Sounds of roaring electric saws and clanging hammers reverberate outdoors across Christian campgrounds courtesy of hardworking Texans on Mission Camp Builders volunteers.

Indoors, different sounds are heard. They are the whirs of sewing machines, snips of scissors and laughter from a group of friends serving God in a remarkable way.

The “ladies of Camp Builders” are wives who accompany their husbands on monthly Camp Builders projects. While their spouses unload construction tools from the Texans on Mission trailer, the women unload sewing equipment and bins upon bins of donated fabric and supplies.

When the sun rises each morning—after a hearty breakfast and devotional time together— volunteers head to their projects, eager to use their time and talents to make an eternal impact for God’s kingdom.

A sewing room is set up in an available space—often in a cabin’s common space or an old storage room. In the sewing room, the ladies tackle as many projects as possible. The priority lies in what the camp needs, which can include curtains for cabins, seat cushions, food covers and even bean bags for cornhole games.

The women make skirts and shorts for various ministries; quilts and baby hats for pregnancy centers; and fidget quilts for children with special needs and nursing home residents, among many other projects.

Veteran sewer 88-year-old Joan Tucker finds great joy in embroidering special designs for her quilts, bringing a personal touch to each pattern. She and her husband Earl have volunteered for 20 years.

“When we started, we were one of the youngest couples. Now, we’re one of the oldest,” Tucker said with a chuckle.

When it comes to retirement, Tucker said, “You have to stay busy, or else you’ll just sit in a rocking chair until you fade away.”

When volunteer Nancy Morgan retired from 42 years of nursing in 2017, she yearned to serve others behind the scenes.

“It’s fun to sew together with a group of women and have fellowship together, but the end goal is to further the kingdom of God,” Morgan said, noting that the ladies pray over every completed item before it’s sent to its final destination.

While some volunteers join the crew with a prior knowledge of sewing and needlework, many have little to no experience, yet all find a task to do.

“We have plenty of places for people to work,” said Beverly Quinn, coordinator for the ladies of Camp Builders. “There are always things to cut out. There’s always something to do for the people who don’t sew.”

In 2023 and 2024, Texans on Mission Camp Builders had more camps requesting help than they had seen for many years. Quinn said the work can be busy, but it’s time well-spent with good friends and for a great cause.

“This gives the ladies a purpose,” Quinn said. “We not only have fun together, but we pray together. I enjoy not only knowing we’re making a difference in lives here and abroad, but that we all become family.”

A Palestinian Baptist reported three Christians in Gaza have been injured in recent days, and the people were “terrified” but still reluctant to evacuate after the Israeli Defense Forces issued a warning.

Hanna Massad, former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church and founding president of Christian Mission to Gaza, sent an “urgent prayer request” email July 7.

“The people in the churches in Gaza are terrified and scared,” Massad wrote. “The IDF issued a warning around 5 p.m. Gaza time, urging everyone in the area to evacuate. This typically indicates that the area may be targeted soon.

“Despite the warning, the people in the churches have chosen to stay. The explosions are very close, and the noise is extremely loud,” Massad wrote.

The Times of Israel reported the IDF on Sunday called for the evacuation of the Tuffah, Daraj and Old City neighborhoods of Gaza City. In an updated announcement Monday, the IDF urged civilians in the Sabra, Rimal, Tel al-Hawa and Daraj to evacuate and move to a designated “humanitarian zone.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported an Israeli assault Saturday on central Gaza killed at least 16 people and injured 50 others at a United Nations Relief and Work Agency school sheltering displaced people.

According to Al JaZeera, the Ministry of Health on Monday reported Israeli attacks across Gaza resulted in at least 40 deaths in one day, bringing the total number of fatalities in Gaza to 38,193 since Oct. 7, 2023, with 87,903 wounded.

In an email to supporters of his ministry, Massad wrote, “Please pray for continued protection for all, for God to raise peacemakers in the region to take action, and for this nightmare to end.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry was asked to defend his support for a new state law requiring public schools to display a version of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, he made sure to touch on the bill’s obvious religious connections.

“This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and every time we steer away from that, we have problems in our nation,” Landry, a Catholic, said during an interview with Fox News.

But just a few days later, Christian ministers—along with an array of religious leaders and parents of various faiths—filed a lawsuit against the new statute, backed by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and offices of the ACLU.

