arrest nonviolent protests at the Capitol in recent memory and attracted an array of prominent voices, including civil rights icon Jesse Jackson and Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of late President Lyndon B. Johnson.

At a rally near the Capitol immediately before the march, leaders laid out what they insisted were interconnected issues driving their protest, which centered on voting rights, immigration reform, a $15 an hour federal minimum wage and eliminating the Senate filibuster that has stymied passage of related federal legislation.

“Filibuster is a sin!” Barber declared. “Making essential workers work during a pandemic—and risk their lives to save this country—and then not give them a living wage is sin.”

The event also featured music. Singers led the crowd in belting: “Somebody’s hurting my brother, and it’s gone on far too long. And we won’t be silent anymore!” The singers changed the lyrics as the song progressed, inserting lines such as “Somebody’s stealing our wages!” and “Somebody’s blocking our voting rights!”

The Poor People’s Campaign took a leading role in propelling that agenda this summer in the wake of Republican-led efforts to pass state-level elections bills many activists decry as restrictive.

Following on heels of Texas march

Monday’s march follows what organizers called a “season” of similar demonstrations organized by the PPC over the past two months in Washington, Arizona and most recently Texas, where activists mimicked the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The group walked 27 miles from Georgetown to Austin in late July to oppose voting restrictions.

Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, who joined the Texas march and has vigorously opposed state elections bills, was among the speakers at the Washington rally.

“President Biden, Democrats and Republicans, the culture will put it like this: If you come for us and we didn’t send for you, you don’t want this smoke,” Haynes said. “You don’t want this smoke, because we are fighting for the soul of this nation.”

The activists’ efforts have hit roadblocks with some Democrats at the national level, particularly Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona. Both opposed efforts to pass minimum wage increases and eliminate the filibuster this year—in Manchin’s case, despite a meeting with Barber and low-wage workers. The Poor People’s Campaign has since targeted both lawmakers with protests.

Barber was quick to harangue members of both parties during the rally, accusing some Democrats of heaping praise on late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis but failing to support his vision for voting rights.

“Some Democrats told us: ‘If y’all organize, don’t connect wages to voting rights,’” Barber said. “I’m too old to play that.”

He added: “The same people suppressing the votes suppress your wages, won’t fix your utility grids, suppress your health care, cut public education, block living wages—you’ve got to make the connection.”

Barber also offered his own adaptation of the Scripture passage from Isaiah 10:1-3:

“Woe unto you hypocrites who pay attention to all of Robert’s Rules (of order), all the made up rules of the Senate and the House, but you filibuster justice. And filibuster mercy. And you filibuster faithfully.”

Barber was briefly joined at the rally by Sen. Raphael Warnock, himself a prominent Georgia pastor. However, Barber explained Warnock would not speak because the campaign generally does not let politicians address their protests. Warnock is a proponent of the For the People Act, a federal voting rights legislation Barber and others praised but Manchin opposed.

‘Bring good news to the poor’

Among the clergy milling about the crowd was Patrick Messer, a United Church of Christ pastor who just left a church in Nebraska.

“I’m here because in Jesus’ first sermon he said the spirit is upon me to bring good news to the poor, and to bring deliverance to the captive,” Messer said. “We’re here to bring a $15 minimum wage to all workers, restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and pass all the provisions of the For the People Act and end the filibuster.”

The daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson—who signed the Voting Rights Act into law—also addressed the crowd at the event. Luci Baines Johnson noted she could not speak for her father, but insisted he would have wanted her to be with activists “in the fight for social justice and voting rights.”

After voicing support for the For the People Act and the John Lewis Act, another voting rights bill, she invoked Scripture while calling for bipartisanship.

“In the 1960s, Democrats and Republicans stood up together for social justice,” she said. “It was the right thing then, and it’s the right thing now. Now more than ever before, we need to—in the words of Isaiah—come and reason together to get a more just America for everybody.”

Jesse Jackson also addressed the crowd, bemoaning what he called a nation “in crisis” and voicing a willingness to go to jail for the cause.

He led the group in a call-and-response chant: “I am! Somebody! I may be poor! But I am! Somebody! I may be unemployed! But I am! Somebody! I may not have health care! But I am! Somebody! Respect me! Protect me! Elect me! I am! God’s child!”

Others who delivered either speeches or prayers at the event included prominent Muslim American activist Linda Sarsour, National Council of Churches President Jim Winkler, Simple Way founder Shane Claiborne, activist and former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe Wendsler Nosie and several low-wage workers or people impacted by poverty.

Participating in civil disobedience

After the speeches, the activists massed into a column and marched toward the Capitol, with clergy walking alongside low-wage workers and those impacted by poverty. Tensions briefly flared with police when they insisted demonstrators stay on the sidewalk for one stretch of their march. Protesters initially refused, walking past police before a wave of new officers arrived and corralled the group off the street.

