WASHINGTON (RNS)—Some faith-based refugee resettlement agencies condemned President Joe Biden’s June 4 executive order dramatically limiting the number of immigrants who may apply for asylum at the southern United States border.

The policy pauses entry at the border once 2,500 illegal entries have occurred in any 24-hour period.

The executive order follows two failed efforts in Congress this year to pass bipartisan immigration reforms, including a bill negotiated between Republican and Democratic lawmakers that was blocked in the Senate in January after GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized it.

‘Blatant political move’

Tuesday’s action by the Biden White House drew fierce backlash from agencies that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees once they are processed by the Border Patrol. Six of those nine agencies are faith-based and have a long history of advocating for immigrants.

HIAS, one of the faith-based agencies, issued a statement denouncing the border shutdown order as “wrong” and “ineffective.”

“This is a blatant political move and won’t achieve anything the administration says it will,” said Naomi Steinberg, HIAS’ vice president of policy and advocacy.

“It’s disturbing that this political maneuvering is being done on the backs of asylum-seekers and is blatantly against the law. It will not help or make the border more secure.”

Steinberg fears the executive order will force people with bona fide asylum claims to return to dangerous situations that they fled in their home countries or wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico.

While the executive order claims to enforce “expanded efforts to dismantle human smuggling,” Steinberg also expressed fears the order will do the opposite, allowing smugglers to take advantage of increasingly desperate people.

‘Deeply disappointed’

Kelly Ryan, president of the Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, said the group was “deeply disappointed” in the Biden administration’s efforts to restrict asylum and urged it to work with Central American countries and Mexico to improve immigrants’ prospects.

The new policy relies on the same authority, known as 212(f), that the Trump administration invoked in 2018 to deny asylum to those who crossed illegally. Federal courts struck the policy down because it violated U.S. immigration law, which allows the right to seek asylum regardless of the manner of entry.

In response to the executive order, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, shared Steinberg’s view that the executive order puts migrants at risk.

“Sending those seeking asylum back to the conditions they are fleeing without their chance to exercise their right is a dubious prospect,” Vignarajah said. “We have serious concerns about the implications of today’s pronouncement.”

Vignarajah said that while the Biden administration is “hamstrung” due to congressional inaction, there are ways to both secure the borders and offer robust humanitarian protections.

HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield said U.S. immigration law has not kept up with 21st-century migration trends.

“Rather than fixing an antiquated immigration system that has been broken for decades, politicians are using anti-immigrant rhetoric to gain votes by stoking fear,” he said.

President Jimmy Carter had Texas on his mind June 25, 1978, when he stepped to the lectern to lead Sunday school at the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C.

Less than 15 hours earlier, Carter had returned to the White House from a two-day, whirlwind tour of Texas that mixed presidential activities with political.

The official White House Daily Diary documents a jammed schedule starting at 1 p.m. Friday, June 23: a luncheon speech to 5,000 people in Fort Worth; an address to NASA and Air Force personnel in Houston; a pause to greet a centenarian; a short meeting with Hispanic leaders, followed by remarks to 1,200 people at a fundraising dinner. That was just Friday.

Before Carter left Texas Saturday, June 24, he met with Black business and political leaders in Houston; dedicated a post office in Beaumont; and reviewed combat vehicles, weaponry and the troops at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) in Central Texas. He got back to the White House about 7:30 p.m. and had dinner with First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

At 10 a.m. June 25, Carter did what he did on at least 17 Sundays during his presidency. He traveled four minutes by motorcade a mile north to First Baptist Church where he set aside the demands of his day job to teach a Bible lesson. The lesson, drawn from the Genesis, was one of 14 recorded at First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., and recently transcribed for the first time.

Nobody has to be defined by their worst decisions

On that Sunday 46 years ago this month, Carter used the story of Joseph and his brothers to teach a lesson of humanity and redemption, emphasizing that no one has to be defined by bad decisions, whether those are boasting, selling your brother into slavery or prolonging a war.

Supplementing the biblical text, Carter brought up the legacy of a predecessor, President Lyndon Johnson of Texas.

“Since I’ve been in the White House, I’ve read a lot of biographies, long and short, about my predecessors there,” Carter said. “I could go back down the list of presidents, some of whom are condemned ferociously, some of whom [are] looked on as heroes. …

“Some of them are condemned in retrospect because of one incident in their lives as president, over which they had not too much control.”

Having just returned from Texas, Carter said President Johnson came to mind.

“I don’t think there was ever a president who worked harder or who had a greater, more generous heart, or who cared more and did more for people who were persecuted and deprived and who felt the stigma and the punishment of racial hatred and prejudice and discrimination,” Carter said.

“But when you think about Lyndon Johnson now, you don’t think about freedom. You don’t think about an end to discrimination. [You] don’t think about voting rights acts nearly so much as you think about the Vietnam War. But Johnson was always trying to do things to make a better community, better cities, better highways, better life for people.

“And still, he’s not one of those presidents, at least yet, who’s recognized as big-hearted, great-hearted, concerned about others.”

Carter and Johnson never met, according to a news release issued by the LBJ Foundation in January 2016, when members of the Johnson family traveled to Atlanta to present Carter with the LBJ Liberty & Justice for All Award “in recognition of his leadership in public service and his tireless efforts toward peace and human rights.”

Carter is quoted as returning the compliment: “It is a great personal honor to be given the Liberty & Justice for All Award in the name of Lyndon Johnson, a man who helped shape my life and for whom I have the greatest admiration and appreciation.”

Christi Harlan is a former reporter for The Dallas Morning News and former Washington correspondent for the Austin American-Statesman. She is a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., where she has been a member more than 30 years. Her new book, Mr. President, The Class Is Yours contains the first-ever transcripts of 14 Sunday School lessons taught by President Jimmy Carter at First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. The paperback and ebook are available from Amazon and other booksellers. 

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When The New York Times reported an Appeal to Heaven flag had been sighted last summer at a house owned by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, it wasn’t the first time the symbol had been linked to Christian judges and lawmakers.

The flag, which has ties to Christian nationalism and was repeatedly spotted among rioters at the Jan. 6 insurrection, was promoted by Sarah Palin in a 2015 Breitbart opinion column. It was flown over the Arkansas Statehouse in 2015, thanks to former Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert. It also has been displayed outside U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s congressional office.

