WASHINGTON (RNS)—Prior to Christmas, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of all but three people on federal death row, converting their sentences to life in prison.

It represented a victory for religious advocates who have pressured the president to make the move during his final days in office—even as they call on him to “finish the job” by commuting the remaining three.

Biden, who campaigned on the promise of abolishing the federal death penalty, announced the move Dec 23. He framed the action partially as a response to remarks by President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to restart executions upon assuming office.

“Guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” Biden stated. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

The news comes 10 days after Biden announced he would commute the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the pandemic, as well as pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes—the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The White House explained Biden believes “America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder—which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.”

Praised as an ‘act of mercy’

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, celebrated the move as an “act of mercy” that brings the country “a step closer to building a culture of life.” He also called on lawmakers to eliminate the death penalty entirely.

“My brother bishops and I unite in expressing our gratitude that President Biden has commuted the federal death sentences of 37 men,” Broglio stated. “The bishops’ conference has long called for an end to the use of the death penalty. This action by the president is a significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity in our nation.”

Similarly, Gabe Salguero, head of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, noted while he and other Latino evangelicals “grieve for the victims and unequivocally condemn these murders,” he nonetheless welcomed the news.

“Today’s Advent season decision by President Biden to commute the death sentences of 37 federal inmates is a reminder that as a nation we must still grapple with the inequities that plague this system,” Salguero said, noting NALEC became the first national evangelical group to call for an end to the death penalty in 2015.

The Catholic Mobilizing Network also celebrated the decision as “unparalleled.”

“Today’s historic decision by President Biden advances the cause of human dignity and underscores the sacred value of every human life,” read a statement from the group. “Praise God!”

’37 is good, but 40 is better’

But some of the advocates, including Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist who has spent years protesting the death penalty, noted that while the announcement allows 37 people facing capital punishment to instead serve life in prison, three men will remain on death row.

They are Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Robert Bowers, convicted in the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue attack in Pittsburgh, Penn.; and Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black worshippers in 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

“The death penalty does not heal the wounds of violence, it just creates new wounds,” Claiborne said in a text message to Religion News Service. “We can honor the victims of violence without killing more people. It’s time to stop killing to try to show that killing is wrong.”

He added: “37 is good but 40 is better. No one—not even Dylann Roof—is beyond redemption.”

Claiborne was echoed by fellow advocate Sharon Risher, whose cousins and mother, Ethel Lance, were among the nine church members killed in the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel Church.

“Every time this case comes up, I am brought back to the day my mother and cousins were murdered, and I need that to stop,” Risher said.

“Politics has gotten in the way of mercy. You can’t rank victims, Mr. President. I am begging you to finish the job, not only with the three men left on federal death row, but also with those on the military death row. There’s still time. Finish the job.”

Anti-death penalty activist Jeff Hood did not consider commuting the death sentences of 93 percent of the inmates on federal death row a passing grade.

“Just when I thought Joe Biden was going to give our nation some ethical clarity, he has presented us with a new nightmare—the ranking of murder victims. Either Biden finishes the job and commutes all federal death sentences or we are left in the same place we were before—a moral abyss of federal sentencing that only pursues death sentences in rare cases, prioritizing some murder victims above all others,” Hood wrote on social media.

“This is not time for celebration. We are in the same moral abyss we were in before. Regardless of how many death sentences President Biden just commuted, by not commuting them all he has made sure that the killing will continue.”

Urged to act by faith leaders

Biden’s announcement comes after a blitz of public and private advocacy by faith leaders and activists.

In mid-December, a group of religious leaders, activists and law enforcement officials traveled to Washington to stage a day of advocacy around the issue. Members of the group held a vigil outside the White House and spoke at a hearing on Capitol Hill alongside lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who has cited her own Christian faith as part of the inspiration for her involvement.

The effort also got a high-profile boost from Pope Francis—who changed the catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to declare the death penalty “inadmissible”—when he devoted a section of a homily earlier this month to the subject. He asked Catholics to pray that Biden, a Catholic, would commute the death sentences of those on death row.

“Think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death,” Francis said.

In a letter sent to Biden last week, Risher, who also serves as chair of Death Penalty Action, expressed concern Trump would restart federal executions upon taking office next month.

“It is vital that you deny him that opportunity by commuting every death sentence remaining on federal and military death rows,” Risher wrote.

‘All lives are sacred’

Marshall Dayan, a retired federal public defender living in Pittsburgh and cochair of the board of Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty, said he was pleased with Biden’s 37 commutations but disappointed he didn’t commute all 40 death-row inmates.

“All lives are sacred. We’re all created with ‘t’zelem elohim,’ in the image of God. And yet, the message this sends is that there’s a hierarchy of values,” he said. “I don’t think the president believes that. But it is the message that he sends by saying, ‘I’m going to treat these three people differently.’”

But Dayan said he was aware that many in the Pittsburgh community did not want the sentence of Robert Bowers commuted, as views regarding the death penalty for the three men left on death row are not uniform.

Last year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro explained his own opposition to the death penalty by citing conversations he had with the families of those killed in the Tree of Life shooting and members of the worship community, indicating several do not support capital punishment.

Even so, seven of the nine families involved have previously indicated support for the death penalty, and the sons of Joyce Fienberg, who was killed in the shooting, sent a letter to Biden this month asking the president not to commute Bowers’ sentence, arguing the shooter did not show remorse.

“In Judaism, T’shuvah—repentance, or a return to righteousness—requires confession, regret, and seeking to right the wrongs committed,” read the letter, signed by Anthony and Howard Fienberg. “Absent that, forgiveness is not even possible.”

Similarly, some parents of children who were killed and wounded during the Boston bombing publicly voiced opposition to the death penalty in the case, but others have suggested support for it.

Biden declared his desire to abolish the federal death penalty while campaigning in 2019, and placed a moratorium on federal executions in 2021. But he did not ultimately eliminate the death penalty, nor did he stop the Department of Justice from prosecuting capital punishment cases during his tenure, frustrating many advocates.

But religious activists who oppose the death penalty say they will continue to pressure Biden to commute the sentences of those still on death row, arguing their cause is ultimately a matter of faith.

“Rather than asking, ‘Do they deserve to die,’ we should be asking ‘Do we deserve to kill?’” Claiborne said. “As Jesus said, ‘Let the one without sin cast the first stone.’”

With additional reporting by Bob Smietana of RNS and Baptist Standard Managing Editor Ken Camp.

(RNS)—Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday, Dec. 29, at age 100, was known most as the 39th president of the United States. But he also will be remembered as the world’s most famous Sunday school teacher.

Carter, who spoke openly about his Baptist faith while campaigning for the White House in 1976, earned the votes of many evangelical Christians when he called himself “born again.”

Carter died at his home in Plains, Ga., surrounded by family, according to a statement on The Carter Center website.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said his son Chip Carter in the statement. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs.”

After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter spent decades as a humanitarian and advocate for peace—building houses with Habitat for Humanity, monitoring elections in dozens of countries, helping fight against Guinea worm disease.

Still, more Sundays than not, the former president had a regular appointment: teaching Sunday school in his rural Georgia Baptist church, Maranatha Baptist Church.

His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, died at the age of 96 on Nov. 19, 2023.