Demonstrators took to the street a short time later after processing past the Supreme Court toward the Hart Senate building. One column of protesters stayed on the sidewalk, but a separate group positioned themselves in the middle of the road, refusing to move. Some briefly requested entry to the Hart building at Barber’s urging, but police rebuffed them, and they returned to the street.

As demonstrators sang and chanted, officers began arresting those in the road one by one, carefully leading them away. Cheers rose up as Theoharis, Barber and Jackson were arrested. They were followed by hundreds more—clergy of multiple faiths, low-wage workers, young activists and elderly people in walkers or wheelchairs were all among those arrested.

It remains to be seen how lawmakers will react to the growing protest movement. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio was spotted walking quickly past the protest. When demonstrators shouted for the end of the filibuster, he quickly replied, “I agree with you,” a reference to his public willingness to end the filibuster if Republicans continue to use it to block liberal legislation.

The mixture of religious and labor demonstrators appeared to be clear in their cause on Monday and dedicated to convincing Congress to support it. They sang many songs, but one favorite seemed to be aimed directly at lawmakers: It simply asked, over and over, “Which side are you on?”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—An expert in public-private collaborations and disaster management has been named the new director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Marcus T. Coleman, 35, held the role as an interim from 2017 to 2018 and was a special assistant for it from 2013 to 2016. He was appointed by the Biden-Harris administration and began as director on Aug. 2.

The DHS Partnership Center works with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, reestablished by President Biden, to foster relationships between faith-based organizations and the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It focuses particularly on “all-hazards preparedness, emergency and disaster response and recovery, safety, security, and human trafficking,” according to a statement from Jaclyn Rothenberg, a FEMA spokesperson.

Coleman, who recently has co-led a practice focused on behavioral science and communications, co-developed guides and courses for emergency managers to engage with faith-based groups and build their religious and cultural literacy. He has also been an adviser to the Diversity in National Security Network.

Coleman’s predecessor in the office, David L. Myers, welcomed the appointment.

“President Biden could not have appointed a better prepared and more capable leader than Marcus Coleman to direct the DHS Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” said Myers, director of the office from 2009-2017, in a statement.

“The country and the president will be well served by Marcus’ years of experience at the Center, his expertise in emergency preparedness, and his robust network of trusted relationships with faith-based, civic, and government partners.”

Faith leaders voice support

Other leaders from a range of faiths, including Dallas megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes, said Coleman’s past work prepares him for his new responsibilities.

“We at The Potter’s House look forward to continuing our longstanding relationship with Marcus as he embarks on this new role that is critical to the safety and security of houses of worship as well as to our work in aiding and building communities,” Jakes said.

Debra Boudreaux, executive vice president of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, noted Coleman’s support of interfaith climate emergency initiatives. Gabriel and Jeanette Salguero, co-founders of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, recalled his work with their organization in natural disasters such as hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico and Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast.

Coleman, a member of a Baptist church in Washington, D.C., was a featured speaker at the COVID-19 Church Online Summit presented early in the pandemic in March 2020 and hosted by the National Association of Evangelicals and Wheaton College’s Humanitarian Disaster Institute.

“I think the best resource that’s available that churches should be seeking is accurate and validated information, at this point,” Coleman said at the time, referring participants to elected officials and local and state governments. “They are providing some of the immediate sources of information on different relief packages, not just for people within your congregation but for the communities that you serve.”

The White House announced July 30 the nomination of Rashad Hussain, the director of partnerships and global engagement at the National Security Council, as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

If confirmed by the Senate, Hussain would be the first Muslim to serve in that State Department post. He would succeed Sam Brownback, former U.S. senator and Kansas governor, in the international religious freedom ambassador’s role.

Hussain served previously as White House counsel under President Barack Obama. He also was U.S. special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and U.S. special envoy to the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications.

Previously, he worked with the House Judiciary Committee and as a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and holds master’s degrees from Harvard University and from its Kennedy School of Government.

Baptists voice support for nominee

Bob Roberts, pastor of Northwood Church in Keller and co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, tweeted his affirmation of Hussain for ambassador-at-large post: “Ecstatic about my friend @rashad_Hussain nomination for International Religious Freedom Ambassador—He will be INCREDIBLE!”

Leaders of the Baptist World Alliance voiced strong support for Hussain’s nomination and called on lawmakers to confirm him for the ambassadorship.

“The nomination of Rashad Hussain, who brings a depth of experience across all three branches of the U.S. government and a wide array of faith-based initiatives, including Baptist-Muslim conversations, is a strategic development. I welcome the nomination of the first Muslim American to this key position, and look forward to serving alongside Special Envoy Hussain, who is a seasoned advocate for religious freedom for all,” said BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown.

“I join with many others in urging Congress to quickly confirm Special Envoy Hussain to this ambassadorship as many—especially in light of the ongoing global pandemic—face unprecedented restrictions as they seek to live out their faith convictions.”

Roy Medley, general secretary emeritus of American Baptist Churches USA, has worked with Hussain as a member of the BWA Commission on Interfaith Relations.

