MIAMI (BP)—The U.S. Republican presidential ticket’s unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating pets in Ohio are alarming, harmful rhetoric that “fuels xenophobia and perpetuates damaging stereotypes,” a group of Southern Baptist pastors and other Christian leaders advocating for Haitians globally told Baptist Press.

“We must reject inflammatory remarks,” the Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition told Baptist Press Sept. 12, “and uphold the dignity and respect every human being deserves, including Haitian immigrants.

“This nation was built by the hard work of immigrants, and Haitians have played a significant part in shaping its identity.”

Keny Felix, an HCLC vice president who is also president of the Southern Baptist Convention National Haitian Fellowship of about 500 Haitian churches, lamented the accusations lodged against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, by Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance, and repeated by Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump on the global stage in reference to all immigrants in Springfield during the Sept. 10 U.S. presidential debate.

The Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition objects in particular to Vance’s Sept. 9th X post, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” and his post that Haitians were “draining social services” in Springfield.

And HCLC objects to Trump’s debate response to moderators’ inquiry about immigration: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats … the pets of the people that live there.”

False claims

Both Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and Springfield police have said there have been no reports of such crimes in the city, with the Springfield News-Sun reporting Sept. 9 that Springfield police had “received no reports related to pets being stolen and eaten.”

“We were shocked and dismayed by the statements of Donald Trump,” Felix told Baptist Press, amplifying a Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition prepared statement. “We know that words have consequences. Words that are disparaging against any group, let alone a group that is already suffering … is not reflective of who we are as a people.”

Spreading such disinformation can “lead to significant harm” to Haitians in Springfield, Felix said, and is “problematic. It comes down to common sense. But I think it’s all reflective of this trend of, whether we call it racism, or whether we call it xenophobia. It’s dangerous.”

Disappointment

Messengers to the 2023 SBC annual meeting adopted a Bible-based Resolution on Wisely Engaging Immigration, and Felix said it is disturbing evangelicals are not calling out Trump’s and Vance’s behavior, just as evangelicals critique the leaders’ stances on abortion and other policies.

“For me, the disappointing factor is that evangelicals are not calling out the behavior that is not consistent with what we call evangelical life,” Felix said, “which is love your neighbor as you love yourself. And so when we fail to do that, it puts us in a challenging position then to share the gospel—we often say the ospel of love and grace—when we support someone who spews the opposite through their words.”

Trump’s and Vance’s words are reminiscent of statements that were made to denigrate Felix and his peers on middle school playgrounds, he said.

“But to hear this from a national debate stage, which is pretty much a job interview for a role that we recognize as the presidency of the United States, the commander in chief, the leader of the free world,” Felix said, “and to talk in those terms without any regard, it’s very hurtful. It’s very sad.”

Felix and other Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition leaders planned to establish contacts with Springfield community leaders and Haitian civic leaders from across the United States, hopefully in advance of visiting Springfield to collaborate on ways to support the Haitian community there.

Haitian community

Bomb threats forced the mass closure of Springfield government buildings and schools Sept. 12, and additional closures of some Springfield schools and other public buildings Sept. 13.

An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants are living legally in Clark County, Ohio, many of them with Temporary Protected Status, ABC News reported, based on information from government officials.

Low living costs and work opportunities attract migrants to the area, ABC reported, but it wasn’t clear what percentage of the immigrants were from Haiti. The county’s population of about 135,000 includes about 60,000 in Springfield.

Condemnation and advocacy

David Eugene, pastor of Haitian Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami, is president of the Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition, a nonprofit incorporated in April that describes itself as representing thousands of Haitian Christian churches worldwide, advocating for social justice, economic development and civic engagement.

Felix is also senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami, and is joined as vice president by Jackson Voltaire, pastor of the multisite Grace Connection Baptist Church in the Miami area.

“Our condemnation of these baseless accusations is rooted in our commitment to defend human dignity,” HCLC said in its statement, “not as political ammunition for any party. We uphold justice for all Haitians and urge the public to recognize the Haitian community’s valuable contributions.”

HCLC pointed out Haitians in the United States “play crucial roles as business owners, healthcare workers, educators, and public officials.

“Their efforts not only boost local economies but also strengthen the nation through civic engagement and leadership. These contributions deserve recognition and respect, not defamation through harmful, unfounded accusations.”

More than 350 evangelical leaders—including some Texas Baptists—have endorsed a “Confession of Evangelical Conviction,” affirming allegiance to Jesus Christ and his gospel alone, “apart from any partisan agenda.”

In a Sept. 9 online news conference, some initial signers of the confession announced a call to prayer for renewal and revival involving churches and denominations representing up to 4 million worshippers.

“No political ideology or earthly authority can claim the authority that belongs to Christ,” the confession states.

Several participants in the online press conference noted the confession “wouldn’t have been controversial” just a few years ago. But today, some evangelicals view its statements of faith through the filter of their political identity rather than their Christian identity, they asserted.

‘Growing sense of political idolatry’

Skye Jethani, co-host of The Holy Post podcast, identified himself as one of the original drafters of the confession. He noted it was inspired in part by the Barmen Declaration, a 1934 theological document adopted by the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany.

In response to “a growing sense of political idolatry,” Jethani said he and others wanted to offer a statement calling Christians to “realign allegiance” exclusively to Christ.

“Our worship belongs to him alone, because our true hope is not in any party, leader, movement, or nation, but in the promise of Christ’s return when he will renew the world and reign over all things,” the Confession of Evangelical Conviction states.

Texas Baptists who have endorsed the statement—released Sept. 5—include Steve Bezner, senior pastor of Houston Northwest Church; John Ogletree, senior pastor of First Metropolitan Church in Houston; Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington; and Beth Allison Barr, Baylor University professor and author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth.

Others who have signed the confession include Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today; Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination and professor of English at evangelical institutions more than 25 years;Kristin Du Mez, professor at Calvin University and author of Jesus and John Wayne; Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition; and Richard Mouw, former president of Fuller Theological Seminary.

Phil Vischer, co-creator of VeggieTales, not only endorsed the statement, but also created an animated video—Parables of Puddingham: Knight of Terror—encouraging people to “vote with love, not fear.” The cartoon is among several resources released in conjunction with the confession, including a Bible study and worship album.

“We reject the false teaching that anyone other than Jesus Christ has been anointed by God as our Savior, or that a Christian’s loyalty should belong to any political party,” the confession states. “We reject any message that promotes devotion to a human leader or that wraps divine worship around partisanship.”

Lead with love, not fear and anger

The statement rejects the “false security promised by political idolatry and its messengers,” insisting Christians are called to lead with love rather than fear and anger.