“Jimmy Carter’s identity is inseparable from his almost lifelong vocation—60, 70 years—as a Sunday school teacher,” said historian Bill Leonard, professor of divinity emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. “He has lived every week of his adult life in the study and teaching of the Scriptures.”

Only US president to teach Sunday school while in office

Carter was the only U.S. president to have taught Sunday school while in office, according to the White House Historical Association. William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt taught Sunday school before entering the White House, and Benjamin Harrison led a Bible study class after his presidency at First Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, spoke matter-of-factly about his long-term Bible teaching in a 2014 appearance at the LBJ Presidential Library.

“I belong to Maranatha Baptist Church and that’s where I teach Sunday school every Sunday—last Sunday and this next Sunday as well—about 35 times a year,” he said.

“I had been teaching Bible lessons since I was a midshipman in Annapolis, 18 years old.”

His practical lessons attracted hundreds to his rural Georgia church on a Sunday as he related the verses of the Bible to the challenges of modern times.

“What I try to do each Sunday is begin my lesson for about 10 or 15 minutes discussing current events, the recent experiences that I have had or where I’m going next week,” he told Religion News Service, in 2011. “And then seeing how that applies to biblical principles, basic moral values that apply to every human life.”

Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President, published that year, featured summaries of the 45-minute lessons he taught over the years, including at First Baptist Church in Washington when he was in the White House in the 1970s.

Born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and served as a naval officer until 1953, including duty aboard the USS Pomfret, a submarine, according to his biography on the Carter Presidential Library website. He retired from active duty after the death of his father.

He returned to Georgia with his wife—whom he married the same year he earned his naval commission—and took over the family farm supply business. He also began a steady rise in Georgia politics, serving in several local roles before being elected to the Georgia Senate and moving to the governor’s mansion in 1971.

Five years later, he was elected the president. Abandoned by evangelical voters—who objected to his liberal stands on some issues—and dogged by a poor economy and the Iranian hostage crisis, he lost his bid for reelection in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. With Reagan’s election, the evangelical Christian bloc moved to the Republican Party.

Throughout Carter’s political career, he remained active in local church life.

Break with SBC

He eventually would make a public break with the Southern Baptist Convention after the denomination revised its statement of faith to call for women to submit to their husbands and banning women from serving as pastors. Still, he continued to attend Maranatha Baptist, which is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Despite their significant theological disagreements, leaders of Carter’s former denomination admired his commitment to the teaching of Scripture.

“History will record that no president of the United States demonstrated a greater long-term commitment to identifying with the Christian faith and with even the teaching of the Bible than Jimmy Carter,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in a 2019 interview.

The small Plains church, which seats 300, drew its largest crowd to see Carter—878—in the 2000s. That’s more than the town’s population.

On such occasions, there was overflow seating in a fellowship hall.

“We stacked them wherever we could put ’em,” Maranatha member Jan Williams recalled of the day when nine motorcoaches arrived with the record number of attendees and some only heard audio piped into rooms outside the sanctuary. “Some of ’em just heard him. They didn’t see his face until after church.”

Maranatha members sometimes added chairs to the choir loft.

“People want this opportunity, and you don’t want to send them away,” Williams said.

Though the curious came to see him, Williams said Carter’s intention was that they leave with more than a photo with the former first couple.

“This has been part of his identity,” said Randall Balmer, author of Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. “He’s very proud of this. He numbers all of his lessons, so he knows how many he taught.”

Steven Hochman, who served as assistant to Carter and director of research at the Carter Center, said in 2019 that the former president had taught more than 2,000 Sunday school lessons.

Tony Lowden, former pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, told Religion News Service in June 2022 that Carter was no longer attending in person at that time, but “I bring church to him,” ministering to the former president and his wife during the week.

“He’s more than Sunday school,” Lowden added. “His walk is every day with the Lord.”

BWA mourns his loss

In a release, the Baptist World Alliance spoke of Carter’s “long history of involvement with the Baptist World Alliance” and “his remarkable work for justice and peace around the world.”

He served as Honorary Chair of the BWA’s Special Commission of Baptists Against Racism in 1992, and he was the recipient of the first BWA Congress Quinquennial Human Rights Award in 1995.

Former BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz presented the award to Carter during the Baptist World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, “in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the cause of human rights around the world and his commitment to Christian peace and justice.”

In his acceptance speech, Carter noted: “I’m proud to be part of the BWA—one hundred million men and women around the world who don’t let political values separate us from one another. We see ourselves as brothers and sisters, regardless of our ethnic or racial differences, our political philosophies. We are joined together in a common faith, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

“On behalf of the BWA, we give thanks for the life of President Carter and his tireless work for human rights around the globe,” Elijah Brown, BWA General Secretary and CEO, noted in a statement on his passing. “Carter was a living embodiment that politics is not the pinnacle of public service.

“As a believer in the Baptist tradition, his faith was a call to all of us to remain deeply rooted in a local church community while working for peace and serving our neighbors with the good that each one of us can do.”

Brown concluded, “We hold the Carter family in our prayers, and we commit to honor the legacy of our brother in Christ by continuing our work for human rights and religious freedom worldwide.”

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A group of faith leaders, activists, law enforcement officials and families of murder victims called on President Joe Biden to spare the lives of about 40 inmates currently on death row in federal prisons.

The campaign is prompted by concerns the Department of Justice will lift a moratorium imposed by the Biden administration in 2021 and begin to execute prisoners after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Thirteen federal prisoners were executed during the first Trump administration—more than four times as many as under all the presidents combined since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

Among those asking Biden to commute the sentences of death row inmates is Sharon Risher, whose mother, Ethel Lance, was one of nine church members killed in the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Risher cited Trump’s promise to restart executions in urging Biden to act.

‘A moral imperative’

“It is vital that you deny him that opportunity by commuting every death sentence remaining on federal and military death rows,” wrote Risher, chair of Death Penalty Action, in a letter to Biden.

The letter, signed by more than 400 religious and anti-death penalty groups, also urges Biden to order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the execution chamber at a federal prison in Indiana where many federal death row inmates are held and to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in current cases.

“Ending the federal and military death penalty is not only an important step toward correcting myriad flaws in the criminal legal system in the United States, it is both good governance and a moral imperative,” the letter reads. “We will continue to work toward that goal.”

Risher and Lisa Brown, whose son Christopher Vialva was executed in 2020, also appeared at several events on Capital Hill Dec. 10, including a news conference with U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Pressley noted the racial disparities among prisoners on death row in calling for Biden to act.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and the death penalty is a cruel, racist and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society,” she said.

In a separate statement, Pressley cited her Christian faith and Biden’s, while making the case against the death penalty.

“As someone who grew up in a storefront church on the South Side of Chicago, I believe that we are one human family,” the statement read.

“As people of faith, we have a collective, righteous mandate to save lives, and one way that we can do that is by abolishing the death penalty—a cruel, inhumane, and racist punishment that has no place in any society. I hope that President Biden, as a man who is guided by his faith, will take action while he still can.”

Among federal inmates facing execution are the gunmen in high-profile mass shootings, such as the one at Mother Emanuel and at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, as well as the Boston Marathon bomber.

Some family members of Mother Emanuel victims made national headlines for forgiving the shooter, Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017.