“Mr. Hussain has long been an international advocate for religious liberty as a basic human right and has won our respect and our support as Baptists. I welcome his nomination to this critical position,” Medley said.

Jennifer Hawks, associate general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, noted the ambassador-at-large is “a crucial member of the U.S. diplomatic team charged with promoting and defending religious freedom for all people around the globe.”

Hawks, who serves on the BWA Commission on Religious Freedom, said she hopes to “work with Ambassador Hussain to confront blasphemy laws that criminalize religious belief, mass kidnappings from religious schools, bans on religious clothing, and the myriad of other ways governments around the world persecute religious and nonreligious individuals within their borders.”

Randel Everett, founding president of 21Wilberforce—a human rights organization that concentrates on global freedom of religion, belief and conscience—applauded Hussain’s nomination.

“Through his academic, diplomatic, and legal work, Hussain has demonstrated understanding of and advocacy for religious freedom. This has earned him respect across the spectrum of faiths and no faith,” said Everett, former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“Further, the promptness of this appointment, just six months since the president took office, sends a positive signal that the United States places priority on international religious freedom and religious persecution issues. We hope Congress will move forward with this nomination quickly and look forward to working with Ambassador Hussain.”

Glad to see administration fill the position

International Christian Concern, a human rights organization focused on advocacy for persecuted Christians, also expressed excitement in learning the Biden administration had taken action to fill the position of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

“We hope to see a smooth confirmation process and look forward to working with Rashad Hussain to advance religious freedom globally,” said Matias Perttula, director of advocacy at International Christian Concern.

Kori Porter, chief executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide-USA, called the nomination “an encouraging indicator of the importance the Biden administration places on the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief.”

Ismail Royer, director of the religious freedom action team at the Religious Freedom Institute, praised Hussain as “a wise choice” for the ambassador’s post.

“Hussain is eminently qualified for the position, and as a man of faith, he understands that religious freedom is important because religion is important,” Royer said.

Other key religious freedom positions filled

The Biden administration also named Deborah Lipstadt, a professor at Emory University and noted historian of the Holocaust, as U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.

David Trimble, vice president for public policy at the Religious Freedom Institute, not only praised Lipstadt’s nomination, but also Congress for passing the act in January that created the position.

“Congress rightly gave this special envoy position the seniority it deserves. Nominating someone of Professor Lipstadt’s stature and expertise is a powerful response to the alarming growth of anti-Semitism around the world and in America,” Trimble said. “This is a major issue in the fight for religious freedom.”

The White House also announced two new appointments to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom: Sharon Kleinbaum, rabbi at New York City’s Beit Simchat Torah, and Khizr Khan, a Pakistani-born lawyer and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center.

Kleinbaum serves on the New York City Commission on Human Rights and is a member of the mayor’s faith-based advisory council. Kahn, the Gold Star parent of U.S. Army Capt. Humayn Khan, who was killed while serving in Iraq and posthumously was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with valor, is best known for his speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Everett affirmed the appointment of Khan and Kleinbaum, saying “both have a background in human rights advocacy.”

“They will bring unique experience to the commission, whose mission is to advance international freedom of religion or belief, by independently assessing and unflinchingly confronting threats to this fundamental right.”

Nadine Maenza, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, voiced support for new commissioners, as well as the nominations for ambassador and special envoy.

“We look forward to working closely with Rashad Hussain and Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, once confirmed, to develop new ways for the United States to promote the freedom of religion or belief around the world,” she said.

“Global religious freedom violations continue to be a pervasive threat to our national security and global stability. The U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, along with the special envoy, play an essential role in U.S. efforts to counter that threat.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A federal judge has ordered Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts chain whose president is Museum of the Bible founder Steve Green, to forfeit an ancient tablet bearing a rare fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The clay tablet, roughly the size of an iPhone, was originally brought to the United States by an antiquities dealer who purchased it in London in 2003, according to the Justice Department. The artifact was encrusted with dirt at the time and its cuneiform script was completely hidden. 

Scholars and art experts later determined the script was part of the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest works of religious literature. It was acquired by Hobby Lobby in 2014 from Christie’s auction house for the company’s collections at the Museum of the Bible.

The item was part of the exhibitions at the Museum of the Bible when it opened in November 2017 and remained on display until 2019, when it was confiscated by federal agents.

“Before displaying the item in 2017, the museum informed the Embassy of Iraq that we had the item in our possession, but extensive research would be required to establish provenance,” said Charlotte Clay, the museum’s media relations manager, in an emailed statement. “We have supported the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to return this Gilgamesh fragment to Iraq.

“Christie’s auction house, the source and importer of the item, is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by Hobby Lobby.”

The company filed the suit against Christie’s in 2020 for providing false information about the tablet’s provenance.