“We reject the stoking of fears and the use of threats as an illegitimate form of godly motivation, and we repudiate the use of violence to achieve political goals as incongruent with the way of Christ,” the confession states.

The statement affirms the need to submit to the truth of Scripture and “speaking the truth in love.”

“We reject the misuse of holy Scripture to sanction a single political agenda, provoke hatred, or sow social divisions, and we believe that using God’s name to promote misinformation or lies for personal or political gain is bearing his name in vain,” the confession states.

The statement rejects division within the church along partisan, ethnical or national lines, it affirms the church’s prophetic mission, and it underscores the value of every person as created in God’s image.

The confession also affirms character matters both in political and spiritual leaders, and it warns against serving “the false gods of power, wealth, and strength rather than the true God.”

“When any leader claims to have God’s approval, whether in the Church or in politics, we will not confuse effectiveness for faithfulness, but carefully discern who is truly from God,” the confession states.

“We reject the lie that a leader’s power, popularity, or political effectiveness is confirmation of God’s favor, or that Christians are permitted to ignore the teachings of Christ to protect themselves with worldly power.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Former President Donald Trump’s shifting rhetoric on abortion has unsettled some conservative faith-based activists.

Some evangelical Christian leaders especially have fretted over the Republican presidential candidate’s recent remarks on Florida’s proposed abortion amendment and allowing federal funding for IVF procedures that some say are tantamount to abortion.

But even amid the backlash, several of Trump’s long-term evangelical supporters are insisting the former president, who still publicly takes credit for nominating the conservative justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, remains the best candidate for their cause.

Trump has distanced himself from hardline abortion stances since at least September 2023, when he riled anti-abortion activists by calling Florida’s six-week abortion ban a “terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

But last month, he called Florida’s current limit on abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy “too short” and, when asked about a ballot initiative in the state that would enshrine abortion access, said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Some warn Trump he will lose support of base

The comments drew swift blowback from anti-abortion activists such as Jeanne Mancini, head of the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion event in Washington where Trump spoke in 2020. In a pair of posts on X on Aug. 30, Mancini responded to Trump’s remarks without mentioning him by name.

“Any politician that would consider voting affirmatively for such a measure will undoubtedly lose the support of pro-life Americans,” she wrote.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the human rights issue of abortion takes the lives of the unborn and deeply harms women both mentally and physically. The reality is that the tragedy of abortion cannot be reduced to politics alone, much less sacrificed for what is perceived to be politically expedient.”

Trump’s campaign insisted he did not say precisely how he would vote, and the candidate himself eventually clarified to Fox News that he would not support the ballot initiative.

But the back-and-forth came the same week Trump announced plans to federally subsidize in-vitro fertilization, a procedure opposed by some anti-abortion activists because it often involves the disposal of embryos.

In June, an effort to protect IVF access failed in the U.S. Senate after most Republicans, including Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, voted against it. About the same time, the Southern Baptist Convention, at its annual meeting, voted in support of a measure calling for more government regulation of the process.

Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who in June called IVF “immoral,” warned Trump in an editorial this week that he risks alienating his anti-abortion base.

“(Trump) needs to remember that he cannot win without strong—very strong—pro-life support,” Mohler wrote in World Magazine, an evangelical Christian publication. “The other side is not impressed with his equivocations on the issue, even as his base is endangered by any confusion.”

Lila Rose, head of the influential anti-abortion group Live Action, blasted the Trump campaign on social media on Aug. 29, saying: “Given the current situation, we have two pro-abortion tickets. A Trump win is not a pro-life win right now.”

In an interview with Politico Magazine, Rose refused to say whether she would vote for Trump, saying only, “I am going to see how the next few weeks unfold,” and urging her supporters to put pressure on his campaign.

Trump has suggested his shift on the issue is a result of raw politics. Since the 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe and allowed states to make their own abortion policy, abortion-related ballot initiatives have gone the way of abortion rights activists—even in red states such as Kansas and Ohio. Trump blamed the Republican Party’s anti-abortion stance for its middling results in the 2022 midterm elections.

With 10 more abortion-related ballot initiatives in November—including in swing states like Arizona—the issue has the potential to fracture the Republican coalition.

White evangelicals strongly oppose abortion

White evangelicals, who have long heavily supported the GOP and who alone make up 30 percent of the party according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey, are disproportionately opposed to abortion, with 72 percent who believe the practice should be illegal in all or most cases, according to a separate PRRI survey conducted in March.

Nationwide, 64 percent of Americans told PRRI abortion should be legal in all or most cases—including 62 percent of white Catholics and 57 percent of Hispanic Catholics, despite official opposition from the Catholic Church.

When it comes to IVF, 70 percent of Americans say IVF access is a good thing, according to an April poll from Pew Research, with majorities of every major religious group saying the same—including 63 percent of white evangelicals.

In July, the RNC published a new platform that omitted the rationale for a federal abortion ban for the first time in decades, likely reflecting Trump’s misgivings about the political liability of the party’s traditional position.

Abby Johnson, who runs the anti-abortion group And Then There Were None, suggested in a statement sent to Religion News Service that activists have been pushing Trump and his campaign behind the scenes to change course.

“President Trump’s comments surrounding life issues have been troubling for many in the pro-life movement,” Johnson said. “That is why many of us have been working behind the scenes with him and his campaign team, hoping to change the course he is on. We have already seen some course correction and we hope to see much more.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a conservative Christian, was also critical of Trump and told the National Review: “The Trump-Pence administration stood for life without apology for four years. The former President’s use of the language of the Left, pledging that his administration would be ‘great for women and their reproductive rights’ should be concerning for millions of pro-life Americans.”

Some evangelical supporters rally around Trump

But despite the criticism, some of Trump’s longtime religious supporters continue to rally around him. Franklin Graham, the son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham who has called abortion “a genocide of the unborn,” insisted Trump’s past actions were more important than his campaign rhetoric.

“I don’t just consider a candidate’s words, I look at their actions and what they have done,” Graham told RNS in a statement. “Former President Donald Trump has a four-year track record of appointing judges who protect life.

“While his position on abortion may not be as absolute as some would hope, it doesn’t change the fact that he has been the most pro-life president in my lifetime and is the only pro-life presidential candidate on the ballot this election.”

Ralph Reed, who has spent decades organizing evangelicals as head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said he does not see evangelicals abandoning Trump because of his abortion stances.

Saying he was “never concerned” Trump would support the ballot initiative in Florida, Reed suggested conservative voters will back Trump because the alternative—voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee—is simply untenable.

He contrasted Trump’s record on the issue with that of Harris, whose campaign has placed her support for abortion rights front and center.