However, not all families of victims agree with that decision, as reporter and author Jennifer Berry Hawes reported in her 2019 book, Grace Will Lead Us Home. Of the nine families affected by the Tree of Life shooting, seven supported the death penalty for Robert Bower, who was sentenced to death in 2023.

Seeking life sentences, not a pardon

Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said everyone on death row has been convicted of a terrible crime, and activists are not seeking to have death row prisoners pardoned. They are asking Biden to commute the sentences to life in prison, so prisoners still are being held accountable for their actions.

Hodge, a former prosecutor, said her Christian faith motivates her to oppose the death penalty. She believes in the possibility for redemption and in the worth of every person on death row, no matter what they have done.

“Everyone who’s on there did something heinous,” she said. “But that does not change the fact that they still have dignity and worth. And if you are acting in your faith, believe in the power of redemption.”

Faith Leaders of Color, a group made up mostly of Black pastors, and the Catholic Mobilizing Network also wrote letters to Biden asking him to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners, drawing on the same belief in human dignity.

“As Catholics, we understand that every person is made in the image of God and that our Heavenly Father does not shut the door on anyone,” the Catholic Mobilizing Network letter reads, echoing a message forwarded by Catholic leaders over the past week.

“President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in an action alert.

In addition, Pope Francis specifically called for the U.S. to commute the sentences of those on death row over the weekend, asking Catholic faithful to “pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed.” He added, “Think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

In 2018, the pontiff changed the catechism of the Catholic Church to codify teaching that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

Biden, a Catholic, campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty but has not done so. His moratorium on executions did not stop the Department of Justice from continuing to prosecute capital punishment cases.

Appeal to ‘pro-life’ Christians

Joia Thornton, founder and national director of Faith Leaders of Color, cited the president’s faith as well as Biden’s long ties to Black churches in calling for him to commute death row sentences.

“Commuting the federal death row would be an incredible milestone for those who believe life has value, mercy is encompassing and grace covers a multitude of sin,” Thorton said in a statement.

Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, a progressive evangelical group, said his opposition to the death penalty is tied to his beliefs about the sanctity of all lives. Being “pro-life,” he said, means more than opposing abortion. He shakes his head at fellow believers who want to end abortion but who support the death penalty.

“What’s haunting is that the death penalty has survived in America because of Christians, not in spite of us,” he said.

He also pointed to a story in the Gospel of John, where Jesus interrupts an attempted execution. A woman in that story was caught in adultery, and a crowd wanted to stone her to death. But Jesus, Claiborne said, stopped the execution by saying, “Let the ones without sin cast the first stone.”

Jesus also blessed the merciful and said God’s mercy is stronger than any crime people can commit, Claiborne said.

Before Trump’s first term, only three federal death row inmates, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, had been executed since 1988 and none from April 2003 to June 2020. Since 1927, the federal government has executed 50 death row prisoners in total.

Hodge said organizers had yet to hear from the White House but are hopeful Biden will act, especially given Trump’s promises to resume what organizers called an “execution spree.”

She also pointed to a proposal in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document outlining its hopes for a second Trump term in the White House, which called on Trump to “do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row.”

“We know what will happen under a new administration,” Hodge said. “Forty lives are hanging in the balance.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the largest single-day act of clemency in recent history, the White House announced Dec. 12 Biden is commuting the sentences of about 1,500 individuals who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoning 39 convicted nonviolent offenders. The clemency did not affect federal death row, but Biden said he would continue to review clemency petitions and take further action in the weeks ahead.

MINNEAPOLIS (BP)—Some Minnesota Christian parents are challenging a state law that blocks certain Christian colleges from a program that allows colleges to enroll high schoolers in tuition-free college credit courses.

Through Minnesota’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, 10th through 12th graders have been able to take college credit courses tuition-free at state colleges since 1985, according to attorneys at Becket Law.

But the state changed the program in 2023, blocking Crown College and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul from participation because the schools require on-campus students to sign statements of faith.

“We raise our children to put their faith at the center of everything they do,” parents Mark and Melinda Loe, plaintiffs in the suit, said in a Dec. 9 press release.

“Unfortunately, Minnesota is depriving kids like ours of the opportunity to get a head start on college at schools that embrace their faith. We hope the court will strike this law down and protect all religious students and the schools they want to attend.”

The Loes have 16-year-old and 13-year-old children. Dawn Erickson, also a plaintiff in the case, has a 16-year-old child.

Historically, Becket Law said, secular and religious schools qualified for participation in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, although courses that were “sectarian in nature” were excluded from course offerings.

Program requirements amended

But in 2023, Minnesota amended the program to stipulate, “An eligible institution must not require a faith statement from a secondary student seeking to enroll in a postsecondary course under this section during the application process or base any part of the admission decision on a student’s race, creed, ethnicity, disability, gender, or sexual orientation or religious beliefs or affiliations,” according to the text of the adopted bill available on the Minnesota Legislature’s website.

“The state of Minnesota has a fundamental right to protect its students from discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Jeff Timmerman argued at a Dec. 9 hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, CBS News reported

Becket Law first challenged the new rule in May 2023 in Loe v. Walz, securing a preliminary injunction the following month blocking the rule’s enforcement while the lawsuit is active. The case continues as Loe v. Jett.

“The legislative history confirms that amendment’s point was to single out these religious institutions,” Becket wrote in its original complaint, referencing Minnesota House sessions where the bill’s author, “explained that both the faith-statement provision and the antidiscrimination provision were included in the amendment to force schools to admit students without regard to their religious beliefs.”

Crown College, aligned with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul, confirmed as a “Christian community,” are also plaintiffs in the case.

Crown College President Andrew Denton expressed appreciation for the decades the school has participated in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program.

“Crown College is committed to providing all our students the tools they need to excel intellectually and spiritually through our biblically-integrated education,” Denton said in the Becket press release.

“We pray that the court will continue to allow every student in Minnesota to use PSEO funds at the school that best meets their needs and matches their values.”

University of Northwestern-St. Paul President Corbin Hoornbeek issued a similar plea.

“For over a century, Northwestern has existed to offer students a Christ-centered education that prepares them to serve in the home, church, community and the world,” Hoornbeek said. “Minnesota wants to single out our university because of this unique campus culture which integrates faith and learning. We pray the court will recognize that and continue to allow us to help on-campus PSEO students flourish in their faith and education.”

Becket bases its case on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, accusing Minnesota’s law of five violations including religious targeting, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine of the First Amendment, saying the schools must give up their religious identity to participate.

Becket also accuses Minnesota of violating the schools’ freedom of speech and of discriminating against the schools based on the schools’ religion. Becket expects a ruling in the coming months.

PLANO (BP)—An associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano is poised to return to the White House as part of the Trump administration with the nomination of Scott Turner for secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Turner and his wife Robin have been members at Prestonwood for 18 years, where he has served as associate pastor the last four. The couple have a grown son, Solomon.

During Donald Trump’s first term, Turner was executive director for the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.

In 2021, he returned to Texas and founded the Community Engagement and Opportunity Council, which works toward revitalization in communities “through sports, mentorship and economic opportunity.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Turner posted on X after Trump’s Nov. 22 announcement. “I am thrilled to continue the outstanding work we began in your last administration at HUD with an incredible team. I am deeply humbled by your confidence in my nomination.”

