WASHINGTON (RNS)—A church-state watchdog group is demanding a halt to meetings between the Trump administration and an informal group of evangelical advisers who have proved to be among the president’s staunchest supporters.

Alleged violation of Federal Advisory Committee Act

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the group is violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a 1972 law that provides transparency and procedural standards for committees created to meet with the executive branch. The watchdog called for a stop to the group’s meetings and advising “unless and until” it complies with the law.

“It is clear that the President’s Evangelical Advisory Board is doing substantive work with the Trump Administration behind closed doors—without any sunlight for the public to understand how and why decisions are being made,” wrote Americans United Associate Legal Director Alex J. Luchenitser in an Aug. 30 letter addressed to White House counsel Don McGahn and other administration officials. It also was sent to Johnnie Moore, who has served as an unofficial spokesman for the evangelical group.

The letter arrived the same week President Trump hosted a dinner for about100 evangelicals in the White House’s State Dining Room. The president welcomed them Aug. 27 by saying “these are very special friends of mine, evangelical pastors and leaders from all across the nation.”

Ticking off the names of leaders in attendance, including Florida megachurch pastor Paula White, evangelist Franklin Graham and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., Trump added: “I know you, I watch you, I see you. Yours are the words we want to hear.”

Evangelicals who have met with the Trump administration have said they discussed a range of policy issues, from abortion to transgender rights to international religious freedom.

Administration denies existence of formal advisory board

“The (Trump) Administration continues to engage hundreds of faith leaders on various issues that directly impact their communities,” said Hogan Gidley, deputy press secretary. “The White House does not have an Evangelical Advisory Board; instead, the President signed an executive order establishing the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative that serves all faith-based communities.”

Rachel Laser, president of Americans United, called for greater transparency about the advisers.

“President Trump has granted leaders of a narrow segment of one religion unprecedented influence on policy decisions that affect all of us,” said Laser. “Americans have a right to know that—and to have a government that works for everyone, not just some.”

In the letter, Luchenitser said the activities of the advisory group “are well within FACA’s scope.”

Moore, responding to a request for comment, denied the group has any official capacity.

“There has never been—and I know of no plans for there to be—a White House Faith or Evangelical Council,” he said. “It is hard to shut something down that doesn’t legally exist!”

He said there has been “confusion” about the group because members of the media “innocently chose to carry over language used in the campaign into coverage of the administration, but that campaign council was officially disbanded after the campaign.”

Moore also said Americans United’s complaint seems to primarily be a “fundraising ploy” by the watchdog group.

Others have previously shunned the name “faith council” as an appropriate description. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, said that label would come with “certain legal ramifications.”

Press secretary refers to ‘Faith Advisory Board’

When press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to a question about a July 2017 meeting, at which photos appeared on social media of evangelical leaders praying for Trump, she defended the prayer and added: “It’s his Faith Advisory Board, and they meet from time to time to speak about issues that are important to that community.”

Melissa Rogers, the former director of President Obama’s White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said the Obama administration’s faith-based councils produced public reports, held public meetings and were subject to the 1972 law.

She tweeted on Aug. 28 after reports of this week’s dinner: “Once again, the Trump WH appears to favor evangelicals (more specifically, a particular kind of evangelical) over others, while claiming to promote religious freedom.”

Americans United also has sent Freedom of Information Act requests to 10 federal agencies seeking information about administration meetings and communications with the evangelical advisers. It also seeks to determine the sources of funding for the dinner.

Rob Boston, Americans United’s spokesman, said his advocacy group hopes for a response to its letter from the White House, though one is not required.

“The federal government does have to respond to our FOIA requests,” he said.

RNS National Reporter Jack Jenkins contributed to this report.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (BP)—The U.S. Army dropped its investigation Aug. 24 against Southern Baptist chaplain Maj. Jerry Scott Squires, a Southern Baptist chaplain, exonerating him of all charges.

Squires, who had been charged with discrimination against a lesbian soldier who wanted to attend a marriage retreat, handled the situation in accordance with military policy and followed the guidelines of his denominational endorsing agency, the Army determined.

Squires had been charged with unlawful discrimination and dereliction of duty, and he could have faced confinement in a military prison.

Praised as ‘victory’ for free exercise of religion

“This is great news for both Chaplain Squires and all of the military chaplains who are serving our men and women in the U.S. Armed Services,” said Gen. Douglas Carver, executive director of chaplaincy at the North American Mission Board.

“It is a significant victory for all who support and defend the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, especially regarding the freedom of religion.”

Carver thanked Squires’ commanding general “for having the moral courage to make the correct but difficult decision regarding the investigation into Chaplain Squires.”

In early 2018, Squires told a soldier that he could not perform a marriage retreat for the soldier and her same-sex partner, and Squires provided an alternative by rescheduling the event so another chaplain could conduct the retreat.