History of dubious provenance

In 2017, Hobby Lobby agreed to return nearly 4,000 artifacts to Iraq after they were found to have been looted from Iraqi archaeological sites. As part of the settlement with the Justice Department, the company was also required to pay $3 million to the U.S. government.

Two years later, the Museum of the Bible acknowledged buying more than a dozen ancient Bible fragments later suspected of being stolen.

In 2020, the Museum of the Bible announced it determined more than 11,000 clay and papyri items in its collection had dubious provenance. It is working to clarify the questions of provenance and to determine the items’ final destinations.

Green, a billionaire who avidly began building his collection of rare Bibles and related artifacts more than a decade ago, has admitted he sometimes took bad advice as a novice in what is one of the most precarious areas of collecting.

“In 2009, when I began acquiring biblical manuscripts and artifacts for what would ultimately form the collection at Museum of the Bible, I knew little about the world of collecting,” he acknowledged in a 2020 statement.

“If I learn of other items in the collection for which another person or entity has a better claim, I will continue to do the right thing with those items.”

Green, the son of Hobby Lobby founder David Green, is chairman of the board for the Museum of the Bible. The museum’s stated mission is “to invite all people to engage with the transformative power of the Bible.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A new survey finds vaccine hesitancy has fallen among Americans overall and among all religious subgroups in just three months.

The survey reveals many who once balked at vaccine now say they embraced inoculation against COVID-19 at the urging of faith leaders.

Many stalwart subsets of “vaccine refusers,” however, have barely budged, raising concerns as to whether they will ever get the shots.

The findings were released July 28 as a collaborative survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core.

Researchers framed it as an update to a similar poll conducted in March that highlighted sizable percentages of Americans at the time who exhibited vaccine hesitancy, which PRRI and IFYC define as people who say they will either “wait and see” before getting a vaccine or who will only get it if required.

Overall decline in vaccine hesitancy noted

Researchers noted the number of vaccine hesitant Americans has shrunk significantly overall, dropping from 28 percent in March to just 15 percent in June, when the two organizations conducted their second survey.

The trend holds true for religious Americans, as well. In March, Hispanic Protestants exhibited the highest rate of vaccine hesitancy at 42 percent. But the group has undergone a marked shift between March and June. Only 26 percent now report vaccine hesitancy, and overall vaccine acceptance jumped form 43 percent to 56 percent.

The change was even more dramatic among Hispanic Catholics, who increased their vaccine acceptance from 56 percent to 80 percent in that time. Other groups also have seen their vaccine acceptance jump 11-15 percentage points to rise above 70 percent, such as white Catholics (79 percent), other Christians (77 percent), the religiously unaffiliated (75 percent), and white mainline Protestants (74 percent).

Black Protestants are among those who have seen a marked increase in vaccine acceptors, rising from 49 percent to 66 percent. Vaccine hesitancy with the group also declined, dropping from 32 percent to 21 percent.

The upward trend was less pronounced among white evangelicals, although there was a notable shift: Vaccine acceptors in the group increased from 45 percent to 56 percent.

Faith-based initiatives make a difference

Researchers highlighted the importance of faith-based overtures when it came to getting religious people vaccinated, particularly within communities of color. Among those who are vaccinated now, Hispanic Protestants (40 percent) and Black Protestants (30 percent) were especially likely to say that one or more faith-based approaches—such as forums on vaccine use convened by a local religious community or encouragement from a faith leader—helped convince them to get vaccinated.

Worship attendance also had an effect. Among those who attend religious services and are vaccinated, most Hispanic Protestants (54 percent) and a sizable percentage of Black Protestants (42 percent) said faith-based overtures helped them embrace inoculation against the novel coronavirus. Among vaccinated Hispanic Catholics overall, 25 percent credited faith-based influences, a percentage that leaps to 45 percent among those who attend services.

As for those who remain vaccine hesitant, some groups show an increased willingness to heed faith-based encouragement. For example, white Catholics now are twice as likely to say they could be nudged into getting a vaccine via religious methods (31 percent) than earlier this year (15 percent).

Faith communities work with government officials

Indeed, the shifts come in the wake of several efforts by religious communities to encourage vaccination among the faithful. Campaigns sometimes operated in collaboration with government officials.

In Washington, D.C., several historically Black churches served as staging locations for vaccine drives, with leaders reaching out to parishioners and vaccinating clergy in public.

Several faith groups also partnered with the White House to encourage “movable” demographics to get vaccinated, and religious leaders from an array of traditions have canvassed their communities and hosted vaccination drives as part of a multifaith “Faith 4 vaccines” initiative.

The PRRI/IFYC poll was conducted prior to an escalation in pro-vaccine rhetoric among Republican officials in recent weeks. In a recent editorial, former Trump administration press secretary and current Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an evangelical Christian, implored people in her state to get the “Trump vaccine,” encouraging them to “Pray about it, discuss it with your family and your doctor.”

According to PRRI-IFYC, rates of vaccine acceptance were increasing even before the renewed push, rising from 45 percent in March to 64 percent in June. Rates among Democrats rose from 73 percent to 85 percent in that same time period.