Turner went on to express gratitude to his mentor, Ben Carson, who served as Trump’s HUD secretary during the first term.

“Few people are as compassionate and gracious as he is, and I am aware that I have big shoes to fill,” Turner said. “The forgotten men and women of this great country over the past four years will be honored in the Trump administration.”

A native of the Dallas area, Turner played football and ran track at the University of Illinois. He was drafted as a cornerback by the Washington Redskins in 1995 to begin an eight-year NFL career that included stops with the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. He continues to serve as a senior advisor to the NFL’s executive vice president of Football Operations.

Prior to working at the White House, Turner was a two-term member of the Texas House of Representatives.

“Scott Turner is a beloved pastor at Prestonwood and a dear friend,” said Senior Pastor Jack Graham. “I met Scott when he was 17 and the football teammate of one of my sons. He is a man of impeccable character and dynamic leadership skills. This is truly his calling, as he brings much experience and passion to this role.

“Scott loves the Lord, he loves people, and he will be a mighty instrument for God in this new role, serving and elevating local communities and blessing America with compassionate conservatism.”

Additionally, Turner has published several pieces supporting school vouchers for the America First Policy Institute.

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Over the strong objections of many religious groups, the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 21 approved a bill that would enable the secretary of the Treasury to rescind the tax-exempt status of any nonprofits the secretary concludes are “terrorist-supporting organizations.”

The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act was approved 219-184 and now heads to the U.S. Senate.

But civil rights groups and a host of religious groups committed to a broad range of issues such as Palestinian rights, immigrant rights, racial justice and climate change are determined to continue to fight it. They fear it might serve as a dangerous new tool for the incoming Trump administration to punish its opponents.

The bill would enable the secretary of the Treasury unilaterally to rescind the tax-exempt status of any nonprofits the secretary concludes are “terrorist-supporting organizations.” Those conceivably could include houses of worship, which are also nonprofits, though more likely civil rights groups, humanitarian organizations and universities.

The American Civil Liberties Union this week sent an open letter co-signed by nearly 300 nonprofits to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson expressing its “deep concerns” that the bill “creates a high risk of politicized and discriminatory enforcement.”

“The executive branch could use this authority to target its political opponents and use the fear of crippling legal fees, the stigma of the designation, and donors fleeing controversy to stifle dissent and chill speech and advocacy,” the ACLU letter said.

The Council of Foundations also opposed the bill.

Bill gained steam after campus protests

The bill was introduced by two Jewish congressmen shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that launched the war in Gaza. But it gained traction during the campus protests this past spring, in which pro-Palestinian activists demanded their universities divest from financial and cultural groups that support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its brutal military offensive on Palestinians in Gaza.

Some groups alleged nonprofits organizing on campus were not only supportive of Palestinians, but also of Hamas, which the United States designated as a terrorist group.

Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the more vocal Jewish groups demanding an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, is particularly fearful that if the bill becomes law a Trump administration might target the organization and others like it.

“We have every reason to believe that along with other powerful Palestinian rights movement organizing groups, the (Trump) administration would try to weaponize and use legislation like this to try to stop us from being able to continue to organize for Palestinian freedom and to end this genocide,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action.

Jewish Voice for Peace is a relatively small but growing nonprofit with more than 32,000 dues-paying members, 100 volunteer-run local chapters and an annual budget of $7.3 million.

It was joined in opposing the bill by a host of other faith-based groups, including dozens of Muslim groups and mosques, mainline denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the major national institutions of Reform and Conservative Jewish movements.

Nonprofit status is critical to all of them. It gives them a kind of government seal of approval and allows donors to make tax-deductible donations, even though most taxpayers don’t itemize and thus don’t benefit from the deduction.

Federal income tax experts said the bill is redundant. U.S. laws already stipulate that any organization designated as a terrorist organization ceases to be tax-exempt. There are also tax rules that nonprofits that act illegally don’t qualify for tax exemption.

Material support or resources, not speech

The new bill targets “terrorist-supporting organizations.” But that support is defined as being of a material nature.

Samuel Brunson, a law professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, who specializes in federal income tax and nonprofit organizations, said advocating for Palestinians probably isn’t enough to get nonprofits into trouble if the bill becomes law.

The bill allows the Treasury secretary to go after organizations providing “material support or resources” to terrorist organizations—for example, money, property, lodging, training, weapons, personnel or transportation.

“It’s not that it couldn’t be used as a costly attack against these organizations, but effectively, I don’t see how you get speech to fall within the statute as it’s written,” Brunson said. “To some extent it is meant to be expressive more than enforced: ‘We want you to know that we can get your tax exemption and we’re not happy with what you’re doing.’”

The bill would give a nonprofit designated as “terror-supporting” 90 days to appeal. But it does not require the Treasury secretary to provide evidence for stripping the nonprofit of its tax-exempt status.

This was the second time the House voted on the bill. After House rules were suspended to fast-track the bill, it failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to pass.

It now heads to the Senate, which may decide to act on the bill early next year once Republicans take control of the upper chamber.

WASHINGTON (BP)—President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a Baptist chaplain and former pastor to be the next head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Doug Collins is a North American Mission Board-endorsed Southern Baptist chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, serving in that role since 2002.

He served two years as a Navy chaplain before joining the Air Force after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He remains active with the Air Force Reserves, which included a 2008-09 deployment to Iraq.

A native of Gainesville, Ga., Collins was senior pastor of Chicopee Baptist Church from November 1994 through October 2005, according to the church’s annual church profile reporting.

He also served as chaplain for Chattahoochee Baptist Association and earned his Master of Divinity degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife Lisa are members of Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville.

 “I am grateful for people of faith, like Doug, who have sacrificially served our country and continue to do so when the nation calls upon them,” said Maj. Gen. (retired) Doug Carver, executive director of chaplaincy and federal endorser for the North American Mission Board.

“Caring for our nation’s veterans and for their families, caregivers, and survivors is an extremely noble calling. I will be praying for him as he takes on this important leadership role.”

Georgia voters elected Collins to the District 27 state representative seat in 2006. He was sent from Atlanta to Washington six years later, winning the District 9 election for the U.S. House. He stepped down to run for U.S. Senate in 2020, but lost.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (RNS)—On the Sunday after the recent presidential election, Allen Jackson got up to recognize the many veterans in the congregation and to give thanks for the election results, to applause from many in the white evangelical megachurch’s sanctuary.

But Jackson, 67, the church’s longtime pastor, known for his conservative values and outspoken support for Israel, characterized the election’s outcome as more a reprieve than a victory.

“I really did feel like the Lord showed us mercy, when, in truth, we deserve judgment,” Jackson said.

Much work still is to be done in restoring what Jackson called “a biblical worldview” to the nation’s culture, he said, and he made clear his congregants could not depend on elected officials to do that work for them.

“We will have to have more courage than the people that you voted for,” he added.

While Donald Trump’s faith advisers were elated voters returned him to the White House, some evangelical pastors in Tennessee were more muted in the days after the election.