The flag dates back to the Revolutionary War, but according to Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, the flag took on new meaning when it was embraced in 2013 by members of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement led by self-titled modern-day apostles and prophets. A New Apostolic Reformation leader gave the flag to Palin.

“It became this very coded symbol for this spiritual warfare campaign that’s about embracing this vision of a restoration of Christian America. Because this was soon after the Obergefell decision, the flag also became about opposing gay marriage and abortion,” Taylor told Religion News Service.

“The New Apostolic Reformation has proven, I would argue, over the last five to 10 years its incredible reach into the executive branch, into the legislative branch, and now we see also into the judicial branch,” Taylor said.

He noted Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker recently was found to be connected to the New Apostolic Reformation. Parker made headlines in February when he wrote a concurring opinion to an Alabama high court decision regarding in vitro fertilization that extensively quoted Scripture.

Creator of the award-winning audio series “Charismatic Revival Fury” and author of the forthcoming book The Violent Take It by Force, Taylor is an expert on both the New Apostolic Reformation movement and its flag of choice.

Taylor spoke to RNS about the Appeal to Heaven flag’s links to former President Donald Trump, Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6 insurrection. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are the origins of the Appeal to Heaven flag?

It’s a Revolutionary War flag that has a long history of being a piece of Americana. The phrase “Appeal to Heaven” comes from a treatise by the philosopher John Locke.

He argues that when people appeal to unjust governments that don’t listen, they eventually make an appeal to heaven. In other words, we go to war, and we’ll let God sort it out.

George Washington commissioned this flag to fly over the Massachusetts Navy, and at least according to historical sources I’ve seen, he commissioned it in 1775.

When did the flag begin to take on new meaning?

In 2013, Dutch Sheets, a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, was serving as the executive director of a charismatic, Pentecostal Bible college in Texas [Christ For the Nations Institute in Dallas] when he was presented with an Appeal to Heaven flag at a graduation ceremony.

When Sheets received the flag, he also believed he received a prophecy that this flag was meant to be a symbol of a campaign to restore America to the Christian nation God intended.

He set his sights on the 2016 election, and in 2015, he gave the flag to Sarah Palin, a longtime ally in NAR leadership networks. She wrote an op-ed arguing that government leaders need to start flying the flag over courthouses and statehouses.

Can you say more about the theology this flag came to represent?

Those in the New Apostolic Reformation believe that at the end of the 20th century, God was anointing new prophets and apostles to lead the church into global revival.

A seminary professor named Peter Wagner coined this term to describe these massive campaigns that are designed to transform nations through prayer and spiritual warfare. He believed apostles and prophets are generals of spiritual warfare.

Another leader, named Lance Wallnau, came into the network bringing this idea of the Seven Mountain Mandate.

You can divide society up into these seven spheres of authority: religion, family, government, education, media, arts and entertainment, commerce. And Christians need to conquer each of those seven arenas to let Christian influence flow down into society.

Over time, the seven mountains became a political theology, and the NAR became the vanguard of Christian Trumpism. Notably, Sheets was obsessed with the Supreme Court.

All NAR leaders know that if you want to find a lever to change American policy, it’s the Supreme Court. And these fringe characters that have glommed onto Trump, their ideas have become so popular, they have really brought about a tectonic shift in the culture and leadership of the religious right in America within the last decade.

At what point did the flag become linked to Trump?

When Donald Trump became the Republican candidate, people started attaching it to him. They even started a big NAR prayer movement in 2015 called the As One prayer movement, and the movement’s symbol was the Appeal to Heaven flag, the evergreen tree. This was an organized campaign.

Throughout the Trump presidency, the flag became a symbol for Trump, for Christian America, for this insurgent Christian nationalism. And by the time you got to 2020, you had hundreds of charismatic prophets all prophesying that Donald Trump was destined to win this election.

Dutch Sheets very much believed these prophecies and that the 2020 election was a matter of spiritual warfare.

In the fall of 2020, Donald Trump went to a Las Vegas megachurch led by an apostle who, as he was preaching, pulled out an Appeal to Heaven flag and said, “We’re going to appeal to heaven for your victory.”

Someone in the crowd shot a photo of the apostle onstage holding the Appeal to Heaven flag with Donald Trump’s head silhouetted in the foreground, and it went viral.

So, the Appeal to Heaven symbol is very closely linked to Trump and the 2020 campaign and what people believe about these prophecies.

Is that why you saw so many Appeal to Heaven flags displayed by rioters on Jan. 6?

When the election was called for Joe Biden and Trump refused to concede, almost all the prophets began saying God would have to intervene. Dutch Sheets converted his Give Him 15 prayer app into a YouTube show that became a clearinghouse for all the conversations about overturning the election, and Sheets was constantly infusing this Appeal to Heaven idea.

There was always an Appeal to Heaven flag in the background. Shortly after the election, Sheets met with people from the Trump administration who encouraged him to lead a prayer campaign in the swing states.

He mobilized about 20 apostles and prophets to go to the contested states and hold these very intense prayer and prophecy meetings in megachurches. This was all part of this building fever pitch toward Jan. 6.

In late December, Dutch and this team of prophets and apostles had a two-hour meeting at the White House with unnamed officials. Some of the members who were there later said they received strategy from the highest levels of the government, and issued prophetic declarations inside the White House. A number of NAR prophets and apostles, including one who was at the White House, were there on Jan. 6.

They had a stage set up with a microphone and PA system just off the southeast corner of the Capitol during the riot, and they were singing worship songs, prophesying and wearing Appeal to Heaven flags.

As the riot started, the NAR leaders became anxious and asked Sheets, who was elsewhere, to prophesy over the Capitol over speakerphone. I argue in my book that Dutch Sheets did more to mobilize Christians to be there on Jan. 6 than any other Christian leader.

It’s not a coincidence that you see Appeal to Heaven flags all over the place on Jan. 6. We know that at least one rioter wore an Appeal to Heaven flag inside the Capitol as a cape. When the FBI went to arrest him later, they found the Appeal to Heaven flag spattered with blood and mace.

We can see in one video as the crowds breach the barricades, somebody with an Appeal to Heaven flag using that flagpole to beat down a police officer.

What’s in store for the New Apostolic Reformation in 2024?