Hard-core vaccine refusers stand firm

But as vaccine acceptance rises and hesitancy continues to shrink, the number of vaccine refusers—people who say they will not get a COVID-19 vaccine—has changed little. The group now represents 13 percent of the U.S. population overall, a drop of just 1 percentage point since March.

Again, religious groups largely mimic national trends. For example, the number of religiously unaffiliated vaccine refusers did not change at all, holding steady at 12 percent. The same is true for white Catholics (8 percent).

The percentage of vaccine refusers hovered around the same as March for Hispanic Protestants (from 15 percent to 17 percent), non-Christians (10 percent to 13 percent) and among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (17 percent to 19 percent).

Jewish Americans also saw their vaccine refuser group grow (5 percent to 7 percent), although the community continues to exhibit the highest rate of vaccine acceptance overall (85 percent).

White evangelical Protestants remain the religious group with the highest percentage of vaccine refusers with 24 percent (compared to 26 percent in March).

While hesitancy declined overall among white evangelicals, those who are left now appear generally less likely to respond to religious appeals. In March, 38 percent of those in the group’s vaccine hesitant cadre said faith-rooted overtures could compel them to get vaccinated, but that shrunk to 28 percent in June. The same pattern can be found among their vaccine refusers: 47 percent said religious approaches could change their mind in March, but only 32 percent say the same now.

There was, however, an increase in susceptibility among vaccine refusers who attend religious services, with 17 percent now saying they could be impacted by religious approaches compared with 7 percent in March.

And there are notable exceptions that buck the trend of a calcifying vaccine refuser camp. Among Black Protestants, around 19 percent of the group were vaccine refusers in March, but only 13 percent said the same in June. Other Protestants of color also saw their vaccine refuser camp shrink from 20 percent to 15 percent, and “other Christians” dropped from 11 percent to 4 percent.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Testifying before a congressional committee, a District of Columbia police officer described insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as “terrorists” who “perceived themselves to be Christians.”

Officer Daniel Hodges told the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection the crowd massing on the building’s West Terrace brandished banners steeped in Christian symbolism along with those bearing the name “Trump.”

Hodges’ emotional remarks came in testimony offered alongside three other officers who rushed to the Capitol that day to defend it from an unsuccessful attempt by supporters of then-President Donald Trump to stop the certification of 2020 election results.

“It was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians,” Hodges said. “I saw the Christian flag directly to my front. Another read, ‘Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.’ Another: ‘Jesus is king.’ … Another had crossed rifles beneath a skull, emblazoned with the pattern of the American flag.”

Later, Hodges described one insurrectionist who wore a shirt that bore the slogan “God, Guns, and Trump.”

Pervasive examples of Christian nationalism

Images from Jan. 6 back up Hodges’ recollection, showing pervasive examples of Christian nationalist sentiment. A flag that waved above the first crowd to attack and overrun police officers was adorned with a fish painted in the colors of the American flag, positioned beneath the words “Proud American Christian.”

Jenny Cudd, an insurrectionist now facing federal charges, posted a video in which she justified her participation in the attack by declaring God and country “are one and the same”  and saying, “If we do not have our country, nothing else matters.” Still other insurrectionists led a prayer from the dais of the U.S. Senate after breaching the chamber.

An array of Christian leaders, including faculty from Wheaton College, an evangelical school, and former Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore, have since condemned religious expressions at the insurrection as satanic, blasphemous or heretical.

But Eric Metaxas—a conservative Christian commentator—derided the House select committee on Tuesday, saying the U.S. is “at war.”

Metaxas, who admitted to assaulting an anti-Trump demonstrator in 2020 and emceed events in Washington protesting the 2020 election results in the weeks leading up to the insurrection, claimed characterizing the events of January 6 as an insurrection amounts to “a lie.”

“If there was an insurrection, somebody’s brains would have been on the floor of the Capitol,” Metaxas said during an interview with Real America’s Voice.

Fit the definition of ‘terrorist’

When asked by Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland about his repeated use of the word “terrorist” to describe insurrectionists, Hodges read a section of the U.S. Code that defines domestic terrorism as “acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State” which take place in the U.S. and appear intended to “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion” or “affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”

Hodges also expressed befuddlement that insurrectionists waved flags traditionally associated with defenders of law enforcement.

“To my perpetual confusion, I saw the ‘thin blue line’ flag—a symbol of support for law enforcement—more than once, being carried by the terrorists. They ignored our commands and continued to assault us,” he said.

Hodges became a fixture of coverage of Jan. 6 as footage showed him being crushed by a door while an attacker forcibly removed his gas mask. Hodges can be seen bleeding from his mouth as the mask is removed, screaming in agony throughout the ordeal.

Members of the select House committee investigating the insurrection played footage of that attack—which Hodges explained was one of many—and other violent incidents from that day during the hearing.