Like their congregants and voters around the nation—who said in exit polls the economy determined their vote more than any other issue—the pastors RNS interviewed were focused more on the cost of day-to-day items like gas and food than a revival of Christian power.

Brownsville, Tenn., a 40-minute drive east of Memphis, is the seat of Haywood County—one of three counties in the state that went for Harris. But unlike Harris’ sweeps in the metro areas of Memphis and Nashville, the vice president beat Trump by just 25 votes in Haywood.

Polarization concerns

Ben Cowell, the 42-year-old pastor of Brownsville Baptist Church, said he remains concerned about polarization in the wake of another election that left half of the country elated and half despondent.

Much of that he blames on social media echo chambers that pit Americans against each other.

“I would joyfully welcome a mass crash of multiple servers, where X is brought down and Facebook is brought down, and all of these social networking sites,” he said.

“I think people have now grown full jobs out of making people angry at and mistrusting people who hold different ideas.”

While glad about Trump’s win mostly for economic reasons—“I’d like to see milk not be $6 a gallon,” he said, “or gas, $4 a gallon”—he worries that rather than listening to experts, Americans are more likely to be influenced by social media influencers who have no real knowledge about the subjects they talk about.

“People wondered why we’re more divided than we’ve ever been,” he said. “Well, we did it to ourselves.”

Mike Waddy, pastor of First Baptist Church in tiny Maury City, Tenn., half an hour north of Cowell’s church, also said most of his people voted based on economic rather than ideological concerns.

Because of inflation, Waddy said, retired folks and those on a fixed income were more likely to turn to the local food pantry for help in recent years. Those folks had been OK under recent presidents but in the last three years have struggled with the price of food and gas.

“Our people watched some of their friends fall under their ability to make it,” he said. “Food pantries like ours wound up heavily supplementing some people’s ability to eat.” In Maury City’s Crockett County, Trump took nearly 80 percent of the vote.

Mass deportation concerns

But Waddy, whose church shares a building with a Hispanic congregation, said issues such as immigration have not been a focus in the community, where Spanish is spoken in about a third of homes, according to U.S. Census data.

The pastor said Trump’s promise of mass deportations has not come up but if it comes to pass, the town would be ripped apart and close friendships would be destroyed.

There would also be economic consequences, he said.

“With 30-something percent of our population being Hispanic, if they were all to be gone, you can imagine what that would do to our economy.”

First Baptist Church in Covington, Tenn., a small town 12 miles from the Mississippi River, has both Democrats and Republicans in its congregation, and its pastor, Cliff Marion, didn’t address the election on Sunday, feeling it was time to move on.

He calls unifying the country “the million-dollar question,” adding, “I don’t think either party has it figured out because it seems like each party has different views of the kind of America they want.”

Marion said he has avoided falling into partisan divides so far but said political activists have made inroads into churches and seem intent on making disciples to their causes, rather than followers of Jesus.

Disciples of whom?

“Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson, they’re the greatest disciplers in the Southern Baptist Convention,” said the pastor. “They make better disciples than Lifeway (the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm) does, because all our people do is turn them on all day long.”

In response, he said, he has tried to remind the 500 or so people who attend services at First Baptist that political opponents are not enemies.

“We will not be a church that curses the darkness,” he said. “We will go into the darkness and light more candles.”

Erik Reed, pastor of Journey Church in Lebanon, Tenn., east of Nashville, where Trump beat Harris by a ratio of 2-to-1, was more enthusiastic about a second Trump term. Reed hopes to see reforms in the nation’s educational system, a better economy and an end to U.S. involvement in overseas wars.

He did not endorse a candidate before the election or talk about it the Sunday after, but earlier this year he did run an all-day seminar on faith and politics, where he laid out some reasons why Christians might support Trump—and why some could not.

Reed suspects people have grown tired of the changes of modern life, of dealing with pronouns and issues of gender. They also worried about the cost of living.

“At the end of the day, I think what people were voting right now is a return to some common sense. That’s not a Christian or non-Christian thing,” he said. “That’s just people trying to live and survive.”

That strikes Jackson, the pastor whose World Outreach church and its sprawling campus in Murfreesboro claims 15,000 members, as a waste of an opportunity. If the election was a reprieve from judgment, he believes America still faces judgment for defying God’s boundaries on issues such as marriage, abortion and gender.

But he doesn’t look to Washington to save the nation.

“I don’t think the problems that we face as a people were fundamentally political,” he said. “So, I wasn’t looking for a politician or an election to fix us.”

Instead, he said: “I think the question is, is there still enough residual biblical worldview in the character of America to shape our future? If there is, I think that’s a better future.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump finished his victory speech in West Palm Beach, Fla., the room burst into a rendition of the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art.”

The moment, captured on video, was a reminder of Trump’s robust support among conservative evangelical Christians, who have consistently backed the former president with upward of 80 percent voting for him in all three of his elections.

Among the crowd in Florida on election night, Nov. 5, was longtime Trump supporter Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, who preached a sermon to the businessman on the morning of Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

Jeffress described the atmosphere at Trump’s victory party as “electric” and suggested the vibe was similar when he returned to his church last Sunday.

“Our people were elated, for the most part, over the election results,” Jeffress said.

Conservative Christians have long celebrated what they see as the landmark successes of Trump’s first term, particularly his appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and their overturning of Roe v. Wade to end nationwide abortion access.

Hoping for more

This time, however, Jeffress and other evangelical advisers of Trump say they are hoping for more—although exactly what form those policies will take appears to be the subject of debate.

For Jeffress, a key policy concern for Trump’s second term is “protecting the religious freedom of all Americans.”

“The things (Trump) is most interested in is anything that will prohibit not only pastors from preaching what is in their heart, but what would keep laymen from exercising their faith in the workplace, whether it be doctors being forced to perform abortions or high school football coaches not allowed to pray before a football game,” Jeffress said.

Trump, for his part, promised during his campaign to create a federal task force to fight “anti-Christian bias,” saying if he didn’t win, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris would “come after Christians all over the country.”

He also promised to get rid of the Johnson Amendment—a part of the tax code that prohibits churches from endorsing candidates—“permanently the next time,” after signing an executive order that weakened the restriction during his first term as president.

“They didn’t want you to speak to people, and if you did they take away your tax-exempt status,” Trump told a group of mostly pastors in Powder Springs, Ga. “And I said, ‘But these are the people that me and others want to hear from, and you’re not letting them speak. What’s that all about?’”

Foreign policy concerns

Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he hoped Trump would address a myriad of foreign policy concerns.

Graham said he was especially hopeful Trump would “find a way to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine,” suggesting there should be a special ambassador appointed to go to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Democrats demonized the Russians so much that if you talk to them, it looks like you’re doing wrong,” said Graham, who also praised Trump’s efforts to forge a relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Graham also said he hoped Trump would work to establish peace amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that has spread to southern Lebanon and the surrounding region. He noted the president-elect helped bring about a bilateral agreement on Arab-Israeli normalization known as the Abraham Accords during his first term in office.

Trump criticized Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and has urged Israel to “finish the job” and destroy Hamas.

“Now (Trump’s) got somebody who can help restart that and come up with a comprehensive peace deal for that region,” Graham said, referring to Trump’s decision to appoint real estate tycoon Steven Witkoff as his Mideast envoy.