NAR folks are mobilizing for the 2024 election. All of those prophecies about Donald Trump having a second term are still out there. When we think about the role Donald Trump is playing in American politics, this quasi-messianic aura that’s attached to him, I don’t think you can understand that without understanding the NAR.

Donald Trump has become a type of savior to many American Christians, and they have attached immense spiritual hope to him. And they believe fervently that the last election was stolen from them by demons.

Donald Trump has these armies of Christians, prayer warriors, prophets who have backstopped his political career using charismatic theology, prophecies and spiritual warfare.

But what we saw on Jan. 6 was that at some point, spiritual warfare tips over into actual violence. And I am very concerned about the election we are barreling toward. Are these folks going to accept election results if Trump loses?

And if Trump wins, in their mind they have conquered. They have free rein to enact their vision of a Christian America.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Dozens of lawmakers and faith leaders gathered in the U.S. Capitol on May 16 to celebrate the installation of a statue honoring evangelist Billy Graham, whose likeness will now represent his native North Carolina in the building’s Statuary Hall.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, himself an evangelical Christian, spoke multiple times during the unveiling of the 7-foot tall bronze statue, which features Graham gesturing with one hand toward an open Bible in his other.

Addressing the crowd of dignitaries, Johnson alluded to another statue gracing the Capitol: that of John Winthrop, who famously declared that the Massachusetts Bay Colony he founded in the 17th century could be a “city upon a hill”—a reference to Scripture.

“Our newest statue is a man who shares that same vision, and who believes that same gospel,” Johnson said. “A man who looks back at where we were, and prayed and served endlessly for what we could become again: that shining city upon a hill.”

Johnson noted that Graham, who died at age 99 in 2018, is one of only four people who have received all three of the highest honors Congress can offer: the Congressional Gold Medal, lying in honor at the Capitol and having a statue of their likeness erected in the building.

Graham, who once drew crowds of hundreds of thousands at his evangelistic crusades, now joins the ranks of Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, as well as Rosa Parks.

Later in the program, Johnson noted that the Bible in the statue is open to Galatians 6:14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

The House speaker then grew visibly emotional as he lifted aloft Graham’s personal study Bible, its pages marked with handwritten notes, open to the same verse.

“This is the verse that Reverend Graham put on the banner of his life and in his final years,” Johnson said.

Graham’s statue replaces one of Gov. Charles Aycock, a North Carolina segregationist, which the state formally requested in 2018 be removed.

Focus on Jesus

In his own address to the assembly, Franklin Graham praised the inclusion of Scripture along the base of the statue—John 3:16 and John 14:6—but said the sculpture would likely have made his father “a little uncomfortable.”

“He would want the focus to be on the one that he preached,” the younger Graham said. “He would want the focus to be on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Another speaker, North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, also referenced the Scripture passages along the bottom of the statue, and appeared to embrace the elder Graham’s evangelistic fervor.

“Friends, God’s grace is undeserved,” Budd said as he concluded his remarks. “But through righteousness, it is freely given and it is by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice, that we are saved. If you’ve not made that decision for yourself, I hope, I pray that you will.”

Multiple speakers pointed out that the process of establishing the statue took years, but Johnson noted that the artist who made it, Charlotte-based sculptor Chas Fagan, also fashioned a nearby likeness of Reagan.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Johnson said.

Other speakers included North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who called Graham one of his state’s “finest treasures”; Sen. Thom Tillis; and Reps. Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma were also in attendance, as were evangelical leaders such as John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel, and Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Met with some criticism

But while those in attendance at the ceremony celebrated the statue, the news was met with criticism by some secular-minded advocates.

Rachel Laser, who heads the group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, argued that erecting a monument to a Christian evangelist in the U.S. Capitol was an inappropriate intrusion of faith into “the People’s House—a potent symbol of American democracy and its constitutional promise of church-state separation.”

Franklin Graham was dismissive of such criticisms in a conversation with reporters after the ceremony, saying “my father had critics all his life.” He also noted that his father is not the first faith leader to be represented in the Statuary Hall. A statue of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stands a few feet away, representing Utah, and a sculpture of Fr. Junipero Sera, a controversial Catholic missionary, represents California and holds a cross aloft on the other side of the room.

He added: “Faith has been part of the foundation of this nation since it was first established.”

But for Laser, adding Billy Graham to the hall was inappropriate for other reasons, as well. She pointed to the evangelist’s history of advocating against same-sex marriage, bringing Christianity into politics, and what she characterized as his inconsistency on civil rights. While Graham preached racial tolerance, he was at times dismissive of activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and racial justice protests, such as the March on Washington.

Laser also noted how controversy erupted when, in the diaries of a White House aide made public in 1994, Graham appeared to have made antisemitic remarks during a conversation with President Richard Nixon in 1972, such as discussing the “total Jewish domination of the media.”

The National Archives made a tape of the conversation public in 2002. In the recording, Graham can be heard saying Jews had a “stranglehold” on the media, as well as suggesting that if Mr. Nixon were re-elected “we might be able to do something.”

“I mean, not all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I’m friendly with Israel,” Graham said in the recording. “But they don’t know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country. And I have no power, no way to handle them, but I would stand up if under proper circumstances.”

Graham later publicly apologized.

“Recognition in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall is a unique honor that should be reserved for those who most purely embody our American ideals of freedom and equality for all,” Laser said. “The late Rev. Billy Graham—with his history of advancing Christian nationalism, making antisemitic statements, crusading against LGBTQ+ equality and a less-than-stellar record on civil rights for Black Americans—does not deserve this honor.”

Other organizations, such as the liberal-leaning advocacy group Faithful America, accused Graham of representing Christian nationalism, as did the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“As our nation faces unparalleled threats to our secular democracy,” Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said: “It’s unfortunate to see the personification of white Christian nationalism given such an honored perch inside the seat of our democracy.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Elizabeth Neumann watched the events of Jan. 6 unfold, the former assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy in the Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans at the Department of Homeland Security was horrified.

Reared in conservative Christian communities, she found herself deeply disturbed by the violence, but also the preponderance of Christian flags waved by insurrectionists and the prayers some shouted as they attacked the U.S. Capitol.

“You had this intermixing of Christian ideas, symbols and Scriptures, somehow justifying this violence that happened on Jan. 6,” Neumann said in a recent interview.