An investigating officer initially determined Squires had discriminated against the soldier and recommended he face disciplinary action.

Lawyer asserted chaplain followed protocol

Mike Berry, the attorney from First Liberty Institute representing Squires, argued the chaplain’s actions adhered to Army protocol by taking the appropriate steps to provide the service Squires could not personally oversee or attend in keeping with the policy of his endorser.

“Few chaplains have endured the investigative scrutiny that Chaplain Squires suffered over the last seven months,” Carver said. “We applaud Chaplain Squires and all chaplains like him who remain dedicated to their faith while seeking to respect all persons within the diverse military community.”

NAMB, the entity that endorsed Squires, augmented its ministry guidelines for chaplains in 2013 after the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage only in terms of opposite sex unions. Southern Baptist chaplains are expected to serve respectfully within the pluralistic culture of the military with grace and charity, obeying such biblical commands as Romans 12:18 to, if at all possible, “live at peace with everyone.”

“From the moment the investigation began, Southern Baptists have stood behind Chaplain Squires with their prayerful support, wise counsel, and encouraging words,” Carver said.

“Our partners in the gospel from other denominations faithfully stood with us as well. We are here to ensure that our chaplains can exercise their religious freedom and model the tenets of our faith as Southern Baptists in an uncompromising and Christ-honoring manner.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war who embraced patriotism loudly and religion quietly, died Aug. 25 at age 81.

He was diagnosed in July 2017 with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

The longtime Arizona Republican senator, reared in the Episcopal Church, attended a Southern Baptist megachurch—North Phoenix Baptist Church—in his later years.

He viewed himself as a Christian but had “a distrust of the Religious Right and a faith that is too public, too political,” said Stephen Mansfield, author of books about the faiths of presidents and presidential candidates, in an interview last December.

‘Saved and forgiven’

During McCain’s runs for president, especially his second campaign in 2008, he spoke about his faith. But, even then, he tended to tell a story about a silent expression of belief in God.

In a family memoir and a campaign ad, as well as a televised interview with Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California, McCain recalled a guard in his prisoner of war camp in Vietnam who shared his faith one Christmas.

“He stood there for a minute, and with his sandal on the dirt in the courtyard, he drew a cross and he stood there,” McCain told Warren at the Saddleback Civil Forum. “And a minute later, he rubbed it out, and walked away. For a minute there, there were just two Christians worshipping together.”

Asked by Warren what being a Christian means, McCain simply replied: “It means I’m saved and forgiven.”

At the time of his presidential campaign, McCain biographer Paul Alexander said the senator’s military and faith backgrounds were responsible for his religious reserve.

“He’s a very spiritual person but … in his core, he’s a military man,” said Alexander, author of Man of the People: The Maverick Life and Career of John McCain. “They don’t feel comfortable talking about religion.”

Prayed ‘more often and more fervently’

During more than five years in a POW camp in Vietnam, McCain drew on his Episcopal roots—his great-grandfather was an Episcopal minister, and McCain attended Episcopal day and boarding schools.

In his family memoir, Faith of My Fathers, he recounted how he “prayed more often and more fervently than I ever had as a free man.”

George “Bud” Day, a fellow POW, said McCain was among those who volunteered to preach at religious services the prisoners eventually were permitted to hold at the prison known as the “Hanoi Hilton.”

“He was a very good preacher, much to my surprise,” Day said in 2008, when he was 83. “He could remember all of the liturgy from the Episcopal services … word for word.”

Day died in 2013, and McCain spoke at his funeral.

One Christmas in captivity, McCain recalled in the memoir, as “room chaplain” he was given a few minutes to copy passages from a Bible. Then, in between hymns sung with emotion by his comrades, he read portions of the story of the birth of Christ.

“It was more sacred to me than any service I had attended in the past, or any service I have attended since,” he wrote.

In recent years, McCain sometimes spoke in person and online of his reliance on prayer. He tweeted about praying for people who were victims of tragedies, from a church in Sutherland Springs to the tourist attractions of New York City.

Kept distance from Religious Right

“Prayer was the most important thing for him when he was a POW, and he often mentions prayer in times of national crisis,” Mansfield said. “Otherwise, he’s been cautious about mentioning it very publicly, because he does not want to be identified with the Religious Right or some of the more religious politicians he despises.”

McCain’s differences with some conservative Christians were displayed prominently in the 2000 campaign when he called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “agents of intolerance,” remarks for which he later apologized.

In a conciliatory move, McCain spoke at the 2006 commencement at Falwell’s Liberty University and, in an even greater outreach to the Religious Right, he chose then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, an anti-abortion evangelical, as his 2008 running mate.