Transgender students

Samuel Rodriguez and Tony Suarez, the president and vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and both Trump faith advisers, listed a desire for Trump to act on “children’s and parental rights.” They especially noted transgender children who seek out gender affirming surgery, something conservative Christians have grown increasingly vocal in opposing.

Trump campaigned on the issue, pledging to roll back civil rights protections for transgender students and running an ad that declared “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

The president-elect has not detailed his plans to address the topic, although some conservatives have floated excluding transgender students from Title IX protections.

Doing so could alter policies in public schools regarding bathrooms, locker rooms and which pronouns students use. Since Trump was elected, transgender youth have flooded crisis hotlines, according to The Associated Press.

“We want policies that prevent government intrusion into children’s medical and personal development, particularly regarding sensitive issues like gender identity,” Rodriguez wrote in an email.

Evangelicals and other conservative Christians, he argued, oppose state-level policies that have “enabled government involvement” in “matters that should remain private and family-centered, respecting faith-based values in both education and public spaces.”

Rodriguez also wrote he hoped Trump would protect religious liberty in the United States and globally, including “policies that protect people of faith from government overreach and hostility.”

“Additionally, on the international stage, we hope to see the administration champion religious liberties, building a robust defense against all forms of totalitarianism, whether religious or secular,” Rogriguez stated.

Abortion still a major concern

Virtually every conservative Christian leader RNS spoke with mentioned abortion as a key issue of concern, although there were differences in terms of policy focus. The discrepancy may be a byproduct of the Republican Party’s struggles since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

Since then, multiple red states have either rejected attempts to curtail abortion rights or backed ballot initiatives that enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. This election, advocates for abortion rights achieved victories in seven of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot.

Even so, many conservative Christians are unwavering in their opposition to abortion. Suarez conveyed he hoped Republicans would be firmer in their anti-abortion stance despite recent political setbacks.

Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, who has advocated for Christian nationalism and become a rising star among conservative figures in Trump’s orbit such as Tucker Carlson, said he hoped the next president would focus on appointing conservative judges and justices, adding that he hopes “the pro-life issue” would “become an explicit litmus test” for any Supreme Court nominees.

Evangelical leaders were less uniform when discussing a potential national abortion ban, a policy some believe could happen now that Republicans have regained control of the U.S. House, along with the Senate and the presidency.

Trump distanced himself from the idea during his campaign, although he responded vaguely when asked during a debate whether he would veto a ban were he to occupy the Oval Office.

Ralph Reed, the head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, dismissed the plausibility of a national abortion ban in a conversation with reporters last week, saying the policy is unlikely to get approved by Congress in the first place.

But Jeffress was more precise. He focused on the need for exceptions in abortion legislation.

“I think the majority of Americans … do not support banning abortion with no exceptions,” Jeffress said. “They may disagree on what those exceptions should be, but most people I know, including evangelicals, don’t believe that a mother ought to be forced by government to give up her life to possibly save the baby.”

He added: “I think what the president will do is what the president has said, and that is no national abortion ban—certainly (not) one that would outlaw abortion with no exceptions. He believes in the exceptions.”

The faith leaders also noted support for other policies that are not tied explicitly to faith, such as a desire to reduce immigration, which Trump has paired with a plan to enact mass deportations. Rodriguez and Suarez also said they hoped Trump would help pass a form of immigration reform.

But no matter what, for Jeffress and other evangelicals, there is trust Trump will pursue policies that reflect the support they’ve given him throughout his political career.

“I think what appeals to many evangelicals about Trump is they believe that President Trump will do effectively what (God) has commanded government to do,” Jeffress said.

“God never commanded government to lead a spiritual revival in America. That is not the responsibility of government. It’s the responsibility of the church and the responsibility of government, according to Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 2, to keep citizens safe from evildoers and leave Christians alone to practice their faith. That’s it.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term—after campaigning on blocking migration and carrying out record deportations—prompted faith groups that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their commitment to continue their work.

“Given President-elect Trump’s record on immigration and promises to suspend refugee resettlement, restrict asylum protections, and carry out mass deportations, we know there are serious challenges ahead for the communities we serve,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to end automatic citizenship for immigrants’ children born in the United States; end protected legal status for certain groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a travel ban for people from certain Muslim-majority areas. 

If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projects that by the start of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latino residents, could be impacted by the mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.

“If the mass deportation articulated throughout the campaign season is implemented, it would tear families, communities, and the American economy apart,” said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees.

“The solution to the disorder at the border is to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration laws while protecting people who need refuge.”

His organization stated: “We will continue to speak truth to power in solidarity with refugees and displaced people seeking safety around the world. We will not be intimidated into silence or inaction.”

‘Fear and uncertainty’

Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Faith in Action, a social justice organization, said, “We recognize the fear and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we can channel that energy into solidarity and resilience.”

“This moment calls us to take immediate action to protect the communities targeted throughout this campaign and during the prior Trump administration,” Perez said. “We remain committed to providing resources, support, and training to empower people to know their rights and stand firm against attempts to undermine their power.”

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Research earlier this year that showed 71 percent of evangelicals agree the U.S. “has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.”

“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, according to the exit polls, but it’d be an error to presume that means that most Christians align with everything that he’s said in the campaign related to refugees and immigration,” he said.

Soerens explained that when Christians “realize that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after a thorough vetting process overseas and that many were persecuted particularly because of their faith in Jesus, my experience has been that they want to sustain refugee resettlement.”

“We’ll be doing all we can to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians against persecution, to ensure that the U.S. remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution on account of their faith or for other reasons recognized by U.S. law,” he said.

Jesuit Refugee Service said Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric and his previous term had harmed “forcibly displaced people.”

Policies in his first term “separated families, set up new hurdles in the asylum process, dramatically reduced the number of refugees the U.S. resettled, introduced a ban on admitting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, and deprioritized international efforts to address the exploding global refugee population,” the Catholic organization said.

To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS statement said. “How we respond to the tens of millions of people forced to flee their homes is a serious moral, legal, diplomatic, and economic question that impacts all of us,” the organization wrote.

Trump made significant gains among Latinos

Despite the disproportionate impact that Trump’s proposed immigration policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made significant gains among Latinos compared with previous elections, winning Latino American men’s vote by 10 points.

Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, attributed Trump’s success to several factors, including a rejection of progressive ideologies, economic concerns and concerns about government overreach.

But the evangelical megachurch pastor also said, “While immigration is a nuanced issue within the Latino community, there is a growing sentiment against open-border policies and the provision of resources to illegal immigrants at the perceived expense of American citizens.”

Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and author of several books on Christian responses to immigration, called Trump’s victory in the popular vote “especially crushing” in light of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny within the community.

“We really aspire to be secondary white people, and we think that aligning ourselves with white supremacy is going to save us, and it’s not,” she said.

González was among the faith leaders who said they had not emotionally reckoned with the possibility of a Trump win before the results were announced.

‘Perception that the system is broken’

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants in El Paso and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, told RNS, “I was hopeful that we had turned the page because I think (the first Trump term) represents a really challenging time in our country.”

Corbett called for “deep reckoning” in churches and grassroots communities. “There’s the perception that the (immigration) system is broken, and I think the longer we wait to really fix the situation, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to cheap solutions,” he said.