Harris has tied abortion access to personal freedom—the campaign’s slogan—as has her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has sung the praises of IVF on the stump while connecting it to his own family’s fertility struggles—though they had not, he had to clarify, turned to IVF, but rather used a less invasive procedure.

Citing Harris’ support for policies such as legislation that would restore abortion access nationwide, Reed called her “the most radical pro-abortion nominee for president in the modern political era.” Her positions, he argued, are so “extreme” that she is ultimately “unacceptable to voters of faith.”

“For all these reasons, evangelicals will turn out in record numbers in November and vote overwhelmingly for Trump,” Reed predicted.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., was the most religiously diverse county in the United States last year, according to a census released Aug. 29 by the Public Religion Research Institute.

When the institute conducted a similar study in 2020, Montgomery County came in third behind the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. In 2023 those boroughs were relegated to second and 10th, respectively.

PRRI’s Census of American Religion, which focuses on U.S. adults age 18 and over, calculates religious diversity by analyzing 18 different religious and racial groups in counties with more than 10,000 residents.

In the index used to rank counties, 1 signifies complete diversity, where every religious group is of equal size, whereas 0 signifies a homogenous religious population. Montgomery County received a score of 0.886.

Montgomery County, with a population of more than a million, is significantly more educated and wealthier than the U.S. average. One in six county residents has a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the median household income is $118,323. Voters go heavily blue, with 78.6 percent having supported Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

The county is home to many federal government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Walter Reed Military Medical Center and Army Institute of Research. It is also home to at least one Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh.

High concentration of religious minority groups

Only 56.8 percent of county residents speak English at home, with Spanish (17.2 percent), other Indo-European languages (10.3 percent) and Asian and Pacific Island languages (9.8 percent) most commonly spoken.

Beyond the religiously unaffiliated, who represent slightly less than 2 in 10 (17.8 percent) residents, the largest religious group in the county was Black Protestants, who make up 10 percent of the population.

Christians overall made up about 60 percent of the population, with other large Christian groups including white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (9.6 percent), Hispanic Catholics (7.7 percent), white Catholics (7.4 percent), Hispanic Protestants (6.9 percent) and white evangelical Protestants (5.4 percent).

In most of the top-10 religiously diverse counties, the religious groups with the greatest representation are the religiously unaffiliated, but in Nassau County, N.Y., (20.6 percent) and Montgomery County, Penn., (19.8 percent), white Catholics were the largest religious group. Nassau County, part of Long Island, came in third, and Montgomery County, a Philadelphia suburb, came in fourth.

Montgomery County, Md., the most religiously diverse county, was among the top 10 counties in the country with the highest concentration of several minority religious groups.

Montgomery County, Md., has:

• The second-highest concentration of Orthodox Christians, who make up 2 percent of the population.
• The third-highest concentration of Hindus, who make up 2.7 percent of the population.
• The fourth-highest concentration of Jews, who make up 9.3 percent of the population.
• The fourth-highest concentration of Muslims, who make up 3.2 percent of the population.
• The fifth-highest concentration of Buddhists, who make up 2.7 percent of the population.
• The fifth-highest concentration of Unitarian Universalists, who make up 1.3 percent of the population.

While PRRI does not separate Seventh-day Adventists as one of their 18 religious categories, the group has a significant presence in Montgomery County. The county is home to Washington Adventist University, and Adventist HealthCare is a major employer in the county.

Throughout 2023, the county experienced religious conflict related to LGBTQ learning content in the public school system.

In May of that year, Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox Christian parents began a legal challenge to the public school system’s decision to prohibit parents from opting their children out of lessons on books with LGBTQ characters, a decision also opposed by Moms for Liberty, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Montgomery County Muslim Council.

So far, both a U.S. District Court judge and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have dismissed the request. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the plaintiffs, has indicated it intends to appeal the ruling.

In December 2023, a Muslim middle-school teacher in the public school system also filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after she was placed on administrative leave because she used “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in her email signature. The Council on American-Islamic Relations Legal Defense Fund is supporting her complaint.

TYLER (BP)—The National Religious Broadcasters association has joined a complaint alongside two East Texas churches calling for the Johnson Amendment to be declared unconstitutional.

The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler on Aug. 28.

Sand Springs Church in Athens and First Baptist Church in Waskom joined in the complaint as did Intercessors for America, a national prayer ministry based in Purcellville, Va. First Baptist in Waskom is uniquely aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Congress approved then-Senator Lyndon Johnson’s amendment to the U.S. tax code in 1954 that prohibited 501(c)(3) organizations such as charities and churches “from engaging in any political campaign activity.” In 1987, Congress added a clarification that the amendment also applies to statements opposing candidates.

According to a National Religious Broadcasters statement, the complaint details how organizations have “engage[d] in electoral activities that are open, obvious and well-known, yet the IRS allows some, but not all, such organizations to do so without penalty.”

The Internal Revenue Service, it continued, routinely “acts in an arbitrary and capricious manner” toward nonprofit organizations “that disfavors conservative organizations and conservative, religious organizations.” Such an unequal enforcement, it determines, constitutes “a denial of both religious freedom and equal protection.”

And as such, the National Religious Broadcasters notes, the amendment itself should be discarded.

“For too long, churches have been instructed to remain silent on pressing matters of conscience and conviction during election season or risk their 501(c)(3) status,” said National Religious Broadcasters President and CEO Troy A. Miller.

“We believe that all nonprofits should have the constitutional right to freely express their point of view on candidates, elections and issues on the ballot. Our challenge to the Johnson Amendment is about securing the future of free expression for all Americans, particularly those standing in the pulpit.”

National Religious Broadcasters General Counsel Michael Farris said the amendment’s history showed a “discriminatory” pattern of respecting only certain groups’ freedom of speech.

“Our intent is to vindicate the right of every church and religious nonprofit to express what their faith teaches on every issue, including political matters, as is their right and their duty,” he said.

At a time when some evangelicals see voting for a Democrat as incompatible with being a Christian, Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, asserts his Christian faith leads him to support the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Talarico, who serves in the Texas House of Representatives, is convinced Harris’ policy positions on issues ranging from expanded health care to immigration reflect a compassionate approach to “how we treat our neighbors.”

That belief—along with deep concern about the rise of Christian nationalism—prompted Talarico to endorse Evangelicals for Harris and to oppose former President Donald Trump.

“When you look at Donald Trump, his character, his actions and his policies are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ,” Talarico insisted.

Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano voiced a dramatically different perspective during a June conference call with Trump and a group of conservative Christians.

Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, joined an “emergency prayer call” hosted by televangelist Paula White-Cain’s National Faith Advisory Board, voicing support for Trump prior to his televised debate with President Joe Biden.

“He is a warrior for us,” Graham said. “He’s standing for us and always has been representing the principles and precepts of God’s word that we strongly believe.”

Calling ‘bigger than politics’

Some have questioned why Talarico has identified with “evangelicals” who support Harris for president.

As the grandson of a Baptist pastor in Laredo, Talarico said he feels an affinity toward evangelical traditions, even though he identified both the church where he worships and the seminary where he studies as “mainline Protestant institutions.”

He is a longtime member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin—an LGBTQ-affirming congregation affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He also is a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and hopes eventually to serve in a pastoral role.

Talarico sees both his church and the seminary as “having an evangelical calling—to share the Good News with everyone and take Jesus’ teachings into the world.”

He views that calling as “bigger than politics,” but also as influencing how Christians should view issues dealing with poverty, immigration, public education and care for the environment.

Talarico believes many evangelical Christians have felt excluded from the Democratic Party, but he also thinks the Republican Party has “taken Christians’ votes for granted.”

“We just want to extend a hand to evangelicals to let them know they have a place in our party,” he said.

Of course, some evangelicals view the issue altogether differently.

Landon Schott, senior pastor of Mercy Culture Church—a multi-site congregation with campuses in Fort Worth, Dallas and Waco—made his views clear in a recent Instagram post in which he wrote: “YOU ARE NOT A BIBLE BELIEVING, JESUS FOLLOWING CHRISTIAN IF YOU SUPPORT THE GODLESS ROMANS 1 EVIL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!”

He went on to write: “When godless world leaders, wicked politicians and woke false teachers all support the same political party/candidate, YOU ARE NOT ON THE LORD’S SIDE!”

Highlighting the dangers of Christian nationalism

During his time in the Texas House, Talarico, has voiced opposition to what he sees as Christian nationalism.

“Christian nationalism represents the most dangerous form of government—theocracy,” he said. “It is a form of tyranny, and it is most dangerous because the tyrant thinks he is on a mission for God.”

He views Christian nationalism as an unhealthy merger of religious and American identities that seeks special privileges for Christianity.

Talarico—who taught at a low-income public school in San Antonio—sees examples of Christian nationalism in legislation mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom, allowing school districts to hire Christian chaplains and incorporating Bible stories into elementary school reading curriculum.

He also sees it at the heart of Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign to grant parents “school choice” through educational savings accounts—essentially a school voucher plan to divert public money to private schools, including religious schools.

“Jesus didn’t come to establish a Christian nation. He came to reveal the ultimate reality—the kingdom of God that is within us and around us,” he said. “The kingdom of God is so much bigger than any political party.”

Ads generate controversy

Evangelicals for Harris have created some controversy with ads they have produced—particularly one that includes an archival clip of evangelist Billy Graham issuing a call to repentance, contrasted with a clip of Trump saying he never felt the need to ask God for forgiveness.

Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, criticized the group for using his father’s image.

“They are trying to mislead people,” he tweeted on social media. “Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views would not have changed.”

One ad produced by Evangelicals for Harris includes clips of Trump’s rhetoric and urges voters: “Read 1 John 4. Choose Christ’s Love. Let our Witness be Good News.” Another ad includes clips from speeches by Harris and Gov. Tim Walz and references the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-24.

Talarico sees that use of the Bible as significantly different than those who see Trump as “the chosen one” or a Messiah-like figure anointed by God.

“The key difference is we’re not worshipping Kamala Harris. We’re just voting for her,” he said.

WASHINGTON (BP)—The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 16 rejected an emergency request from the Biden Administration that would have required the enforcement of new Title IX regulations released in April of this year.

The rule, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” expands the definition of “sex” in Title IX’s language to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program or institution that receives federal funds.

Opponents of the new rule, including the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, asserted the rule would remove protections women previously enjoyed from Title IX by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports and by prohibiting sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms.

“The court’s move to keep this ban in place is correct,” said Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood.

“To threaten the loss of funding for a school’s refusal to acquiesce to the redefinition of sex and gender is the height of arrogance by the Department of Education. The downside is that it is only in effect for 26 states, forcing families and communities in the rest of the nation to move forward in facing this harmful Biden regulation.”

The rule change went into effect Aug. 1 in states that agreed with it. For more than half of all states, including Texas, it did not.

At least 26 U.S. attorneys general—including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—have filed suit over the change, arguing it violates their states’ laws regarding transgender students participating in athletics. Those suits are currently working their way through courts.

In July, a Kansas judge halted the rule for several states. The Sixth Circuit will hear a case on the rule this fall.

“As litigation continues in lower courts, I hope those judges sense the clear signal from the Justices here: Schools should not be laboratories for whatever changing definitions and fads this fallen culture has for sexuality,” Leatherwood said.

The Biden administration had asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay of those states’ injunctions on the less controversial parts of the rule change, arguing that the provisions those states are fighting are unrelated to other parts of the rule, including measures on dealing with students who are parents or how schools respond to sexual misconduct.

The High Court, in a 5-4 decision, disagreed.

“On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule,” the Supreme Court’s Aug. 16 order states.

“Nor has the Government adequately identified which particular provisions, if any, are sufficiently independent of the enjoined definitional provision and thus might be able to remain in effect. Moreover, related to the equities, the Sixth Circuit has already expedited its consideration of the case and scheduled oral argument for October. The Court expects that the Courts of Appeals will render their decisions with appropriate dispatch. In light of all of the circumstances, the Court denies the Government’s applications for partial stays.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A diverse group of Christians is throwing support behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ White House bid, organizing fundraisers and Zoom calls.

They not only hope to help catapult the Democrat to victory in November, but also reclaim their faith from Republicans in the process.

Their efforts come on the heels of similar campaigns aimed at specific constituency groups, such as the recent “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call that featured celebrities and grabbed headlines.

John Pavlovitz, a liberal-leaning Christian author and activist, was on that call when he hatched the idea for a Christian-centric version and texted his friend Malynda Hale, a singer, actress and fellow activist.

“We had a conversation about how, specifically on the Democratic side of the political spectrum, you don’t hear a lot of people talking about their faith,” Hale told Religion News Service. “We wanted people to know that there are progressive Christians, there are Christians on the Democratic, left-leaning side, so that they didn’t feel alone.”

The result was Christians for Kamala, a part-fundraiser, part-virtual roundtable livestreamed event on Aug. 12.

Featured speakers cited their faith as they praised liberal policies and personally endorsed Harris—who recently entered the presidential race after President Joe Biden bowed out—and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Over the course of the nearly three-hour event, the group raised more than $150,000 for the Harris campaign, a number that has climbed to just shy of $200,000 in the days since.