It is unclear if the committee plans to make the religious dimension of Jan. 6 a topic of discussion during the hearings.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As COVID-19 cases surge again, two things are true about many counties considered hot spots: Vaccination rates are low, and white evangelical Protestant populations are high, according to a new data analysis.

Concern about vaccine hesitancy or outright anti-vaccine sentiment among white evangelicals has persisted since at least March, when, according to a poll from Pew Research Center, those who said they were Christian and born-again were far more likely than any other religious group to say they definitely or probably would not get a vaccine.

A full 45 percent of white evangelicals fit this description. The next-closest religious classification (Americans who list their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular”) was a full 9 points lower at 36 percent, which was also the national average.

A separate poll, conducted in April by the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core, reported that white evangelicals also have the highest rate of vaccine “refusers” (26 percent)—people who firmly state they will not get vaccinated—compared with other religious groups.

An association between low vaccination rates and evangelical faith was confirmed further by researchers at PRRI. Analysts pulled from the group’s “2020 Census of American Religion,” overlaying county-level data about faith on top of vaccination rates compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In May, the White House cautioned against any attempt to “typecast” faith groups, but federal officials such as Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, have repeatedly named faith leaders as potential vaccine ambassadors.

‘Trusted messengers’ urged to advocate for vaccine

Speaking during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” over the weekend, Fauci said the White House is encouraging nongovernment “trusted messengers” to champion the vaccine—including local clergy.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, himself an evangelical Christian, pleaded with his fellow faithful last month to get vaccinated. Overwhelming evidence, he said, indicates COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States not only dramatically reduce the likelihood of contracting the disease, but lessen the chance of hospitalization and death.

“We need everybody to line up behind this goal, recognizing this isn’t about pleasing Joe Biden, because a lot of evangelicals are not that interested in pleasing Joe Biden,” he said. “This is about saving lives.”

Some evangelical leaders have also launched efforts to combat vaccine skepticism in their congregations. Russell Moore, a former Southern Baptist Convention official, told Religion News Service: “Evangelical Christians should be leading the way in thanking God for the cure we spent a year praying for. The least we can do is get our shots so that we can carry on our mission in our communities, without fear of getting anyone sick. Our gospel witness should be contagious; we shouldn’t be.”

More white evangelicals = lower vaccination rate

Despite efforts to promote the vaccine, new data suggests white evangelicals make up a higher share of the population in counties where vaccination rates are low. This particularly is true in portions of the Southeast and rural Midwest such as Missouri, where scientists have detected surges in COVID-19 cases linked to the more transmissible delta variant of the virus.

PRRI’s researchers found the population of white evangelicals to be especially high in Missouri counties where COVID-19 vaccination rates for people age 12 or older were 20 percent or lower. There, members of the faith group make up 49 percent of the population on average. In counties with vaccination rates between 20 percent and 40 percent, white evangelicals constitute 42 percent of the populace.

In counties where vaccination rates ranged from 40 percent to 60 percent, white evangelicals’ share of the population plummeted to 30 percent.

“It’s clear that the pattern is more white evangelical Protestants equals lower vaccination rates,” said Natalie Jackson, PRRI’s research director.

Missouri hospitals overrun with COVID-19

The data matches local surveys conducted by the Missouri Hospital Association. When the group released data in April, the only faith group it singled out was white evangelicals, indicating 38 percent were vaccine hesitant. Experts believe the sentiment can have dire consequences: According to a recent analysis from the Washington Post, hospitalizations due to COVID-19—as well as case rates overall—are correlated with low vaccination rates.

Missouri hospitals have been overrun with a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with hospitals requesting extra ventilators and bringing in traveling nurses to handle the caseload. As ICU units swell, Steve Edwards, CEO of Missouri-based hospital system CoxHealth, has pleaded with locals to get vaccinated.

“Begging people to take the vaccine while there is still time,” he tweeted July 9. “If you could see the exhaustion in the eyes of our nurses who keep zipping up body bags, we beg you.”

Similarly, Moore told RNS he has spoken with evangelical doctors “discouraged to the point of exhaustion by the low rates of vaccination among sectors of our fellow Christians,” despite pleading for people to get vaccinated.

The explosion of cases has already bled into nearby Arkansas, where low vaccination rates also track with high average white evangelical populations. In the one county with a vaccination rate under 20 percent, white evangelicals make up 47 percent of the population. For counties in the 20 percent to 40 percent range, white evangelicals average 46 percent, but that dips to 35 percent in counties with vaccination rates between 40 percent and 60 percent.

The pattern may be set to repeat in Tennessee, one of several states that have seen a sharp uptick in cases over the last week. In counties with vaccination rates at 20 percent or lower, PRRI’s analysis found that white evangelicals make up 50 percent of the population on average. Roughly the same was true for counties in the 20 percent to 40 percent vaccination range, where evangelicals make up 51 percent of the population. But in counties with 40 percent to 60 percent vaccination rates, the number shrinks to just 43 percent.