He made an immediate defense of then-Sen. Barack Obama when a woman at a 2008 campaign appearance expressed her lack of trust in the Democratic candidate because she believed he was “an Arab.” McCain corrected her and said Obama was a “decent, family man.”

“For a few moments in his own campaign stop, he defended his opponent,” Mansfield recalled in a January 2018 interview. “He, like Reagan, has no problem speaking kindly of the other side and in personal terms.”

Paul Kengor, a political scientist at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said a story about McCain’s family life demonstrated to him McCain’s Christian character.

His wife, Cindy, unexpectedly adopted a child with a cleft palate from an orphanage run by Mother Teresa in Bangladesh in 1991. He first learned of her decision when she arrived at the airport with the child, The Telegraph reported.

Kengor, author of books on the faith of politicians, said: “Some people talk the faith and some people walk the faith. That story struck me as an impressive example of a Christian living the faith. Yes, it was Cindy’s bold initiative, but John McCain accepted it and became a father to that girl—by all accounts, a loving father.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP)—A group from The Satanic Temple temporarily erected a goat-headed, winged statue on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds Aug. 16 to protest the Ten Commandments monument already placed there.

“If you’re going to have one religious monument up, then it should be open to others, and if you don’t agree with that, then let’s just not have any at all,” said Satanic Arkansas cofounder Ivy Forrester, a rally organizer, according to the Associated Press.

The 7.5-foot-tall statue of Baphomet, which features the devil in goat form seated and surrounded by smiling children, was removed later that day because a 2017 state law requires legislative sponsorship for a monument to be considered.

“The extremist group that has targeted our state again today came and spoke against the Ten Commandments monument during our public meetings and sought for a sponsor of a bill to erect their profane statue. They never had any takers,” said Arkansas Sen. Jason Rapert, who sponsored the Ten Commandments monument. “The process was open, and they failed to convince any of the 135 legislators to sponsor a bill to carry out their idea.”

But the group said they will continue to fight for the Ten Commandments to be removed or for equal consideration to be given to all religious groups. Both the Arkansas affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed separate lawsuits earlier this year, asserting the monument violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

About 150 people gathered for the peaceful Aug. 16 rally to protest the Ten Commandments monument, while counter-protesters stood nearby holding signs with Bible verses and occasionally singing songs.

Oklahoma faced the same type of battle in 2014 when The Satanic Temple, based in Salem, Mass., wanted to donate a Baphomet statue for display on the Oklahoma State Capitol lawn. In 2012, Rep. Mike Ritze had donated a Ten Commandments monument that was installed on the Capitol grounds.

A motorist—later identified as Michael Tate Reed—rammed his car into the Oklahoma Ten Commandments monument in 2014, but a replacement monument was installed. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately ruled the monument violated the constitution, and it was removed.

The Satanic group then set its eye on the Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas, according to Lucien Grieves with The Satanic Temple.

In 2017, Reed allegedly destroyed Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument in the same way as he did in Oklahoma, less than 24 hours after it was installed. The monument was replaced in April this year.  A circuit judge acquitted Reed, who had been charged with first-degree criminal mischief, citing grounds of mental disease or defect.

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When white supremacist groups announced plans to hold a demonstration in the nation’s capital to mark the one-year anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., many were concerned the day would descend into violence, as it did in 2017, when one woman was killed and many more injured after a man who had marched with racists allegedly plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters.

But by Sunday evening, Aug. 12, Washington had hosted far more anti-racist Methodists, Baptists and other religious demonstrators than white supremacists, and the thousands of other counter-protesters spread across the city suggested white nationalists inadvertently had done more to unite people across religious and racial differences than bolster the ranks of racists.

Bigotry denounced as ‘terrible disease of the spirit’

A broad swath of religious groups began organizing ahead of this year’s rally in Washington, hosting vigils, trainings and events. Auburn Seminary, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Bishop Michael Francis Burbidge of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Va., issued statements condemning racism, the planned white supremacist rally or both.

“Let us pray for those who shout ‘Jews will not replace us’ or ‘you will not replace us,’” William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign declared at a teach-in Friday at Washington Hebrew Congregation. He was referring to the chant bellowed by white supremacists the year before as they marched with torches onto the University of Virginia campus—all while, as Barber noted, a group of religious activists met to condemn racism in a church across the street.

Barber spoke of white supremacists as “those who have been overcome by the insanity of hate and the insanity of racism.”

“For we know it is a disease, a terrible disease of the spirit that diminishes the humanity of anyone it infects,” he said.