“It’s been really difficult to keep up with the flood of comments and connections that have been coming in,” said Pavlovitz, who said the only formal help he received from the Harris campaign was in setting up a donation system for fundraising.

Groups assemble prior to DNC in Chicago

Several Christian groups—including evangelicals, a constituency key to former President Donald Trump’s base—have assembled similar calls in the lead up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Most have had little to no assistance from the official Harris-Walz campaign, which, barely a month old, has yet to announce a dedicated faith outreach director.

The emerging grassroots coalition vies not only to bolster Harris but also to push back on what organizers say is a false assumption that to be Christian is to be a Republican—or a supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Christianity has long been associated with the Republican Party, which is more than 80 percent Christian, according to a 2022 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. It also has been associated with Trump, who has benefitted from the consistent support of white evangelical voters.

But while the same PRRI poll found that 31 percent of Democrats are religiously unaffiliated, the majority—around 60 percent—still ascribe to various forms of Christianity.

The difference lies in the types of Christians that make up each party’s ranks. While 68 percent of the GOP are white Christians (with 30 percent of the party represented by white evangelical Protestants alone) only 24 percent of Democrats are the same.

They primarily are white Catholics (10 percent) and white mainline Protestants (9 percent), while white evangelicals only represent 4 percent.

Meanwhile, Black Protestants—a key part of the Democratic base—constitute 16 percent of the Democratic Party, with Hispanic Protestants representing 3 percent, Hispanic Catholics 12 percent and “other Christians” rounding out the group with an additional 6 percent.

Diversity on display

That diversity was on display during the Christians for Kamala call, which included a mix of faith leaders such as Jacqui Lewis of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City and Lennox Yearwood Jr., head of the nonprofit Hip Hop Caucus; activists like environmentalist Bill McKibben and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Charlotte Clymer; and commentators such as CNN’s Van Jones.

They also included politicians, such as New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Texas State Rep. James Talarico.

The speakers linked their support for specific policies, such as working to blunt the impacts of climate change or passing immigration reform, to their faith and Christian Scripture. Some rebuked conservative Christianity’s ties to the GOP, calling it a form of Christian nationalism.

“My faith in Jesus leads me to reject Christian nationalism and commit myself to the project of a multiracial, multicultural democracy where we can all freely love God and fully love our neighbors,” said Talarico, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminarian who has been vocal in his condemnation of Christian nationalism in Texas.

“That same faith leads me to support Vice President Harris to be the next president of the United States.”

Although a member of a mainline denomination, Talarico also was a speaker on a separate Evangelicals for Harris Zoom call on Aug. 14. Organized by Faith Voters, a 501(c)4 organization, the effort was geared toward conservative Christians who disproportionately have sided with Trump.

The call struck a different tone than Christians for Kamala. Some speakers noted they never had endorsed a candidate before, and at least one pastor suggested he was risking friendships and relationships with his congregation by participating.

News of the event sparked blowback from conservatives, such as Sean Feucht, an evangelical worship leader and activist who once ran for Congress in California and has at least informally worked with prominent Republican strategists for his own initiatives.

Feucht, who has said he is in regular contact with Trump’s campaign staff, accused evangelicals who participated in the call of apostasy and heresy, deriding them on social media as “Heretics for Harris.”

In addition, Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, decried a new advertisement produced by Evangelicals for Harris targeting swing state voters, saying it was “trying to mislead people” by using images of his father.

But call participants like evangelical activist Shane Claiborne appeared unmoved by the criticism, as was Jerushah Duford, a counselor who is also Billy Graham’s granddaughter and Franklin Graham’s niece.

“Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies,” Duford said. “It’s a vote against another four years of faith leaders justifying the actions of a man who destroys the message Jesus came to spread, and that is why I get involved in politics.”

‘People of conscience need to take a stand’

Jemar Tisby, an author and historian who spoke during the call, told RNS that while he grew up in conservative Christian communities, he does not identify as evangelical himself, preferring the term “evangelical adjacent.”

Even so, he felt compelled to participate because, he said, “we have the choice before us between democracy and authoritarianism, and I feel like this is a historic moment when people of conscience need to take a stand.”

Tisby, author of the forthcoming book The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance, also praised the diversity represented on the call, some of which was conducted in Spanish. He said it represented a broader understanding of evangelicalism than is often represented in U.S. politics.

“Many people of color, many women, many people who traditionally have not been platformed or been passed the mic, are now able to have their voices heard. I think that’s very significant,” Tisby said.

The call closed with remarks from former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a Republican who drew backlash from fellow conservatives after he became one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for insurrection connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kinzinger argued the current Republican Party does not resemble “conservatism or, frankly, Christianity,” and lamented “pastors and faith leaders that have sold themselves down the river.” Some of today’s support for Trump, he said, amounted to a form of idol worship.

There are “certainly a few things that can make God a little jealous,” he said. “And one of those is worshipping something other than him. And that’s what you see in today’s GOP.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Former President Donald Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance—a Roman Catholic—will be his running mate as he seeks reelection.

Before his election to the Senate in 2022, Vance was a tech venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy about his family history, upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and the broader struggles facing white working-class Americans.

Vance, an adult convert to Catholicism and married to a Hindu woman, has a complicated relationship with religion and, after his recent support for keeping mifepristone, an abortion pill, legal, with the GOP’s religious base.

Here are five faith facts about Vance:

• Vance is an adult convert to Catholicism.

Vance converted to Catholicism in August of 2019, when he was baptized and confirmed at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Henry Stephan, a Dominican friar. According to an interview with American expatriate and writer Rod Dreher, who was present at the baptism, Vance chose St. Augustine as his patron saint.

Vance told Dreher that he’d converted because he “became persuaded over time that Catholicism was true” and had observed that the people who meant the most to him were Catholic.

Vance said his conversion would have happened sooner if not for the clergy sexual abuse crisis, which “forced me to process the church as a divine and a human institution, and what it would mean for my 2-year-old son.”

Before becoming Catholic, Vance, now a father of three, was raised by Christian relatives, including many who didn’t go to church. Around when he started law school, he “went through an angry atheist phase,” as he told Dreher.

If elected, he would be the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history—after Joe Biden.

• Vance is tied to ‘Catholic integralism,’ an ideology that seeks Christian influence over society.

“Catholic integralism” is an intellectual movement that—experts say—prefers a “soft power” approach to exerting Christian influence over society.

Thinkers in the movement herald the importance of a Christian “strategic adviser” to people in power.