In Florida—which has seen the greatest percentage increase in COVID-19 cases over the past week, according to the Washington Post—vaccination rates overall have been higher than in other parts of the Southeast, with none below 20 percent. But white evangelicals remain best represented in the lowest tier: In counties with 20 percent to 40 percent of eligible people vaccinated, white evangelicals make up 36 percent of the population on average.

In the 40 percent to 60 percent range, white evangelicals make up 20 percent of the counties’ populations. In the 60 percent or above range, they constitute just 13 percent of the population on average.

Role of religion undeniable

The pattern is less pronounced in northern states. Take Maine, where white evangelicals are less represented and COVID-19 vaccination rates are high; none of its counties report vaccination rates under 40 percent. Of those counties in the 40 percent to 60 percent range for vaccination rates, white evangelicals make up 22 percent of the population on average. Of those above 60 percent, evangelicals constitute around 19 percent.

White evangelicals are hardly the only holdouts against COVID-19 vaccination. Other faith groups such as Black Protestants, Hispanic Protestants and white mainline Protestants have also expressed various degrees of vaccine hesitancy or anti-vaccine sentiment when polled. In addition, White House officials are targeting new vaccination efforts at younger Americans, who exhibit lower vaccination rates compared with their elders.

There may also be overlapping issues: In Missouri, counties with spiking COVID-19 cases skew rural, where health care access is often more limited.

But for many, religion’s role is undeniable. CoxHealth released a video last month of a hospitalized COVID-19 patient named Russell Taylor. Speaking to an offscreen interviewer, Taylor explains he did not get vaccinated because he was “skeptical,” adding that his stance on contracting COVID-19 amounted to “Well, if God allows it, it must be.”

Taylor, wearing a hospital gown and speaking between labored breaths, goes on to outline how he contracted the virus that attacked his lungs and left him bedridden for weeks. He insists he now supports vaccination for himself and his entire family—a position that he, again, roots in his faith.

“My stance on that is: God made medicine too,” he says.

WASHINGTON (BP)—The U.S. Senate approved an import ban on goods made by forced labor in western China on the same day global religious freedom advocates brought attention to the Communist Party’s genocidal campaign primarily against Uyghur Muslims in the region.

Senators approved by unanimous consent July 14 the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would prohibit products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from being introduced into the U.S. market. The House of Representatives has yet to vote on the proposal in this congressional session, but it passed a similar bill nearly unanimously last September before the measure died in the Senate.

On the day the Senate took action, speakers at the inaugural International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., decried the genocide of the Uyghurs and called for steps to bring about change in the Chinese regime.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission praised the Senate action.

The vote moves the United States “one step closer to adding real teeth to our nation’s condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party’s vile human rights abuses,” said Chelsea Sobolik, a policy director for the ERLC. “This is welcome news for the SBC, which spoke with one voice last month and declared these atrocities to be genocide.”

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting this summer approved a resolution that condemned the Chinese Community Party’s treatment of the Uyghurs and called for the U.S. government to take “concrete actions” to end the genocide.

“By cutting off the financial incentive for the forced labor of Uyghurs, America will be confronting China economically and morally about its unacceptable practices,” Sobolik said. “The House should swiftly pass this bill and send it to the president’s desk without delay.”

As part of its oppressive practices, the Chinese Community Party tracks Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang by means of a high-tech surveillance system that has obtained genetic data on many residents, according to reports. More than a million Uyghurs, and maybe as many as 3 million, have been detained in “re-education” camps, and forced labor by prisoners is common. Life in the camps can result in indoctrination, as well as rape, torture and coercive organ harvesting. Uyghur women are also at the mercy of a population control program of forced abortions and sterilizations.

Guilty of genocide

Then-Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced in January his determination that China is guilty of genocide against the minority groups in Xinjiang. New Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed that designation after he took office under President Biden.

According to a 1948 United Nations treaty, genocide is defined as murder and other acts with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

At the IRF Summit, speakers described the Uyghurs’ suffering.

Tursunay Ziyawudun, a Uyghur Muslim woman, described being imprisoned twice in the camps. In addition to being beaten, she was raped one night by three police officers, Ziyawudun said. Some girls taken from their cells returned in a near-death state, and others disappeared, she told the summit audience. She witnessed some bleed to death, she said. The Uyghur prisoners were forced to swear loyalty oaths to the Chinese Community Party, she said.

The experiences in the camps “have left indelible scars on my heart,” Ziyawudun said in her own language while the English translation was projected on a screen.

China’s detention of the Uyghurs “represents the largest mass incarceration of an ethno-religious minority group since World War II,” said Nury Turkel, a Uyghur-American lawyer and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “The [Chinese Community Party] aims to eliminate the distinct Uyghur ethno-religious identity from the face of the earth.”