Months before, Neumann had resigned from the Trump administration, claiming the then-president was dismissive of domestic terrorist threats. In the years since, she has grown increasingly convinced that conservative Christians are being exploited not just by politicians, but also by extremist groups, giving rise to a dangerous form of faith-infused radicalism.

In a new book, Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace, Neumann chronicles this exploitation and offers ways to prevent further radicalization. She recently spoke with RNS to discuss her findings and share where she finds hope for the future. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What drove you to write this book?

It actually came out of an interview that I gave to Politico in February 2021, a month after Jan. 6. They asked about what we saw on Jan. 6 from the Christian community. A cross on Capitol grounds. People praying over bullhorns in the Senate gallery. Placards with different Bible verses.

In December, before Jan. 6, you had the Jericho March, where they tried to play out the Israelites marching around Jericho and praying over Washington that we’re going to “defeat the evil.”

On Jan. 6, you felt your community had completed a “rage-filled metamorphosis into violent extremists.” Terms like radicalization and extremism are common in your work, but can you say more about your choice of words?

Somewhere in the Politico interview, I labeled it Christian extremism. I hadn’t given much thought to that label, but I definitely felt as if we had Christians present who were demonstrating extremist activity and belief.

I spend some time introducing the reader to the way the counterterrorism community views extremism. I offer a definition of extremism and radicalization and then try to help people understand what the evidence shows us about why somebody radicalizes.

If somebody says: “This is the most consequential election of our lifetime. If Donald Trump doesn’t win, then the country’s going to go to hell. So, therefore, I’m going to go vote for Donald Trump,” that is not extremism. The premise is maybe not healthy, spiritually or psychologically, but it’s not extremism.

But if somebody’s “therefore” is, “I’m going to go monitor polling places wearing my military fatigues and carrying my AR-15, just to make sure no funny business happens,” you’re moving into intimidation and harassment and also into something that’s illegal. That’s the difference.

You note in the book that white nationalism and Christian nationalism movements have taken advantage of Christian communities. How did we end up here?

Some are coming from legitimate places of fear and grievance. The sexual ethic in this country has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Obergefell v. Hodges (the Supreme Court decision establishing marriage for same-sex partners) is a key moment. The law of the land used to adhere to a traditional biblical sexual ethic, and it kind of changed overnight. We’re still catching up as a community to try to understand what that means.

In that great uncertainty, we can become really vulnerable to extremists. Extremists are really good at painting black and white pictures, and they offer this certainty that comes from some form of hostile action.

As the Christian community identifies itself with that political right, they’re also intermingling with extremists. That confluence is where there’s great danger. Most people are not going to go be violent extremists, but if we want to reduce the amount of violence in the country, we need to reduce the exposure to extremism.

What broader factors are at work?

We know that (social media companies) make money off of our fear, anger and outrage. They are incentivized to keep us in this perpetual state of outrage in a way that our forefathers back in the 1950s just didn’t deal with.

But there are also other what I would call society-wide factors—the fact that we are increasingly isolated. In the online space, we get a dopamine hit of belonging, even though it’s not real belonging. That real-life connection is important, and the less we have, the more we have a need that is going unfilled, which can be exploited by extremists.

The other underlying need that we understand motivates people toward extremism is a need for significance. You have all these pastors and Christian authors writing books about what postmodern society has done to our souls, how we have increasingly lost meaning.

I compare that to what I know is happening in the extremist movement: One of the most rapidly growing types of violent extremism is a nihilistic version of extremism. It’s like: life does not matter, so I should go out in a blaze of glory.

How has this changed people’s relationship to their faith?

The cultural Christian community has responded to these trials by turning to politics for solutions—turning to a politician as a savior figure, or turning to a political party. “If you could only get the government to work right, it would solve my financial difficulties.”

 We keep turning to tools of man to solve what are ultimately spiritual problems. We’ve taken power politics and government and turned them into the ultimate thing, as opposed to something that falls under our faith. We’ve reordered, if you will, in the incorrect order: Politics is the premier, as opposed to our trust and faith in Jesus.

Are there trends you are particularly concerned about?

We’re in an election year, so we are increasingly seeing politicians use violent rhetoric. (Arizona U.S. Senate candidate) Kari Lake, two or three weeks ago, said at a rally that you need to put on the armor of God, and “maybe strap on a Glock.” We are also seeing militias regroup. They’re organizing on Facebook again. I’m not sure why Facebook’s not cracking down on that.

More people are embracing the Christian nationalist label in kind of a funny way—almost like a backlash to critiques about Christian nationalism. Most Christian nationalists are not concerning from a security perspective, but there’s a smaller segment who are trying to put some significant rigor into their arguments.

I’m thinking in particular of Stephen Wolfe, author of The Case for Christian Nationalism. At the end of his book, he has these appendices that include a supposed theological justification for why violence is okay.

That is more concerning to me, because he’s laying out with some rigor—and by rigor, I mean lots of words—an argument for why violence, under his interpretation of Scripture, is appropriate for building the kingdom of God. That kind of stuff can influence a certain personality, a certain type of group.

You write, “Can I tell you the good news up front? You are one of the best hopes we have in healing the country and preventing more violence.” How can readers of your book help prevent extremism?

Being disrespected, psychological distress, a recent crisis or feeling like a helpless victim—those are all some of the top reasons why people are radicalized to extremism. I think the church has really great answers for what do we do when we’re disrespected: Scripture tells us Christ experienced the ultimate humiliation and modeled how we endure that.

The fact that a large portion of our country thinks that a biblical Christian ethic on sexuality is outdated puts us squarely where Jesus said we would be—that we would be rejected, that our ways are not like the world’s. The answer to that disrespect and that humiliation is in Scripture: We pray for those who persecute us. We do not retaliate in kind.

When I walk pastors through these details, the light bulb comes on. They’re like: “Oh, you’re not telling me to do anything new. Because Jesus has had these answers for 2,000 years.”

There really, truly is nothing new under the sun. It’s just that the social sciences caught up to the wisdom of what Jesus taught.

NASHVILLE (BP)—The only thing matched by the pomp and festivities of the NFL Draft, held April 25 in Detroit, may be the level at which gambling has become entwined with the league.

NFL partners include the Caesar’s Sportsbook Stage, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel, not to mention Genius Sports, the league’s exclusive sports betting data provider.