As Kevin Vallier, a professor at Bowling Green State University and expert in Catholic integralism, told RNS earlier this year: “There’s the sense that the liberal order is so corrupt that elite Catholics have to find positions of influence and use them in a kind of noble and appropriate way,” he said.

Harvard University’s Adrian Vermeule, a leader in the movement, stated integralists once viewed Trump as a figure similar to Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity.

Vermeule has also praised Trump by likening him to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a leader widely decried as being authoritarian.

Vance, for his part, spoke at a 2022 gathering at the Franciscan University of Steubenville that was widely associated with integralism and “new right” politics. Vance has yet to answer questions about his own thoughts regarding Catholic integralism.

• Vance’s wife, Usha, is not Christian and was raised in a Hindu household.

According to a recent interview with Fox and Friends, Usha Chilukuri Vance, J.D. Vance’s wife, is “not Christian.”

The two met in Yale Law School and married shortly after graduation. Usha, a native Californian, was raised by Indian immigrants in a Hindu household but has said she was very supportive of Vance’s conversion to Catholicism.

“I did grow up in a religious household,” said Usha, who clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Brett Kavanaugh before he became a Supreme Court justice. Roberts and Kavanaugh are both Catholic.

“My parents are Hindu,” Usha said. “That is one of the reasons why they made such good parents. That made them very good people. And I think I have seen the power of that in my own life. And I knew that J.D. was searching for something. This just felt right for him.”

When the couple married in 2014, they held two ceremonies, including one where they were blessed by a Hindu pundit, per Politico.

• Vance thinks Christianity is an “answer” to existential questions about American identity.

During a 2023 talk hosted by American Moment, Vance brought up Christian nationalism, which he dismissed as a term “meant to be very scary.” But he went on to explain how he envisions Christianity informing American life—and, particularly, American identity.

“We’re a country that is majority Christian, nominally, but not nearly majority Christian in terms of practice,” he said. “We’re a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious democracy that’s heavily exposed to the economic forces of globalization, and I think that we have not yet figured out how to harmonize that with some basic sense of what it means to be an American in the 21st century.

“I happen to think that the Christian faith is a good way of helping provide an answer to that question.”

When he converted, Vance said his views on public policy were aligned with Catholic social teaching.

“Part of social conservatism’s challenge for viability in the 21st century is that it can’t just be about issues like abortion, but it has to have a broader vision of political economy and the common good,” he told Rod Dreher.

• His statements about abortion and immigration may trigger blowback from some Catholics.

On July 7, Vance told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supported mifepristone “being accessible.” Mifepristone is used alongside misoprostol in abortions before 10 weeks of pregnancy. It also can be used to treat high blood pressure in adults who have Cushing’s syndrome and type 2 diabetes and cannot have or have failed surgery.

“This tawdry episode informs us that Vance has no principles, at least none that aren’t for sale, and the asking price is cheap,” C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, told the National Catholic Register.

J.D. Flynn, the editor-in-chief of The Pillar, a Catholic opinion and news site, wrote in an analysis on July 12 that if Vance was selected, it could lead to a new conversation about Eucharistic coherence, or the idea that a Catholic’s belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist should be accompanied by actions that align with the Catholic Church’s teaching.

This argument was used most recently to suggest Catholic politicians Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who support abortion rights, should not receive Communion.

In a campaign fundraising message on July 8, Vance called for mass deportations of immigrants without legal status, a promise also present in the Republican Party platform. “We need to deport every single person who invaded our country illegally.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for a pathway to legal status and citizenship for the approximately 11 million immigrants who live in the U.S. without legal authorization, emphasizing the obligation in the Catholic Catechism to “welcome the foreigner.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—In late March of 2021, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project filed a class action lawsuit charging the U.S. Department of Education as complicit “in the abuses that thousands of LGBTQ+ students endured at taxpayer-funded religious colleges and universities.”

The case, Elizabeth Hunter, et al v. U.S. Department of Education, was thrown out by the Oregon federal district court.

Three years later, the Hunter plaintiffs are back in court to make their case. In August 2023, the Hunter plaintiffs appealed the decision, filing their opening brief before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Appealing the case are a mix of current students, recent alumni and recently expelled students. With the case now fully briefed, the legal team will appear before the Court of Appeals on July 16 for oral argument.

At the center of the case is the issue of religious exemption from Title IX, an exemption the plaintiffs argued has allowed religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

Although the students bringing the case are connected to a number of religious institutions, including Brigham Young University, they coalesce around one point: that schools that violate LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections should lose access to federal education funds.

ERLC supports institutions’ right to their convictions

Religious liberty groups applauded the case’s original dismissal, arguing that the lawsuit was an attempt to subvert the constitutional right of religious freedom.

Following the lawsuit’s dismissal in 2023, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention stated, “No student of any faith should be deprived of their right ‘to attend a school that shares their beliefs’ and no educational institution should be stripped of its freedom to ‘live out their deeply and sincerely held convictions.’”

But in the aftermath of the dismissal, the case also received strong support, with 19 state attorneys general filing friends of the court briefs in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education case in favor of the plaintiffs.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a statement, “During the Trump administration, his Department of Education gutted protections for women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and other classes of students that had been in place for decades.”

Rosenblum added: “Title IX needs to be strengthened, not systematically weakened. Students ought to know before they get to campuses whether their academic institutions will protect their rights or undermine them.”

The original lawsuit argues the Department of Education is responsible under the federal civil rights law Title IX to “protect sexual and gender minority students at taxpayer-funded” schools, including “private and religious educational institutions.”

It alleges that in violation of Title IX, LGBTQ+ students have endured abuses, including “conversion therapy, expulsion, denial of housing and health care, sexual and physical abuse and harassment,” as well as the “less visible, but no less damaging, consequences of institutionalized shame, fear, anxiety, and loneliness.”

Protests at some religiously affiliated schools

During the two years the original case was being considered, a broader reckoning spread among religious higher education institutions across the United States as their students became increasingly vocal about experiences of discrimination at the schools.

Students at some religious schools engaged in a range of protests. At Seattle Pacific University, a private school with ties to the Free Methodist Church, students protested against a policy that forbids the hiring of LGBTQ+ people.

At Baylor University, protests focused on the school’s Statement on Human Sexuality, which defines marriage between a man and a woman as the “biblical norm” and on Baylor’s refusal to recognize an LGBTQ+ student advocacy group as an officially chartered organization.

In October 2022, students organized at more than 100 campuses to walk out of school in protest of religious exemptions to Title IX, which they argued leave loopholes for LGBTQ+ discrimination, harassment and erasure.

When Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education was dismissed in January 2023 by Federal District Court Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., Aiken ruled the plaintiffs had “satisfactorily alleged” their injury by religious exemption.

However, Aiken also ruled: “Plaintiffs do not plausibly demonstrate that the religious exemption was motivated by any impermissible purpose—let alone that Congress was ‘wholly’ motivated by such an impermissible purpose.”

The decision left the 40 students and former students responsible for filing the lawsuit with recognition of the harms committed but no legal recourse.

In a press release from the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, Plaintiff Kalie Hargrove, former student at Lincoln Christian University, was quoted saying: “I am disappointed in the ruling. The actions of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice have shown once again that human dignity is optional.

“I was publicly dehumanized, kicked out of school, received death threats, and had people call for my execution for being a Christian student at a Christian school who happened to be trans, and my government refused to protect me then, and refuses to protect me now.”

(RNS)—An ongoing wave of disasters—Gulf Coast hurricanes, wildfires in California, severe thunderstorms and flooding in the Midwest—along with skyrocketing construction costs post-COVID have left the insurance industry reeling.

As a result, companies such as Church Mutual, GuideOne and Brotherhood Mutual, which specialize in insuring churches, have seen their reserves shrink. That’s led them to drop churches they consider high risk to cut their losses.

Churches in Texas have been hit particularly hard by these strains on the insurance industry.

Jeff Julian, executive pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, described the church’s experience, beginning with the “snowmageddon” freeze that besieged Texas in 2021.

When everything was still shut down, a frozen pipe burst in one of their offices, resulting in significant flood damage and loss inside the building and a “pretty large” insurance claim.

The church has been able to continue with their insurance provider, to “rock along with increased pay [on premiums] over these years, but we received notice that this year, through our insurance representative, that we’ll be incurring an 85 percent increase for this next year,” Julian said.

The church received notice of the increase a month ago in June, with renewal set to occur in August. Julian said their premium has been about $49,800 a year.

“So, an 85 percent increase on that is going to be where we’re starting to have to take away from ministries, probably,” he said.

The church is in the process of shopping to find the best option available.

Since insurance companies have classified Texas as a “weather-related causality zone,” Julian has heard many smaller churches are opting to go without insurance, because they just don’t have the funds to absorb exorbitant premium increases.

“It’s tough to hear,” Julian said, noting the risk that poses to the smaller congregations. But he believes “the Lord’s got this. … We just need to be faithful and follow his lead.”

The exodus of Church Mutual

Pastor John Parks was taking his first sabbatical in 40 years of ministry when he got a call from his church’s accountant with some bad news.

Church Mutual, the church’s insurance company, had dropped them.

“This does not make sense,” Parks, the pastor of Ashford Community Church in Houston, recalls thinking at the time. “We’ve never filed a claim.”

Five months and 13 insurance companies later, the church finally found replacement coverage for $80,000 per year, up from the $23,000 they had been paying.

“It’s been an adventure,” said the 69-year-old Parks from his home in Houston, where the power was out after Hurricane Beryl. “That’s putting it politely.”

Parks and his congregation are not alone.

Keith Warren, executive pastor of North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford, recounts a similar experience.

In 2023, he was notified the church was on a list of churches to be dropped.

“It was a shock,” he said. The church had few claims and had been with Church Mutual for around 30 years. Then the church found out “they just were leaving Texas and a bunch of churches high and dry.”

In a regular year with a normal number of churches looking for coverage, it takes 60 days for insurers to review a church’s application for a policy renewal, Warren explained. But insurers are only required to give 45 days’ notice of a change to coverage on their end.

Church Mutual told the church of their impending loss of coverage 15 days later than they needed to know about it in order to meet application deadlines for new coverage with a different major carrier—in a year when many more churches than usual were in need of new coverage.

“So, that put us in a pretty difficult position, because the major carriers would not review our policy in time for us to continue coverage,” Warren said.

Warren explained missing the window for securing coverage from the major carriers forced the church to drop down from major insurers to the next market.

Carriers in that market tier require “100 percent of the premium up front,” so not only did North Side Baptist have to pay the premium with Church Mutual that year, but also the premium for the next year, which was three times as expensive.

“So essentially, we were called on to pay four years of premiums in one year,” Warren said.

“Anytime a church has to spend more for something like insurance, by definition, it affects what’s available for ministry.”

 The church was able to pay the premium, but “there’s no doubt ministry was affected by that,” he continued.

He had planned for the insurance rates to increase by 55 percent when he was putting together the church budget, but what he actually got was a 147 percent increase.

“It’s hard to plan for that,” he said.

Why is it so hard?

Finding replacement coverage is difficult for churches that lose coverage—in part because churches are a niche market that’s difficult to insure and full of risk, experts say.

They are open to the public, work with everyone from infants to senior citizens, sometimes house social service programs, are run by volunteers and often have large and expensive buildings.

Churches also operate with little oversight, said Charles Cutler, president of ChurchWest Insurance Services, which works with about 4,000 churches and other Christian ministries.

“Because of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state, ministries are largely unregulated,” Cutler said. “And unregulated businesses are difficult to underwrite.”

The church insurance market, like the insurance industry overall, has been hit with a perfect storm in recent years.

Supply chain shortages for construction materials that began during the pandemic have driven up the cost of rebuilding after a disaster. When the cost of rebuilding goes up, so does the size of claims, Cutler said. That led insurance companies to raise their rates in order to cover those claims.

Then a series of natural disasters hit the industry hard—including hurricanes, wildfires and what are known as “severe convective storms”—thunderstorms with extreme rain and wind that caused billions in damage last year, according to the Insurance Journal. Claims from those disasters have stressed the reserves that insurance companies use to pay claims.

AM Best, a credit rating agency that specializes in the insurance industry, cited weather and cost from legal claims as reasons for placing Church Mutual under review this past spring.

AM Best also downgraded the rating of Brotherhood Mutual, another major church insurer, while a third church insurer, GuideOne, was taken off review after Bain Capital invested $200 million in the company.

In a statement on its website, Church Mutual said it hopes the company’s outlook will improve.

“Church Mutual has been proactively addressing these challenges to better manage the risks throughout its book of business, nationwide,” the company said.

“The company’s leadership team is confident these measures will have a significant, positive impact on profitability in 2024 and beyond.”

Pam Rushing, the chief underwriting officer for Church Mutual, said that the company is still renewing policies and accepting new business in every state. However, the company no longer offers property coverage in Louisiana. Church Mutual did not give details of how many policies have been canceled.