‘United to Love’

On Sunday, the blitz of faith-based activism was evident across the city, beginning with a “United to Love” rally on the National Mall organized by the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Dozens of attendees swayed and sang as a choir led the group in singing hymns, and some waved signs emblazoned with quotes from Martin Luther King Jr., such as, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”

The event also included a sermon from the conference’s Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, who stood silhouetted against the U.S. Capitol as she spoke. She repeatedly condemned racism and white supremacy, arguing that those who champion racism “betray God.”

“Hate kills,” she declared. “Hate destroys. Hate controls. Hate dominates. Hate imprisons. Hate legislates inequality. Hate hides behind religion and politics to promote oppression and inequality. Hate is not of God.”

As she spoke, a lone white man walked up to demonstrators and began shouting racial slurs, insisting white supremacists will “rule the night.” When security officials turned to face him, he quickly fled.

Cassandra Lawrence, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and member of Foundry United Methodist Church who attended the Methodist rally, explained that while the heightened profile of such vitriol has galvanized racists, it also has united others to counter it.

“I think that they rise together,” Lawrence said, noting more than 40 people were attending the event from Foundry alone, with others planning to stop by after their worship service.

“In our darkest moments, our brightest moments also rise. You’re seeing more and more people getting involved—there are churches all over the region today who maybe aren’t here, but they’re having vigils, they’re preaching sermons. … Everybody is coming alive.”

Secular and religious protesters unite

The broad mobilizing power of combating white supremacy was on full display a few blocks away in Freedom Plaza, where hundreds gathered for another rally against racism, primarily organized by secular organizations. But faith groups also had a substantial presence. Jewish protesters painted their faces with Stars of David and waved signs reading “Jews are welcome here,” Unitarian Universalists stood around a banner reading “Standing on the side of love,” and Quakers gathered around a sign reading “Love thy neighbor, no exceptions.”

Dotting the crowd were several faith leaders from various traditions, many clad in religious clothing or vestments.

“We need to stand up against anything that negatively affects God’s people,” said Gayle Fisher-Stewart, an attendee of the event and an Episcopal priest at Calvary Episcopal Church in Washington. “We need to be here, to show up and to let people know that no one is better than anybody else, that we are all created in the image of God.”

Baptists gather at MLK Memorial

Forging unity across difference also was a key theme at a Baptist gathering convened around the same time at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, although the tone was less overtly adversarial. There, two Washington congregations—First Baptist Church, which is predominantly white, and Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, which is historically black— convened for a joint Communion service organized by the New Baptist Covenant, an organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter.

Julie Pennington-Russell, pastor of First Baptist, told the small, interracial crowd that white Christians should do more to acknowledge how faith has been used to justify racism and how “the sin of white supremacy was embedded in the founding documents of this nation … (and) has done irreparable harm to generations of African-Americans and Native Americans.”

Darryl Roberts, pastor of Nineteenth Street Baptist, explained the two churches once had been a single congregation, but they split across racial lines in the mid-1800s. Sunday’s service was the first public expression of their attempts at sustained relationship building and dialogue.

“You have a predominantly white congregation and a black congregation coming together at a historic moment to send a message of unity in a time of hatred,” he said.

Near the White House, an unexpectedly small band of white supremacists finally arrived at the site of their demonstration. The tiny gathering was dwarfed by thousands of counter-protesters whose numbers extended beyond Lafayette Park and spilled into the streets for nearly a block.

Huddled near the back of the park was a group of Quakers sitting in quiet protest just a few feet away from a cluster of roughly 15 interfaith clergy that included priests, pastors and Muslim leaders. Both groups originally had intended to stage direct action protests against the white supremacists, but they abandoned their plans after observing the one-sided nature of the event.

“We can’t even get through there right now,” said Sandy Sorensen, smiling as she pointed to the sprawling crowd. An organizer with a local United Church of Christ congregation, Sorensen explained the group of clergy now planned to offer as-needed pastoral support for the Black Lives Matter group.

When the same group was shown an image of the small white supremacist gathering across the way, Susan Hayward, a United Church of Christ pastor who was among those who counter-protested in Charlottesville last year, shook her head in disbelief.

“Wow,” Hayward said before looking over her shoulder at the mass of rowdy counter-protesters behind her. Shortly thereafter, she and her fellow faith leaders turned back toward the crowd, looking for ways to help their several thousand new allies in the fight against white supremacy.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (BP)—Evangelical pastors in Charlottesville, Va., said a community interracial worship service appeared to be the largest local gathering during what media described as a weekend of peaceful but tense demonstrations in the city.

One year after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville turned violent and left three people dead, an attempted repeat in Washington of the Unite the Right rally Aug. 12 drew fewer than 40 white nationalists and was dwarfed by counter-protestors, according to media reports.

Amid the weekend events, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear released a statement along with SBC First Vice President A.B. Vines and Second Vice President Felix Cabrera declaring “the spirit of racism is antithetical to the gospel.”