While President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some really aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a mixed legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “dangerous politics.”

“Faith leaders in particular are going to have to assume a very public voice in defense of the human rights of now a very vulnerable part of our community,” he said.

Corbett expressed concern that Trump might mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactics in Operation Lone Star in his push for massive deportations, citing deaths due to high-speed chases on highways and record migrant deaths.

“It’s going to fall to border communities like El Paso to deal with the fallout of what we can expect will be some very broken policies and some very dangerous rhetoric,” Corbett said. “And so I think we have to prepare for that. And that means turning back to our faith, going back to the Gospels, going back to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he said.

‘Our role … is to help those in need’

In Global Refuge’s statement, the organization encouraged Americans to support immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the importance of family unity, humanitarian leadership, and the long-standing benefits of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”

Vignarajah added, “In uncertain times, it is vital to remember that our role as Americans is to help those in need, and in doing so, we advance our own interests as well.”

Perez told RNS before the election Faith in Action had prepared for a potential Trump win and the organization would draw on its experience “responding to the attacks on the immigrant community” and mounting protection defense campaigns to prevent deportations.

González recalled working in a legal clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and helping migrants process citizenship and sponsorship applications before he took office. “This is really the time for that sort of practical action of how we can serve our neighbors,” she said.

“Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,” Perez said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The support of white Christians once again proved key to Donald Trump’s election victory.

While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42 percent of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute.

Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported 72 percent of white Protestants and 61 percent of white Catholics said they voted for Trump.

Among white voters, 81 percent of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76 percent in 2020 and similar to the 80 percent of support Trump received in 2016.

Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory.

“It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said.

But Trump also won the Christian vote overall. Early exit polls indicated 58 percent of all Catholics voted for him and 63 percent of Protestants. If the poll numbers hold steady, that will prove to be a jump in Catholic support for Trump compared with 2020, when 50 percent of Catholics voted for him.

Increased Trump support among Hispanics

Some of that may have to do with an increase in Trump support among Hispanic voters. Almost two-thirds of Hispanic Protestant (64 percent) and just over half of Hispanic Catholic voters (53 percent) also supported Trump, according to initial CNN exit polls. In the 2020 election, only about a third of Hispanic Catholics voted for Trump.

Jews (78 percent), other non-Christians (59 percent) and those with no religious affiliation (71 percent) supported Kamala Harris, according to the CNN exit poll.

Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research Institute, said more data is needed to understand the Hispanic vote in the 2024 election. But he wonders whether economics played a major role in Hispanic support for Trump, more than religion.

“They don’t feel like their situation has improved over the past four years,” he said.

Jones said Trump was able to send two distinct messages during the campaign—one about being tough on immigration and crime, which appealed to white Christians, and the other about the economy, which appealed to Hispanic Christians.

Burge suspects Hispanic Catholics and Protestants are more conservative on social issues, such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, which also may have played a role in the election.

He wonders if the Harris campaign’s support for abortion rights, in particular, may have backfired with Hispanic Christians.

“That’s a hard message for a moderate Hispanic voter,” he said, adding that while voters in a number of states supported abortion rights, that did not carry over to overall support for Harris.

Burge also wonders if inflation and other issues about the economy swung the elections. While Trump is known for causing controversy online, Burge said, many voters are paying more attention to day-to-day concerns.

“All they are thinking is, gas is expensive, bread is expensive, milk is expensive,” he said. “Let’s try something else. That’s the story.”

Concerns about decline of religion in culture

Both white and Hispanic Christians may also be worried about the changing nature of America and the decline of religion’s power in the culture. While few Americans want the nation to have an official Christian religion, many do see Christianity as important or feel a nostalgia for God and country patriotism, rather than a culture where secular values dominate.

And the swing states that decided the election, such as Wisconsin, are places where white Christians—especially white mainline Protestants and white Catholics who supported Trump—are found in large numbers.

Samuel Perry, a University of Oklahoma sociologist who studies Christian nationalism and other religious trends, wonders if the growth of nondenominational and Pentecostal churches in the United States may have played a role in the 2024 races.

Those churches are often multiethnic, he said, but not because white Christians are joining predominantly Black or Hispanic Christians. Instead, he said, Christians of color are joining majority-white churches that often lean Republican. That can affect their voting patterns, he said.

“Their allegiance is not to their ethnic group, who tend to vote Democrat,” he said. “It’s going to be more of a multiethnic conservative, white-dominated Christianity that unequivocally votes Republican.”

Jones said the 2024 election once again shows the close allegiance between white Christians and the Republican Party and the divided nature of religion in America.

Most faith categories in America—Jews, Muslims, Black Protestants, nonreligious Americans and, until 2024, Hispanic Catholics—have supported the Democratic Party. White Christians, on the other hand, remained tied to Republicans.

“They have not moved a centimeter,” said Jones. “And they get out and vote.”

NORTH MIDDLEBORO, Mass. (RNS)—Pastor Jason Genest loves God and his church. He also loves U.S. history.

That’s why he gets nervous when he hears people talk about America being founded as a Christian nation. Or wanting to make America Christian by using the power of politics.

America tried that in the past, he said. It did not go well—including for the founder of Genest’s own church.

First Baptist Church of North Middleboro, Mass., was founded by Isaac Backus—a champion of religious freedom in the 1700s—who often found himself at odds with leaders of the Congregational church, which at the time was the official religion of the Bay State.

So-called New Light Baptists like Backus, who were followers of the famed evangelical preacher George Whitefield—a leader of the First Great Awakening who stressed the need for personal conversion—were seen as troublemakers and threats to public order by leaders of the official church, which was essentially a state bureaucracy, Genest said.

New Light Baptists questioned social institutions, by claiming the baptisms—and sometimes the marriages—of the unconverted were invalid.

They also set up rival churches to draw worshippers away from parish churches and, more importantly, refused to pay taxes to support those parish churches. That led to government crackdowns, with some gatherings of New Light Baptists banned as illegal.

“When you get along with a state bureaucracy, it’s great,” Genest said. “When you disagree, you have problems.”

Founding era not a religious utopia

Today, as America has grown both more secular and more religiously pluralistic, there has also been a rise in Christian nationalism—an insistence that America was founded by Christians and should be run by Christians.

But the founding era was not a religious utopia, where Colonists were free to choose their faith. Instead, disputes between different kinds of Christians were fierce in the Colonies that became the United States. Those Colonies often had official churches that used government power to collect taxes, enforce doctrine and crush their rivals.

Catherine Brekus, a religious historian at Harvard, says there’s a powerful myth that the early American Colonies were founded on the idea of religious freedom.

“That is not true,” she said. “We think that religious freedom was enshrined from the beginning, and instead it was a long and hard fight.”

In the 1700s, some Christians, like Backus’ mother and brother, ended up in jail. Others found constables at the door, hauling their possessions away for back taxes—which were meant to subsidize the state church. Still others were banned from meeting altogether in so-called illegal churches.

Backus’ concerns about the power of government to dictate what people believed—and to punish those who disagreed—fueled his efforts to separate the church and state in Massachusetts. It became reality in 1833, nearly three decades after Backus died.