The concern spreads to all sports. When the interpreter and best friend of baseball’s biggest star becomes embroiled in a $41 million betting scandal, some begin to wonder about gambling’s ultimate payout.

 “We want to show that the detriments are more than the benefits,” said Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “Gambling supporters point to the tax revenue and how it can help fund education.”

He specifically targets predatory gambling such as sports betting, pari-mutuel horse racing and video poker machines. There is a definite grooming aspect to draw people, even minors, into participating, he noted.

“We’ve seen the data on how addictive gambling can be and that up to one-third of [compulsive] gamblers will attempt suicide,” he said. “It’s going to end up costing you.”

Legal sports betting in 38 states

A 2018 Supreme Court decision took out a federal ban on state authorization for sports betting that had exempted Nevada. Other states jumped at the opportunity practically overnight, and today 38 offer legal sports gambling.

The Texas Constitution prohibits gambling in most instances but permits pari-mutuel betting on horses and greyhounds, charitable bingo and raffles within certain parameters and three Indian casinos. Online sports betting remains illegal in Texas.

All of the professional sports franchises in Texas—as well as betting platforms—are partners in the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, a well-funded group seeking to legalize sports betting in the state.

“Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission has long opposed the efforts of groups like the Texas Sports Betting Alliance to amend the Texas Constitution to expand gambling in Texas. We’ve seen that the societal harms exacerbated in jurisdictions that have legalized gambling far outweigh any financial benefit a percentage of gambling profits can provide,” said John Litzler, public policy director for the CLC.

“We anticipate opposing similar gambling legislation in 2025 as we work to inform legislators about the immense cost exacted on residents by legalized gambling.”

Russ Coleman, chair of Texans Against Gambling, noted his organization also will continue to resist gambling expansion in the state.

Politically, there is little connecting California and Georgia. But they are rare examples of states where sports gambling legislation has been defeated outright. A 2022 rejection by California voters has set up a massive showdown over the issue.

Research shows harm gambling causes

As sports betting has gathered steam, many are beginning to wonder if it is out of control. Studies show how it rewires the brain. A late three-pointer can affect the point spread and bring death threats, as one Purdue basketball player experienced this year.

Andrew Hurley is a senior walk-on for the national champion University of Connecticut. Occasionally his coach and dad, Dan, would put him in at the end of Huskies blowouts, and the younger Hurley would hear chants to shoot the ball. He would wonder later if money was riding on those shots.

“It’s scary at the end of games,” he told the Boston Globe. “I don’t fully understand how much of [sports betting] works. … During the game I’m not thinking about that, but in the locker room after the game I’m thinking, ‘I hope nobody is out there jumping me for what I did in the game.’”

The NFL previously never broached the idea of having anything to do with Las Vegas due to its gambling background, and yet, the city hosted the Super Bowl in February. The result was a record $185.6 million in wagers on the game by Nevada’s sportsbooks.

States are noticing an alarming rise in calls to gambling hotlines, with numbers more than doubling. It’s costing homes and relationships and skewing toward men in their 20s and 30s.

 “We believe, nationwide, the rate and severity of gambling problems have increased across the United States since 2018,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling which operates a helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER, in an NBC News report.

Griffin is in his 11th year as Georgia Baptists’ public policy representative. His predecessor, the late Ray Newman, also was pushing back on attempted sports betting legislation as early as 2010.

This year there were at least 12 gambling bills, which Griffin shared in detail in a column for Georgia Baptists’ state news journal, The Christian Index. He knows he’ll have to suit up for battle again next year against gambling proponents.

“It won’t stop trying until Jesus comes back,” he said.

“They are misled into thinking that they can fix a problem by regulating it. … If you regulate it too well, though, there won’t be as much money to make. You need the problem gamblers. You need to increase the opportunities to gamble and entice more people to do it.

“The house has to win.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

Protests on U.S. college campuses opposing Israel’s continuing military campaign against Gaza reflect the views of a significant minority of Gen Z voters, a recent online survey revealed.

One-third of U.S. voters age 18 to 24 believe Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East, compared to only 10 percent of voters overall, according to a recent survey by RMG Research.

Summit Ministries, a conservative Christian organization committed to “equip and support rising generations to embrace God’s truth and champion a biblical worldview,” commissioned the RMG Research survey.

The comparative public opinion poll showed more than three-fourths (77 percent) of voters overall said Israel has a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East, while a little more than half (56 percent) of Gen Z voters agreed.

The RMG Research survey revealed Gen Z voters are significantly less likely than voters overall to view Hamas as a terrorist organization.

While 8 out of 10 (81 percent) of American voters overall agree with the United States classifying Hamas a terrorist group, the ratio drops to 6 out of 10 (61 percent) among voters ages 18 to 24.

A majority of American voters overall support Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, but that reflects a minority view among Gen Z voters.

The survey showed 58 percent of American voters believe Israel’s campaign against Hamas is just. Only 21 percent of voters overall said they believe Israel’s superior military strength and its wealth makes the war unjust.

In contrast, 42 percent of surveyed voters ages 18 to 24 said they consider Israel’s campaign again Hamas to be just. Almost half (47 percent) believe Israel’s greater wealth and military power makes the conflict unjust.

Campus protests spread

More than 500 students participated in an April 24 classroom walkout at the University of Texas in Austin organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee. Students demanded the university divest from manufacturers that supply Israel with weapons used in strikes on Gaza. Authorities arrested at least 34 people after police unsuccessfully tried to disperse protesters.

The walkout at the University of Texas followed a series of pro-Palestinian protests at Ivy League universities including Columbia, Yale and Harvard.

RMG Research conducted its online survey of 1,002 registered voters March 20 and 21. The sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage and political affiliation to reflect the population of registered voters more accurately. The overall margin of error is 3.1 percent. The margin of error for voters ages 18 to 24 is 4.4 percent.

WASHINGTON (BP)—President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package April 24 that drew bipartisan support for Israel, Ukraine and other allies, and pledged to begin sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine within hours.

“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership in the world,” Biden said after signing the bill.

The foreign aid package gives Ukraine $60.8 billion, Israel $26.4 billion and the Indo-Pacific region $8.1 billion. A portion of Israel’s allocation, $9 billion, will provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, welcomed the foreign aid package secured with bipartisan support encouraged by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Southern Baptist leaders and some other evangelicals had been urging Johnson to push the measure through.