“It has been one year since white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Va.,” the three SBC officers said Aug. 11. “We say now, as we said then, that the spirit of racism is antithetical to the gospel. The church, God’s ‘Plan A’ for rescuing the world, should stand as a place of refuge for people of every color united in one body, reflecting the diversity of our communities and proclaiming the diversity of the kingdom. We pray for those who feel the hurt from demonstrations like the one today, and for healing and peace in our society.”

Worship event focuses on Psalm 133:1

On Sunday night, a multiethnic coalition of evangelical pastors in Charlottesville convened a worship service at the city’s outdoor Sprint Pavilion, with a theme of “better together” and a focal Scripture of Psalm 133:1, which says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” The only requirement for individuals appearing on the worship service’s platform was that they affirmed salvation is found in Christ alone.

“You could literally hear a pin drop in the pavilion” as worshippers prayed silently, repenting of racism, said Rob Pochek, pastor of First Baptist Church Park Street in Charlottesville, who helped organize the gathering.

“We exceeded our expectations,” he said. “There were many events in our community” to mourn the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist rally, he added.

“Most of those events had dozens, and some had hundreds of people in attendance. We had well over a thousand people at the Better Together event. It was by far the largest event of the weekend,” Pochek said.

Times of lamentation and repentance

About 20 churches of various ethnicities and denominations participated in the service, lamenting racism, repenting and rejoicing that Christ one day will end racial strife.

“We were acknowledging the inequities of mass incarceration, the inequities of housing” among other race-related sins, Pochek said. During the repentance portion of the service, one local pastor “mentioned some of the specific neighborhoods that had been predominantly minority neighborhoods that had been eradicated to make way for businesses of shopping.”

In addition to local church members, some passersby joined the service. Anti-Fascist demonstrators allegedly had planned to protest the gathering, Pochek said, but thunderstorms dispersed them.

Stanley Woodfolk, African-American pastor of Evergreen Ministries in Charlottesville, told WVIR news local believers recover from painful racist events of the past “by putting emphasis on building relationships, conversing with people we don’t know personally.”

Charlottesville evangelicals plan to follow the worship service with a “fellowship tables” meal, where Christians of various ethnicities will eat together and listen to one another’s stories. A community-wide fall event is in the initial planning stages.

“Generally speaking,” Pochek said, Charlottesville has “been one of those cities where 11 o’clock Sunday has been one of the most segregated hours of the week,” he said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

“There are exceptions to that in our town—great exceptions,” Pochek said. “But the onus is on me as a Caucasian pastor of a fairly large church in the city … to earn the trust of my African-American, my Hispanic-American, my Asian-American brothers and sisters in Christ who are leading other churches in this city.”

Everyone agrees that the IRS must provide guidance on the provision or delay implementation of the provision until after guidance can be issued. However, churches cannot wait to see what the IRS will do. Absent IRS action, what action should churches take?

Read this article on Christianity Today‘s Church Law & Tax.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (BP)—On the one-year anniversary of white nationalist protests that left three people dead in Charlottesville, Va., area believers plan to counter any resurgence of racism with worship and repentance.

In Washington—where white nationalists are planning a first-anniversary repeat of their Aug. 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally—police are on high alert, and Christians are requesting heightened prayer.

‘Show love and respect’

Marshal Ausberry, president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, said D.C. and Virginia believers will engage in “a lot of reflection and a lot of praying this weekend” for safety and harmony at rallies and other public gatherings.

Following last year’s racial violence in Charlottesville, churches seem to have become “more overtly sensitive and are encouraging their people to not only speak about respect and love, but to show respect and love,” said Ausberry, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Fairfax Station, Va.

Consequently, the first anniversary of last year’s Charlottesville tragedy is “a golden opportunity” for the church, he noted.

“We’re not in a post-racial society,” Ausberry said. “The church, and I think Southern Baptists as a convention, is the best hope for the world to see. The world is going to do what the world is going to do, and the church must do what God has built us to do. And that’s to show love and to love one another.”

Community worship service scheduled

Among the weekend events slated in Charlottesville, a multiracial coalition of evangelical pastors has scheduled a community worship service Sunday night, with a theme of “better together” and a focal Scripture of Psalm 133:1. The only requirement for individuals appearing on the worship service’s platform is that they affirm salvation is found in Christ alone.

About 20 churches of various denominations and ethnicities are scheduled to participate.

“People are asking, ‘How in the world did you get a permit?’” for a worship service at Charlottesville’s downtown mall, said Kyle Hoover, a local pastor who helped found the coalition of ministers organizing the service.

“We’re really viewing this as a God-ordained opportunity for the church to finally come to the downtown mall ourselves and for us to gather and to proclaim what we believe is right and what we believe is wrong, and to speak about matters of human dignity, but through the lens of what God’s word says about that issue and what the gospel speaks about racial injustice.”