 “We do not take nonrenewal decisions lightly and it represents a small percentage of our overall portfolio,” Rushing said in an email. “For us to remain financially strong, viable and best able to serve our mission, we need to mitigate the severe impact catastrophic weather has had—and will continue to have—on our bottom line and our ability to serve customers nationwide.”

Brad Hedberg, executive vice president of The Rockwood Co., a Chicago-based agency, said church insurers are facing pressure from the reinsurers—large companies such as Lloyd’s of London that provide insurance to insurance companies so catastrophic claims don’t overwhelm them.

Those companies are looking to reduce their exposure to certain types of claims—meaning church insurers can’t offer as much coverage as they did in the past.

Hedberg, who works with churches and other ministries, said he spends a lot of time helping clients keep the insurance they already have and reduce their risk of filing claims. That means making sure churches have policies in place for everything from abuse prevention to who gets to drive the church van, as well as being proactive with building maintenance and safety projects.

It also means being strategic in when to file a claim—and when to pay for a loss out of pocket. Churches should only tap their insurance for large losses—not small claims, he added.

“If small claims get filed, your coverage could be nonrenewed or your premium could go through the roof,” he said. “The market is just that bad.”

No good solution

Hundreds of United Methodist churches in the Rio Texas Annual Conference learned they’d lost property insurance in November last year, leaving church officials scrambling.

More than six months later, some churches have found new insurance, often at a steep increase. Others still have none, said Kevin Reed, president of the conference board of trustees.

Reed said the conference had about a month’s notice that its property insurance policy, which local congregations could buy into, was being canceled. That wasn’t enough time to find new coverage before the policy expired. It also left local churches on their own.

“We have not found a good solution,” said Reed. “It continues to be a significant problem for our churches.”

Nathan Creitz, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Bay Shore, N.Y., a congregation of about 100 people on Long Island, said in the past, getting insurance hadn’t been a worry. The total annual cost for all the church’s insurance—the church building, a parsonage, liability—was less than $4,000.

“We got lucky,” he said. “We were grandfathered into some really low rates.”

Things changed last summer after Calvary’s insurance carrier dropped the church, deciding not to renew the policy. With the help of a broker, the church found new insurance for about $14,000.

Since most of the costs of running a church, such as paying staff and keeping the lights on, are already fixed, that meant cutting programs. The church also had to put off capital improvements to the building, which ironically are the kinds of things that would make them easier to insure.

“It’s not ideal, but that’s what happened,” Creitz said.

For Ashford Community Church in Houston, finding the funds to cover the increased insurance has also been a challenge, especially post-COVID, when church attendance and giving are down.

Higher insurance costs also mean less money for ministry at the church, which Parks described as a mission-focused congregation.

The church’s 40,000-square-foot facility is currently home to about a dozen congregations, through a partnership called Kingdom City Houston. Parks said he came to the church about a decade ago after hopes of starting a church overseas fell apart. At the time, the church was struggling and was using only a quarter of the space in its building.

Today about 1,200 people worship every weekend in the building—which holds multiple services in its three sanctuaries. Parks said worshippers come from more than 60 countries. The churches each have their pastors but share some back-office staff.

The idea is to show that Christians from different backgrounds can still be united. “We can walk side by side, even if we don’t always see eye to eye,” he said.

Parks said Ashford’s building has been largely untouched by recent storms. After Hurricane Harvey caused massive flooding in 2017, the church hosted volunteers from around the country who helped residents recover.

“It was a good time of serving the community,” he said.

With additional coverage by Calli Keener of the Baptist Standard.

MILWAUKEE (BP)—A release of the Republican National Convention’s platform reveals a potential shift in the party’s focus on a federal abortion ban—a change that drew reaction from some Southern Baptists.

The announcement came hours after the RNC’s platform committee met on Monday morning.

Shifting the burden to state lawmakers

“We proudly stand for families and life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights,” according to a document released on The Hill.

The language clearly places the onus on state legislatures two years after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

“After 51 years, because of us, that power has been given to the states and to a vote of the people,” the platform states. “We will oppose late term abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF [fertility treatments],” according to the released document.

But one evangelical seminary professor disagrees with the committee’s logic.

“Since 1984, the GOP platform has always included robust language in defense of the sanctity of human life for the unborn. It’s important that at least one major political party recognize what is clear from both Scripture and the witness of science: human life is sacred from the moment of conception and should be protected into law,” said Daniel Darling, director of Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The platform will face a final confirmation vote by the platform committee on July 9 before being presented to delegates at the Republican Party’s convention July 15-18.

“Unlike the party’s platform passed in 2016, the text does not include a 20-week federal limit on abortions or call for states to pass the Human Life Amendment, which proposes to amend the Constitution to say that life begins at conception,” Politico reported.

“The text instead says that states are ‘free to pass laws protecting’ the rights granted in the 14th Amendment.”

Call to ‘stand for life’

In an op-ed  article released by Religion News Service, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Brent Leatherwood said: “The platform of a political party should set forth the objectives of that body. As the Republican National Committee meets, instead of jettisoning or diminishing the platform’s firm pro-life stance, its members should unabashedly advance liberty and stand for life, label abortion evil, advocating for laws that acknowledge it for the sin that it is, and embrace proposals that free men and women from the destruction it leaves in its wake.”

Leatherwood urged leaders of both political parties July 3 to “to prioritize pro-life policy in their parties’ soon-to-be-released platforms.

“Now more than ever is the time to advocate for a robust vision for life. Policymakers should craft proposals that reflect this nation’s founding ideals and ensure freedom for those who truly have no voice,” he wrote in the op-ed article.

“This true culture of life would usher in an era when pre-born lives are saved, vulnerable mothers are shielded from the predatory abortion industry, and fledgling families are supported at both the federal and state level.”

Earlier this summer, Southern Baptists voted for a resolution “to reaffirm the unconditional value and right to life of every human being, including those in an embryonic stage, and to only utilize reproductive technologies consistent with that affirmation especially in the number of embryos generated in the IVF process.”

“Since the fall of Roe, many Republicans have not been prepared for this moment, unable to articulate a consistent pro-life ethic,” Darling told Baptist Press.

“There has been considerable pressure to jettison the pro-life cause because of perceived electoral challenges. Evangelicals recognize the challenge that we face: it will take a lot of persuasion to bring the culture along with us. We must be prudent in choosing the right battles in order to save as many unborn babies as we can.”

He noted candidates who champion pro-life policy have been rewarded by voters.

“In the half-century of pro-life activism, candidates who stand up for the unborn have won at both the local and national level, including the presidency,” he said.

Darling said it is a “mistake that the Republican Party has tried to soften this 40-year-old language.”

“Candidates would be wise to ignore this language and stick to their pro-life convictions,” he said.