“Our nation has long supported those combating oppression and terrorism, and the horrors we have seen across the globe demand a response,” Leatherwood said.

“Whether responding to an active war in Europe, a terrorist event in Israel, or the threat of an invasion by China, American engagement is essential for protecting vulnerable lives, churches and communities threatened by tyrants. This nation still has the capacity to do tremendous good, and it did so this week.”

House Speaker Johnson commended

Leatherwood is among several evangelicals who have commended Johnson for his about-face in moving the aid package forward, despite blocking its progress months earlier as Republicans focused on border security and other national concerns.

Ultimately, Johnson promoted the aid as crucial to helping U.S. allies in pushing back communists and terrorists who threaten national and international security.

“This week a fellow Southern Baptist, House Speaker Mike Johnson, helped ensure America will not stand idly by and let the illegal and unjust invasion directed by Vladimir Putin go unchallenged,” Leatherwood said.

“I am confident our Baptist brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and their fellow Ukrainians, are deeply appreciative of his leadership and the bipartisan resolve shown in Washington that has met the challenge of this moment.

“For the last two years in Ukraine, Russian bombs have obliterated hundreds of Baptist churches, religious liberty has been extinguished in areas under Russian control and countless innocent lives have been lost at the hands of Russian invaders. These atrocities deserve our strongest condemnation, and thankfully, Southern Baptists have been at the forefront of calling attention to them.”

Johnson risked the support of a handful of Republican members of Congress opposed to foreign aid who called for his ouster, but most Republicans supported the measures.

The Senate passed the four-bill package April 23 after the House’s approval late last week, but Congress struggled for months to find a bipartisan solution to support allies in the military crises that Southern Baptists have said threaten religious freedom and democracy beyond Europe and the Middle East.

Ukraine’s allotment includes $13.8 billion for weapons, $9 billion worth of economic assistance as forgivable loans, and other monies to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles.

Ukrainian president thanks U.S.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for the aid in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“I am grateful to President Biden, Congress, and all Americans who recognize that we must cut the ground under Putin’s feet rather than obeying him, as this is the only way to truly reduce threats to freedom,” Zelensky wrote April 24. “Together, we can ensure this.

“Regardless of what anyone says, we are gaining the support we need to continue protecting lives from Russian attacks.”

Israel’s allocation includes $4 billion for the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems in the Israel-Hamas War. Israel, the only U.S. ally in the Middle East, launched war against Hamas after the terrorist group killed 1,200 civilians in an unprecedented attack on Israel Oct. 7, and is also pushing back attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.

The allocation to the Indo-Pacific region would help U.S. allies in combatting Chinese aggression, including $3.3 billion for submarine infrastructure and development, and $1.9 billion to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan and other regional allies.

China’s religious persecution includes beating and imprisoning religious leaders and others on fabricated charges, attempting to ban entire religious groups, and limiting public preaching, proselytizing, conversions, religious literature and broadcasting.

China relentlessly has persecuted Christians in its war on Ukraine, banning religious groups, shuttering houses of worship, and abducting, detaining, imprisoning and torturing religious leaders.

Included in the package is a ban on TikTok in U.S. app stores unless the platform’s Chinese owners divest of their shares within a year. China’s strong communist arm jeopardizes the personal data of some 170 million Americans who use the platform, including teenagers and business owners, supporters of the ban assert.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Conservative religious leaders who had been imploring Speaker Mike Johnson to back assistance for Ukraine and Israel celebrated the House of Representatives’ passage of foreign aid packages April 20, clearing the way for the measures to go to the Senate.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, was among those lobbying Johnson—himself a Southern Baptist—on behalf of Baptists in Ukraine and the United States concerned about the plight of Ukrainian Christians.

“That is why we asked Speaker Johnson and congressional leaders to come together to meet the challenges of this moment,” Leatherwood said in a statement to Religion News Service. 

“In the House passage of bills relating to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the Speaker sent a strong message to autocrats and terrorists alike that our nation will take a stand to support vulnerable lives and oppose the tyrants who threaten them.”

The push on Ukraine included an April 17 meeting between Johnson, Pavlo Unguryan—an evangelical and political leader from Ukraine—and a Ukrainian citizen whose wife and child were killed in a March attack on Odesa.

Praise for Johnson’s efforts

Gary Marx, president of the new coalition Defenders of Faith and Religious Freedom in Ukraine and former executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, praised the House leader’s “courage and his willingness to listen to the cries of Ukraine’s faithful.” 

In the same statement posted on social media, he added, “As we celebrate this victory, we recognize that there is still more work to be done.”

On April 18, Marx had written to Johnson on behalf of the coalition seeking congressional support for Ukrainian Christians. The letter also was signed by Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator and chairman of Patriot Voices, and Adam Hamilton, a prominent United Methodist pastor in Kansas, among more than a dozen other faith leaders.

“We are pained and shocked by the widespread, vicious persecution of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine by Russian forces,” reads the letter. “Russia is waging a war against Evangelical and Protestant Christians at a scale likened to ‘cultural genocide.’ These Christians are being persecuted, harassed, intimidated, imprisoned, tortured, mutilated, and killed—simply for worshipping God as they see fit.”

Other leaders of political groups that largely represent evangelical Christians pressured Johnson to shepherd support for Israel through a Congress with contingents on the right and left opposing the aid package. Twenty-one Republicans joined 37 Democrats in voting against the Israel aid bill.

In a virtual press conference organized by Johnson’s staff as the House prepared to vote, Sandra Hagee Parker, chair of the Christians United for Israel Action Fund, lauded the speaker, praising his “fortitude” in pushing for the “vital issue” of Israel aid.

“The enemies of America are watching and waiting to see what America does, and we should do everything in our power to have Israel’s back,” Parker said. 

She echoed Johnson’s remark that Russia, China and Iran constitute a new “axis of evil,” hearkening back to former President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in which he called out Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Anyone who doubts that the three states are mounting a “united front against the enemies of the West is simply sticking their head in the sand,” Parker said.

Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said at the press conference the United States must “rush” to Israel’s defense.

Reed suggested Johnson, despite threats from some GOP members to challenge his speakership, ultimately will be celebrated by conservative Christians if the bills are passed.