Amid heightened tension in Charlottesville, the worship service is the only public gathering granted a city permit for the weekend, said Hoover, pastor of Charlottesville Community Church.

State of emergency

Virginia and Charlottesville-area officials have declared states of emergency for the weekend. About 800 state and local police are expected in Charlottesville, with 300 Virginia National Guardsmen ready to be mobilized if violence erupts, The Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.

Rob Pochek, a Charlottesville pastor who helped plan the community worship service, said, “Those who affirm salvation in Christ alone are the only ones who have the answer for our city.”

“Our city has been looking in politics and in legislation and in rules and in government and even in police protection as a way to enforce racial reconciliation,” said Pochek, pastor of First Baptist Church Park Street in Charlottesville. “The reality is that the answer for racial reconciliation is found in the gospel of Christ.”

The worship service will include lament over some evangelicals’ apathy toward racial injustice, repentance and rejoicing that Christ will one day end racial strife.

Pochek and Hoover requested prayer that no violence would break out over the weekend and that the service would be able to proceed as planned.

As a follow-up event, evangelicals will meet Aug. 15 at a local Presbyterian church for a “fellowship tables” meal, where believers of various ethnicities will share a meal and listen to each other’s stories, Pochek said.

Charlottesville Clergy Collective

Also in Charlottesville, Michael Cheuk, a former second vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, said he has been participating in a multi-faith group called the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, which came together under the leadership of Alvin Edwards, pastor of Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church in Charlottesville.

Before the August 2017 racism and violence in Charlottesville, the Clergy Collective “was kind of a sleepy group of faith leaders,” Cheuk said. The group drew an average attendance of 10 to 12 at monthly meetings. “But we quickly ballooned to about 40 pastors around town coming because they wanted to know, ‘How can we respond to racism?’”

The Clergy Collective has organized prayer meetings and community worship services for Charlottesville residents of all faiths, both Christian and non-Christian, Cheuk said.

Call to prayer

In Washington, white nationalists planned an Aug. 12 rally in Lafayette Square across from the White House, permitted for up to 400 attendees, The Washington Post reported. Counter-protestors could number as many as 1,500, and police will attempt to keep the groups separate.

Vernon Lattimore, a Washington pastor who is president of the African American Fellowship of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware, called on believers everywhere to pray for the nation’s capital.

“I would love to see believers begin to pray for God’s kingdom to begin to come on earth,” said Lattimore, associate pastor of Christian education at Central Union Baptist Church in Washington. “Pray for racial reconciliation, but also … we have to move another step. We have to begin to do that ourselves.

“If we fail to live what we’ve been praying for, it doesn’t make sense to pray for what we are not doing.”

Ausberry of the National African American Fellowship added, “If the world can see us loving one another in the Body of Christ, that can be contagious to the rest of the world.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced during a Department of Justice summit in Washington he is creating a religious liberty task force to challenge what he called a dangerous movement “eroding our great tradition of religious freedom.”

While affirming some of Sessions’ remarks, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty took him—and the Trump Administration in general—to task for “sowing division where there should be unity” in regard to religious freedom.

The task force is an outgrowth of President Trump’s executive order directing agencies to protect religious liberty, Sessions said. It will help Justice Department employees remember their duty to accommodate people of faith, he asserted.

“This administration is animated by that same American view that has led us for 242 years—that every American has a right to believe and worship and exercise their faith in the public square,” Sessions said at the summit.

Sessions alluded to the fears of some Americans that the freedom to practice their faith has been under attack. He spoke of nuns “ordered to buy contraceptives,” a reference to an Obama-era contraception mandate. While the mandate did not force the nuns to buy contraceptives, it required them to cover the costs of contraceptives in their employees’ health plans.

“Religious Americans are no longer an afterthought,” he said. “We will take potential burdens on one’s conscience into consideration before we issue regulations or policies.”

Speaking at the summit alongside Sessions were a host of religious leaders, including Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, who chairs the Committee for Religious Liberty at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who won a Supreme Court case after refusing to design a cake for a gay couple’s wedding reception.

Personal religious liberty battles described

During a panel discussion, a host of religious leaders described their personal religious liberty battles. They included a Chabad rabbi who fought opposition to his building a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., a Sikh lawyer who refused to shave his beard and take off his turban to accept a job and Phillips, an evangelical Christian.

The summit examined the controversial issue of religion-based service refusals to LGBTQ Americans head on.

Sessions praised Phillips for his “bravery” in his Masterpiece Cakeshop legal challenge. Others, including Kurtz and Heritage Foundation executive Emilie Kao, said the country ought to defend the rights of faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to allow same-sex couples to adopt children.