While Genest believes churches should be active in public life, that’s different from trying to mandate what people believed. When the government has that power, bad things happen, he said.

“I hate to say we use God, but I think God is often used as a means of people getting what they want,” Genest said.

Roger Williams exiled for ‘dangerous’ ideas

About 30 miles west of North Middleboro stands another First Baptist Church—also known as the First Baptist Church in America—with its own story of clashing with Christian nationalism.

This year on Oct. 13, the guest speaker at First Baptist was John McNiff, a retired national park ranger and historical reenactor who often portrays Roger Williams, the church’s founder. Williams was exiled from Massachusetts in the 1600s because of his “dangerous ideas” about religious freedom.

Among those ideas: State leaders should not use civil power to make people go to church or observe religious rules. During his talk, McNiff pointed out none of the worshippers in the service were there because the law required them to be.

“These politicians, these rulers, were compelling people to a faith that they did not believe in,” he said, drawing from Williams’ writings. “The civil sword can make a nation full of hypocrites, but not one true Christian.”

That fear of state-run religion was shaped in Williams’ childhood, said Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, a professor of history at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

“Williams grew up in a world of religious turmoil, where the ‘official’ state religion changed on the whim of a monarch,” Carrington-Farmer wrote in a 2021 book chapter about religious freedom and Williams, who was born in England.

When he arrived in New England, Williams realized he had not come to a place where people were free to worship.

“When he gets to Massachusetts, he’s horrified,” said Carrington-Farmer, editor of a forthcoming collection of Williams’ writing, called Roger Williams and His World. “He’s seen the same persecution, just under a different umbrella.”

Williams became an outspoken advocate for religious freedom, often holding meetings in his home to advocate for his ideas. In particular, he believed government should have no right to enforce religious rules. That put him at odds with other Puritan leaders such as Gov. John Winthrop and clerics who felt it their God-given duty to keep their community holy.

Tired of Williams’ “diverse new & dangerous opinions,” a Boston court banished him on Oct. 9, 1635, giving him six weeks to leave—or else government officials would remove him by force. He eventually fled the state during a blizzard that winter, going to Narragansett Bay, where he founded the town of Providence and later, First Baptist.

Fear that lessons of the past have been forgotten

Carrington-Farmer said Puritan leaders had tried to avoid banishing Williams, whom they held in high esteem, and tried to get him to moderate his views. But Williams would not compromise.

Puritan leaders, she said, felt caught between a rock and a hard place. They had experienced persecution for the faith in England and wanted to create a new community that was faithful to the Bible and Christianity—which, as John Winthrop put it, would be a city on a hill.

They feared troublemakers like Williams would put that vision at risk. The Puritans believed God would punish them if they allowed sin and dissent to flourish.

Ironically, in being banished, Williams was lucky. Several decades later, Mary Dyer, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Leddra and William Robinson—all members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers—were hanged on the Boston Common for defying the power of the established church.

On a sunny afternoon in early September this year, a pair of tourists who identified themselves as descendants of Williams stopped in the church he started, to have a look. After settling them in to watch a short video about the history of First Baptist, Jamie Washam, the church’s current pastor, sat on the church stairs for a conversation about Williams’ legacy.

Washam, the pastor of First Baptist since 2015, said she worries that the hard-won lessons of Williams’ life have been forgotten.

“The story and legacy of Roger Williams reminds us that it has always been a struggle to advocate for religious liberty,” said Washam, sitting on the church steps. “We continue to fervently believe that that cost is worth it.”

She’s skeptical of the idea that voting for the right candidate will make America more Christian.

“Better legislation doesn’t make us better Christians,” she said. “Being more faithful and loving and just people make us better Christians.”

Some want Christianity restored in U.S.

Some Christians, however, worry something essential is being lost as the country becomes less religious. That’s the case for Jerry Newcombe, executive director of the Providence Forum, which has produced a series of videos about the Christian origins of the United States.

“I feel like there’s been a great deal of misinformation and forgetting,” said Newcombe, whose organization seeks to “preserve, defend and advance the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding.”

While he fiercely promotes the idea that America was founded on Christianity, Newcombe admits things did not always go well—especially for religious groups that clashed with political leaders over matters of faith.

“It’s not as if everything was Shangri-la, especially if you were a nonconformist,” he said in a phone interview.

“In retrospect, we don’t agree with that,” he said. “But don’t throw God out of the whole equation.”

Other conservative Christians go much further, saying America must return to its Christian roots or perish.

Josh Abbotoy, head of American Reformer magazine and an investor who wants to rebuild a Christian America, has suggested the United States might need a “Christian Franco”—a reference to the longtime Spanish Catholic dictator—to restore Christianity to its rightful place in American society.

Others, like the National Conservatism movement, believe the government should use Christianity to shape society. During a recent Nat Con event, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, praised the Protestant empire that built America, saying that religious foundation must be restored.

“I want to say that I do not believe this nation and all that it represents can survive abandoning its theological roots. We will recover those roots and commitments or lose everything,” Mohler said earlier this year.

Conservative activists such as Charlie Kirk have called for a return to America’s Christian roots, praising the fact that the early Colonies had religious tests for office and were run explicitly by Christians.

“One of the reasons we are living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government. And they are incompatible,” said Kirk, in advocating for an end to the separation of church and state and a return to a Christian America during an online panel discussion.

Complicated religious picture in the founding era

Douglas Winiarski, professor of religious studies at the University of Richmond and author of Darkness Falls on the Land of Light—which details the end of established churches in New England—said nostalgia for a Christian America can overlook how complicated religion was in the founding era.

He said that by the early 18th century, the Congregational church—which had descended from the Puritans—had become fairly tolerant, allowing space for dissenters as long as they paid their taxes and didn’t cause trouble.

That tolerance ended, however, with the rise of New Light Baptists and others who disagreed with the teachings of the Congregationalists and refused to submit to their authority on religious matters.

Ironically, Congregationalists, who had dominated religious life in Massachusetts and other New England states for two centuries, would learn the downside of having a state religion, with the rise of Unitarianism in the early 1800s.

Residents began electing Unitarian ministers to lead parish churches over the objections of Congregational church members, who were Trinitarians.

That led to court battles over church property, with the state Supreme Court siding with Unitarians in 1821. As a result, the Congregationalists found themselves losing the buildings and congregations they had controlled since the 1600s.

Eventually, because of the efforts of Backus and others like him, Massachusetts allowed a kind of moderated religious freedom, in which the taxes paid to the state church were diverted to other congregations—including Baptists and the breakaway Congregationalists.

But it was an uneasy peace and led to the disestablishment—the end of official status—of a state church in Massachusetts.

The archives from First Parish in Cambridge—which was an official government church from the 1600s to the early 1800s—were filled with letters from residents of that city, requesting their taxes be sent to other churches in the 1800s, said Gloria Korsman, a First Parish historian and a Harvard librarian.

At that time, the clerk of the parish church—a state church that eventually became Unitarian—was responsible for collecting taxes.

Korsman said she can’t imagine why anyone would want to go back to that time.

“I don’t know what there is to long for,” she said. “During the time of disestablishment, neighbors were against neighbors on this issue. It wasn’t like a peaceful time or a time when people were unified. There was a lot of division.”