“We must never waver, and once this bill passes and it gets to the president’s desk and it’s signed, Speaker Mike Johnson will get a lot of credit for moving through a minefield to get this done,” Reed said.

A more diverse group of a dozen religious leaders who had been seeking support for the people of Gaza sent Johnson a note of thanks for his efforts, coupled with concern about final passage of the aid they sought.

But please ensure humanitarian aid

“We, as a group of diverse faith leaders, thank you for including in the legislation you have brought before Congress life-saving humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza as well as humanitarian and refugee assistance for other areas facing wars and famine,” wrote the leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim organizations in an April 19 letter. “Please ensure that humanitarian aid is included in the bill that is passed.”

Signers of the letter included Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Bishop Vashti McKenzie, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Mary Novak, director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism; and Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network.

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (RNS)—In their own ways, Jim Wallis and Donald Trump each profess belief the Bible can save America.

Trump, who recently endorsed Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, a book that combines the King James Version with the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has characterized the Christian Scripture as both a symbol of power and a sign to his followers that their way of life is under threat.

“We must make America pray again,” the former president said in a YouTube and social media promotional video released in Holy Week.

For Wallis, the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, the Bible’s substance, not its symbolism, holds the power to address America’s ills and save democracy.

Speaking at a suburban Chicago bookstore April 8, Wallis quoted a passage from the Book of Genesis that asserts all human beings are made in God’s image. As such, he said, any attack on democracy is an attack on something holy.

Wallis agrees American democracy is in crisis and needs to be saved, but it won’t be accomplished by Americans giving in to their “worst demons” and tearing each other apart.

“We need to go deeper than politics,” he told the 20 or so people who had come out to hear him talk about his new book, The False White Gospel. The book turns to a series of biblical stories—from Genesis’ creation account to the parable of the good Samaritan—largely calling to end the polarization and fear that divide the country.

Despite the decline of organized religion, faith and politics still make a volatile combination in a country where the Republican candidate, a thrice-divorced former reality TV star with a history of sexual misconduct, is running as a defender of the Christian faith.

That fact was apparent in the past few weeks as Wallis’ book tour has taken him to cable news shows, yielding segments remarkable for their ardent questions about the meaning of Christianity, not from the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, but from his hosts.

The day after Easter, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” expressed exasperation as he asked Wallis about Trump’s followers: “Why do they have to embrace a failed reality TV host and take him on as the other Jesus, their new savior?”

Joy Reid, host of “The ReidOut,” another MSNBC show, called Trump’s Bible pitch blasphemy. “To Donald Trump, a Bible is no more sacred than a Trump board game. Or Trump water. It’s just another cheap tchotchke to sell to his followers.”

Amanda Henderson, director of the Institute for Religion, Politics & Culture at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and host of the “Complexified” podcast, said Trump is one of a long line of politicians and leaders in history who understand the power of religion as political tool.

“At a time when so many people feel a sense of loneliness or disconnection, he is tapping into the desire we all have to be part of something bigger,” she said. “We can’t dismiss that underlying need that people have to feel a sense of connection and belonging and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Even as some religious leaders oppose Trump’s use of faith, said Henderson, they can’t afford to cede the discussion of faith to the candidate. The outrage expressed by Reid, Scarborough and others shows the debate has spread beyond clergy to liberal Christians in the media and other sectors.

Civil religion promoted in mid-20th century

Brian Kaylor, author of Baptizing America, said mainline Protestants’ role in promoting “God and country” patriotism in the mid-20th century has resulted in religion becoming one more thing tearing the country apart today.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans rallied to a broad, consensual civil religion, reflected in the adoption of “In God We Trust” as the national motto and to add “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, Kaylor said.

When translators of one of the most popular English translations of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version, finished their work after 15 years on the job, Kaylor pointed out, they presented President Harry Truman with a commemorative copy of the new translation in a Rose Garden ceremony.

At the time, 90 percent of Americans were Christians and largely viewed religion in a positive light, Kaylor said. Today, 80 percent of Americans say religion’s influence is on the decline, according to a new poll, while more than half of Americans rarely or never darken a church door.

“Civil religion worked in the 1950s and 1960s,” said Kaylor. “It no longer works today.”

Weaponized ‘God and country’

Calvin University history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez said the “God Bless the USA Bible” is an attempt to fire up those who remain devoted, though even the number of evangelical Christians is declining.

Trump is “going to need every one of those evangelical votes,” Du Mez said.

But Trump may be appealing to “comfort food Christian nationalism,” a version of “God and country” patriotism familiar to older Christian voters who remember the heyday of civil religion.

“It was this more inclusive kind of Christian America—though if you weren’t Christian, you just had to be quiet and go along,” Du Mez said.

In Trump’s hands, that idea has been turned into a weapon, with his Christian followers portrayed as the “real Americans” pitted against not only non-Christians but Christians who don’t share their political views.

“You are either for us or against us,” said Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne.

In this sense, Trump is trying to turn a bygone Christian consensus into a source of power, a message he made plain earlier this year at a meeting of evangelical Christian broadcasters in Nashville, Tenn., telling them, “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.”

Defending democracy or undermining it?

Tobin Miller Shearer, a professor of history at the University of Montana, points out civil religion appealed to faith in defense of democracy. Trump, Shearer argued in a recent essay, is instead using God to motivate people to undermine democracy.

“Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election, the switch from historical claims of divine authority for democracy to divine authority to challenge democracy is already obvious and apparent,” he said.

Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, author of One Nation Under God, a study of Eisenhower-era “God and country” politics, said some of Trump’s supporters may still recall that earlier version of civil religion and long for that era, even if the former president has a different goal in mind.

When they hear “One nation, under God,” that means “We are all in this together,” Kruse said. “Not—if you don’t toe the line, you are out.”

Viewing Trump as ‘champion’ for evangelicals

Those who see Christianity as important to many Americans are exasperated at the gap between those teachings and the rise of Trump, said NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon, even those who don’t embrace the Bible or Christianity but know its teachings.

McCammon, whose book The Exvangelicals was prompted by her experiences covering Trump’s 2016 campaign and his surprising hold on evangelicals, said she often gets asked, “How can Christian people think that this is what Christianity is all about?”

“I don’t think most white evangelicals are supporting Trump because they think he’s a devout Christian,” she said. “It’s not because they think Trump is one of them. It’s because they think he will be a champion for them. That distinction is really critical.”