Without ever referring to LGBTQ people explicitly, Kurtz alluded to the need to protect faith-based adoption agencies’ desires to deny service to gay or lesbian couples because of the Catholic faith’s opposition to same-sex relationships.

“When activists try to force Christian ministries into violating their consciences, they force Christians into a bind,” Kurtz said. “We cannot reject our commitments to service, nor can we turn away from our commitment to the truth about the human person.”

The Alliance for Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm that defended Phillips, immediately issued a release congratulating Sessions and his religious liberty initiative.

“Too many of the clients ADF represents are risking their businesses, their life savings and their safety to follow their conscience,” the statement said. “All Americans should be free to peacefully live and act consistent with their convictions and faith without threat of government punishment.”

‘Sowing division where there should be unity’

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, affirmed some of Sessions’ remarks, noting particularly his references to freedom of conscience and the Department of Justice’s prosecution of “attacks and threats against houses of worship and people because of their religion.”

However, she took issue with the attorney general for “oversimplification of unsettled legal questions involving the free exercise of religion and the near told omission of any concern for government promotion of religion, which the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits.”

“I agree that we find ourselves in a perilous moment, but I fear that what is most in jeopardy is widespread support for religious liberty for all. And the actions of this administration, including the announcement of a one-sided Religious Liberty Task Force, are only exacerbating the problem,” Tyler said.

“In aligning the government closely with a narrow viewpoint on religious freedom—which fails to balance concern for protection of the rights of others with the right to exercise one’s religion—the Trump administration is sowing division where there should be unity on our first freedom.”

The Baptist Joint Committee “will continue to call for a full understanding of religious liberty for all, which demands that government neither inhibit nor promote religion and its practice,” she added.

“If religious freedom is going to survive—let alone flourish—in our pluralistic and rapidly changing society, we must all advocate for a more complete and inclusive understanding of religious liberty for people of all faith traditions and those who do not adhere to any religion,” Tyler said.

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

WASHINGTON — Churches and other nonprofit groups are struggling to make sense of a new levy imposed on their traditionally tax-exempt operations by the sweeping tax overhaul that Republicans in Congress passed last year.

Those outfits in Texas and beyond now must pay a 21 percent tax on some fringe benefits, such as parking or mass transit passes, that they provide to their employees.

That change has provoked outrage and confusion among many nonprofit entities that say the little-noticed provision is already becoming a financial and administrative burden, one that could have an impact on their ability to fulfill key missions.

Continue reading this article in the Dallas Morning News.

WASHINGTON (BP)—Legislation to prohibit government from discriminating against adoption and foster care agencies over their religious or moral convictions has taken an initial step toward potential passage in Congress.

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee included the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act in a spending bill it approved July 11.

The committee first passed the measure as an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education funding bill in a 29-23 vote. The panel then forwarded the amended version of the bill in a 30-22 roll call.

The proposal, H.R. 1881, would bar the federal government—as well as any state or local government that receives federal funds—from discriminating against or taking action against a child welfare agency that refuses to provide services in a way that conflicts with its religious beliefs or moral convictions, such as placing children with same-sex couples.

If enacted, the legislation would require Health and Human Services to withhold 15 percent of federal funds from a state or local government that violates its ban.

ERLC chief voices support for measure

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other advocates for the bill have called for a federal solution to a growing pattern of some state and local governments requiring adoption and foster care agencies to place children with gay couples or shut down such services.

ERLC President Russell Moore expressed gratitude for the committee’s support for the measure.

“Protecting the rights of those who are dedicated to caring for the most vulnerable among us only ensures that more children have access to the love and support they so desperately need,” Moore said. “This is precisely what the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act would do.

“Far too many children are waiting, right now, either for adoption or foster families. Our government must not stand in the way of those seeking to care for them.”

The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act “would not only guarantee faith-based child welfare agencies are not discriminated against, but would further the goal of seeing vulnerable children united with loving families,” Moore said.

The ERLC included enactment of the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act as a priority in its 2018 legislative agenda and organized a July 3 letter with nearly 70 signatories that urged the Appropriations Committee to add it to the Labor, HHS and Education bill.

Division in states regarding child welfare agencies

Nine states have laws that require child welfare agencies to place children with same-sex couples in adoption, foster care or both, according to Reuters News Service. They are California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, nine other states have enacted measures that protect the right of agencies to abide by their religious or moral convictions in adoption and foster care—Alabama, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia.

The division in the states and threats to agencies in some jurisdictions call for federal action, the ERLC and its allies said in the July 3 letter.

“Given the heavy investment of the federal government in child services and the woefully inconsistent territory across the states, we believe this problem justifies a federal solution,” they wrote.