Turkel, chairman of the board of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said China’s “digital dictatorship” includes facial recognition software that is “omnipresent in cities and villages.” He said Uyghurs “cannot do anything to escape the watchful eye of the Chinese government.”

He warned that “digital authoritarianism is on the rise globally.” More than 80 countries have adopted China’s surveillance technology, Turkel said. “The tools perfected by the Chinese regime will be replicated and multiplied for use against the vulnerable ethnic and religious groups.”

Former Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia called for establishment of a bipartisan genocide caucus in Congress that would serve as an “early warning system.”

“[W]e cannot say that we do not know,” said Wolf, a champion for religious freedom and other human rights during his 34 years in the House. “So what remains to be seen is whether men and women of faith and others of goodwill will accept this challenge regardless of where it leads or will we simply choose to look the other way. The stakes could not be higher.”

The IRF Summit, held July 13-15, drew about 1,200 registrants to what Sam Brownback—co-chair with former USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett of the event’s steering committee—described as “the first-ever, civil society-led, global religious freedom meeting.” Multiple victims of religious persecution shared their testimonies during the event.

Brownback, who served as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom under President Trump, had helped organize the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, which was held in the summers of 2018 and 2019.

Describing religious liberty as “the most abused human right in the world today,” Brownback said, “If we don’t have religious freedom for all around the world, we will have the clash of civilizations, full of death and carnage.”

In a video address, Blinken reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to the protection of religious liberty.

“With the support of everyone gathered at this summit, we will maintain America’s long-standing leadership on religious freedom,” Blinken told attendees. An ambassador-at-large for religious freedom will be named in the “coming weeks,” he said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Josh Scott of Nashville’s GracePointe Church watched images of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 with a rising sense of alarm.

The unmistakable Christian elements were hard to miss—“Jesus Saves” signs and flags, a tall wooden cross, the prayer thanking God “for allowing the United States of America to be reborn.”

“I was speechless and angry,” said Scott, pastor of a nondenominational 350-member church. “And I thought, ‘What is this thing on TV that is masquerading itself as somehow being connected to the tradition of Jesus, who gave his life nonviolently?’”

That thing, he came to realize, is Christian nationalism, and he began speaking out about it from the pulpit.

A loose consortium of Christian organizations whose members were just as scandalized as Scott has produced a three-session adult study curriculum called “Responding to Christian Nationalism” for pastors who want to educate church members.

Published by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and Vote Common Good, the curriculum defines Christian nationalism as a merging of Christianity with American identity.

‘A poison infecting our theology’

“It’s a poison infecting our theology and our faith itself,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the BJC speaking of Christian nationalism. “That’s the concern that’s driven a lot of the organizing around it.”

Two years ago, the BJC launched Christians Against Christian Nationalism, a statement signed by 22,000 Christians, mostly clergy, condemning Christian nationalism as a “distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy.”

Now it’s joined up with Vote Common Good, an evangelical group led by Doug Pagitt dedicated to mobilizing people of faith to vote beyond narrow Republican interests.

The curriculum offers biblical passages to remind Christians their ultimate loyalty should be to God and examines how Christian nationalism may overlap with racism and white supremacy.

The resource features video clips from Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Tyler said she hoped it could be used as a basis for a sermon series or for discussion groups now that many churches are meeting again in person.

So far, 334 people have downloaded the curriculum, and more are expected once it’s fully publicized, Tyler said.

Some Christian leaders had been critical of Christian nationalism well before the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, particularly in the insistence among some white evangelicals that America was founded on biblical principles as a Christian nation.

“Our desire is to present Jesus as we find him in the gospel, not an Americanized, politicized version of Jesus,” said Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Portland, Ore., who intends to use the curriculum.

McKinley said there are risks for any pastor in that message. When he started pushing his church to address diversity and inclusion, he said, he lost about 300 people who were not ready to abandon their view that being a good Christian and a patriotic American were intertwined. Pre-COVID-19, about 2,000 attended his church services each week.

He thinks “Responding to Christian Nationalism” can offer a structured way for pastors to educate church members on the issue.

“There are a ton of pastors who desire to move their congregation but don’t know how,” he said. “I think the curriculum will be really helpful for that.”

The resource offers a biblical discussion of misplaced loyalties and offers passages such as the Ten Commandment injunction, “You shall have no other gods before me,” which Jesus repeats in the Gospel of Luke, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

Other Christian groups are competing with the curriculum’s message from the opposite direction. For example, the Center for Renewing America and Heritage Action for America offer a toolkit for combating critical race theory, the academic framework for the study of systemic racism, which they believe is a threat to Christianity.

But Todd Blake, pastor of Madison Heights Baptist Church in Madison Heights, Va., and a trustee of the Baptist Joint Committee, said his identity as a Baptist compels him to oppose Christian nationalism. Baptists historically opposed any government with an established religion or religious practice.

“I don’t want Christianity to have this favored place in American politics over and against people of other faiths or no faith,” he said. “I want religious liberty, and I want my neighbor to have it, too.”