 Even if many Americans no longer read the Bible—Trump’s endorsed version or any other—Christianity still is embedded for many in what it means to be an American. And it remains a force in American culture, McCammon said.

“Flannery O’Connor talked about how Christ-haunted the South was,” she said, referring to the mid-20th-century author from Georgia. “In a way, Christ has haunted America. We can’t get away from that history.”

For his part, Wallis said he still is hopeful about America’s future. During his bookstore talk, he spoke of the short-term goal of saving democracy. But the bigger goal, he said, is to transform the nation into the kind of inclusive community Christians—and all Americans—can share.

Hope is needed to make that possible, he said, turning to the New Testament Book of Hebrews. Faith, he said in quoting that book, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A group of Christian pastors, theologians and scholars signed a declaration committing the signers to preaching on “real moral issues” ahead of the 2024 election and opposing what the group calls “religious nationalism.”

The document defines religious nationalism as a political movement it says is exploiting “traditional values” to undermine democracy.

“This distorted religious nationalism has persuaded many well-meaning Christians to focus on a narrow set of divisive cultural wedge issues while ignoring the real moral issues that are at the heart of our Scriptures and tradition,” the declaration reads.

The New Haven Declaration of Moral & Spiritual Issues in the 2024 Presidential Election is one of the outcomes of Yale Divinity School’s first Public Theology and Public Policy Conference, which concluded April 9.

The declaration states “we love this nation,” before taking on what it describes as a “political movement (that) has co-opted our faith tradition.”

“We repent of not doing more to preach and teach against this misuse of our faith, and we pledge to proclaim in word and deed a public theology that is good news for all people,” it reads.

The declaration then calls on pastors to launch “a season of preaching the moral issues of living wages and union rights, healthcare and ecological justice,” among other issues.

Address inequality and injustice

William J. Barber II, founding director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, said he hoped the conference helped educate pastors about the issues the Bible prioritizes—societal inequality and injustice.

“The very things that the prophets and that Jesus put at the center as primary are not being heard in the pews in this country,” Barber said. “And that is a deficit that we believe is a form of pastoral malpractice.”

Barber, noted for his anti-poverty activism, retired from the pulpit of his Goldsboro, N.C., church last year to devote his time to training future pastors.

He may be best known for organizing the Moral Mondays movement as a protest against cuts to unemployment benefits, health care funding and voting rights in his home state. In February, he met with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about issues surrounding the plight of the poor.

Among the initial signers of the declaration are Pastor Jacqui Lewis of New York City’s historic Middle Church; Shane Claiborne, an activist with the Red Letter Christians; Bishop Yvette Flunder of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries; and Willie James Jennings, a Yale Divinity School professor and theologian.

Another signer, Teresa Hord Owens, president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who attended the conference, said she would encourage pastors in her denomination of 3,000 congregations to sign the declaration as well.

“I think as Christians we have to really understand what the roots of our tradition are and not allow those things to be distorted or misused for purposes that really fly in the face of what we believe,” Owens said.

She said she believed voter apathy is the result of political candidates not addressing the issues that are important to so many people, such as jobs, wages and economic anxiety.

The conference featured a range of academic experts on Christian nationalism, including Philip Gorski and Anthea Butler. Participants also were invited to watch a new documentary on the rise of Christian nationalism called “Bad Faith.”

But the bulk of the conference was devoted to helping pastors and other Christian leaders better understand the issues Barber cares about most—poverty, racism, voting rights, criminal justice, health care.

“Christian nationalism glorifies hating, almost disdaining, others when our Christian teaching from Scripture calls us to embrace our neighbor and it doesn’t decide who our neighbor is,” Barber said. “It calls us to love everyone with the love of God.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s injunction on the state’s near-total abortion ban, giving another win to those who say the ban ignores their religious beliefs about when human life begins.

In her majority opinion, issued April 4, Judge Leanna K. Weissmann argued the injunction was necessary to protect the religious freedom of those seeking an abortion, and it allowed the case to proceed as a class-action lawsuit.

“Without a preliminary injunction, Plaintiffs will suffer the loss of their right to exercise their sincere religious beliefs by obtaining an abortion when directed by their religion and prohibited by the Abortion Law,” Weissmann wrote.

In utilizing Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect the right to an abortion, the plaintiffs in the case are seeking to reverse the political history of the law. Its passage in 2015, which was backed by conservative religious leaders, then spurred outcry from more liberal-leaning religious groups.

The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of five anonymous residents and Hoosier Jews for Choice opposing a state law passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

ACLU lawyers argued Indiana’s ban violates the state’s RFRA, a measure focused on religious liberty that was signed into law in 2015 by then-Gov. Mike Pence.

In a concurring opinion, Judge L. Mark Bailey suggested the abortion ban effectively privileged one form of faith over others by siding with a specific definition of when life begins.

“In accordance with abundant religious liberty and the recognition of a pluralistic society, our Constitution further provides: ‘No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship,’” Bailey wrote. “Yet in this post-Dobbs world, our Legislature has done just that—preferred one creed over another.”

The lawsuit noted that, under Jewish law, “a fetus attains the status of a living person only at birth,” and that abortions “may occur, and should occur as a religious matter, under circumstances not allowed” under the state’s abortion ban.

It went on to note that various other religious groups—Muslims, Unitarian Universalists and Episcopalians, among others—also hold religious beliefs about abortion impacted by the abortion ban.

Legal challenges to state abortion bans filed

The case is one of several religious liberty-related legal challenges to state-level abortion bans filed across the country after the Dobbs decision overturned the decades-long national right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade.

From Kentucky to Florida to Missouri, leaders from an array of religious backgrounds have argued their faiths allow or even encourage access to abortion.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited the spectrum of religious thought regarding abortion during oral arguments over Dobbs, saying, “The issue of when life begins has been hotly debated by philosophers since the beginning of time—it’s still debated in religions.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed an amicus brief in the case, celebrated the court’s decision.

“The court rightly found that Indiana’s abortion ban cannot override religious freedom protections in Indiana law,” Americans United CEO Rachel Laser said. “As we told the court, abortion bans undermine religious freedom by imposing one religious viewpoint on all of us. Abortion bans are a direct attack on the separation of church and state.”