In an apparently barrier-breaking decision July 13, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled the city can require adoption and foster care agencies it has contracts with to place children with gay couples, according to NBC News. The decision is the first of its kind by a federal court, NBC reported.

Catholic Social Services had brought suit after Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services stopped cooperating with CSS and Bethany Christian Services because they refused to place children in same-sex homes.

In another case, Catholic Charities of Fort Worth has been sued for declining to place children with a same-sex couple.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who introduced the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act as an amendment to the funding bill, said after its adoption his goal was “to encourage states to include all experienced and licensed child welfare agencies so that children are placed in caring, loving homes where they can thrive. We need more support for these families and children in crisis, not less.”

Aderholt is co-chairman of the House Coalition on Adoption.

LGBT rights group criticizes action

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign—the country’s largest political organization advocating for LGBT rights—criticized the committee’s action.

“Any Member of Congress who supports this amendment is clearly stating that it is more important to them to discriminate than it is to find loving homes for children in need,” said David Stacy, director of government affairs at the Human Rights Campaign.

The ERLC-led coalition letter pointed to the pressure brought on the adoption and foster care system by the opioid epidemic among adults.

“Now is an especially terrible time to reduce the capacity of state governments to efficiently place children in safe, loving homes,” the letter stated.

In addition to Moore, the letter’s signers included Chris Palusky, president, Bethany Christian Services; Albert Reyes, president, Buckner International; Daniel Nehrbass, president, Nightlight Christian Adoptions; David Nammo, executive director, Christian Legal Society; Penny Nance, president, Concerned Women for America; Kelly Shackelford, president, First Liberty Institute; David Christensen, vice president, Family Research Council; and Joseph Kurtz, chairman, U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Committee for Religious Liberty.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When it comes to politics, white evangelical Christians stand apart from every other religious group, according to a new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic.

The poll found 61 percent of evangelicals say the United States is headed in the right direction. By comparison, 64 percent of the overall public—including majorities of other Christian groups as well as religiously unaffiliated Americans—believes the country is seriously off track.

“White evangelical Protestants are sitting in their own unique space in the religious landscape on a whole range of issues,” said Robert Jones, CEO of research institute.

The survey, conducted in June from among 1,000 people, asked questions about voting and political engagement. But it also broke down respondents’ answers based on religious affiliation—white evangelical, white mainline Protestant, nonwhite Protestant, Catholic and religiously unaffiliated.

Continued support for President Trump

An overwhelming 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for President Trump, and they have generally stuck by him during his first 18 months as president.

Evangelicals widely hailed Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat.

In recent days, Robert Jeffress, one of Trump’s informal evangelical advisers and the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, called for an end to Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The PRRI poll showed 77 percent of white evangelicals view Trump favorably or mostly favorably, the highest percentage since the 2016 election. By comparison, 17 percent of non-white Protestants, a group made up of African-Americans and Hispanics, viewed Trump favorably or mostly favorably.

Least likely to view changing demographics positively

As a group, white evangelicals were also the least likely to view America’s changing racial demographic makeup positively. Fifty-two percent of white evangelicals said they felt negatively about the prospect that nonwhites would become the majority of the population by 2043. That fits with white evangelicals’ approach to immigration, their distrust of Muslims and support for a border wall with Mexico.

By comparison, all other religious groups in the survey viewed the changing demographics in mostly positive terms.

“I argued that white evangelical voters have really shifted from being values voters to being what I call ‘nostalgia voters,’” said Jones. “They’re voting to protect a past view of America that they feel is slipping away. That’s driving evangelical politics much more than the old culture-war dynamics.”

Brantley Gasaway, a professor of American religious studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., said white evangelicals’ fears about the nation’s growing racial diversity might be linked to their perception of religious diversity.

“They perceive that America becoming less white means America will become less Christian,” he said. “I don’t think that’s true. Many Latino immigrants are coming from predominantly Christian nations. But they perceive changes in racial demographics as being a threat to the predominance of Christians in the United States.”

As a group, white evangelicals are declining. A decade ago they made up 23 percent of the U.S. population; today it’s more like 15 percent, Jones said. But they have an outsize influence at the ballot box because they tend to vote in high numbers.

The one area where religious groups appeared united is in their support for legislation that would make it easier to vote—measures such as same-day voter registration and restoring voting rights for people convicted of felonies.

View media as biased

A majority of all religious groups, with the exception of nonwhite Protestants, saw media bias as a “major problem.” White evangelicals led the pack, with 79 percent saying media bias was a major problem. By contrast, 50 percent of religiously unaffiliated also said it was a major problem.

While most religious groups said they would prefer that presidential elections be decided by the national popular vote as opposed to the Electoral College, white evangelicals once again stood out: 52 percent said presidential elections should be decided by the Electoral College. (Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote.)

The margin of error for the national survey was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.