“As a minister, this law is a gross intrusion of civil authority into matters of faith,” Jeff Sims, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and plaintiff in the case, said in a press conference about the lawsuit. “It interferes with the administration of God’s word, co-ops the word for the state’s own purposes, or claims God’s authority for the state.”

The back-and-forth is part of a broader fight raging across the country, with conservative state lawmakers—often backed by conservative Christians—pushing faith-focused laws and running into opposition from other religious people and their secular allies.

At least 19 states consider bills to advance religion

Over the past two years, at least 19 states have considered legislation advancing religion, including bills promoting the display or discussion of the Ten Commandments in schools and those allowing for school chaplains.

Three states—Louisiana, Utah and Arizona—passed Ten Commandments legislation, although Arizona’s governor vetoed the bill, and Utah’s Legislature walked back their initial proposal, with lawmakers ultimately only adding the decalogue to a list of historic documents that can be discussed in class.

In addition, Louisiana recently joined two other states—Texas and Florida—that passed laws allowing for chaplains in public school.

At least one state has achieved similar aims by circumventing the legislative process altogether. Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Education Ryan Walters issued a directive requiring schools to “incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support,” and has said teachers who fail to teach students about the Scripture could risk losing their license.

“We’re proud to be the first state to put the Bible back in school classrooms,” Walters said in an interview with News Nation.

Some faith leaders push back

Religious leaders in the state were quick to push back against the directive, however, with one pastor from the more socially liberal United Church of Christ denomination posting, “Public schools are not Sunday schools,” according to KFOR.

Rachel Laser, head of Americans United, told KFOR her group is mulling a legal challenge like the one they helped file in Louisiana, while Jewish leaders, Muslim leaders and a local Methodist bishop spoke out.

“United Methodists believe that the state should not attempt to control the church, nor should the church seek to dominate the state,” United Methodist Church Bishop James Nunn told KOCO in a statement. “We endorse public policies that do not create unconstitutional entanglements between church and state.”

While there are some differences, many of the bills share common traits or even language. Most of the bills advocating for displaying the Ten Commandments use a translation of the decalogue derived from the King James Version of the Bible, a translation that is not embraced by all Christians, much less Jewish Americans or those of other faiths.

In fact, the text is slightly different from the KJV and has a particular history. It is the version compiled by the Fraternal Order of Eagles used to help promote the 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments.”

The same version was also used on a Ten Commandments monument that sits outside the Texas State Capitol. Despite a legal challenge, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the monument is allowed to stand because of its “passive” nature.

Bills pushing school chaplains also share common traits, likely a byproduct of the religious groups behind them. According to The New York Times, the National Association of Christian Lawmakers—a group formed in 2020—worked with lawmakers in Florida, Louisiana and Texas to pass chaplains bills.

Opposition on religious grounds

The Texas bill was also spurred by a group of activists affiliated with the National School Chaplain Association, a group run by former drug smuggling pirate Rocky Malloy.

As debate over the Texas chaplains bill heated up last year, one Democratic lawmaker in particular—Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian—emerged as someone who opposed the bill on both legal and religious grounds.

During debate on the House floor, he expressed concerns that NSCA’s parent organization, Mission Generation, appeared to have advocated for proselytizing to children in schools.

“I see this as part of a troubling trend across the country of Christian nationalists attempting to take over our democracy and attempting to take over my religion—both of which I find deeply offensive,” Talarico told Religion News Service in an interview last year, referring to the chaplains bill and efforts to pass a Ten Commandments bill in Texas.

Republican lawmakers did not amend the chaplains bill to bar proselytizing or impose credentialing requirements for chaplains, leaving it up to individual school districts to outline parameters themselves.

The National School Chaplain Association is referenced by name in the text of Pennsylvania’s school chaplains bill, which was introduced in April. It defines a “certified school chaplain” as “an individual certified by the National School Chaplain Association or other similar organization.” The NSCA was also mentioned in committee discussions in Nebraska.

Where the chaplains bills have become law, criticism has been a constant—especially from religious groups. In March, a coalition of religious organizations signed a letter condemning efforts to install public school chaplains as “greatly flawed” and as threatening “the well-being, education, and religious freedom of our students.”

Signers of the letter included entire Christian denominations, such as the Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, United Church of Christ as well as other religious groups such as the Union for Reform Judaism and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Religious advocacy groups, such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Hindus for Human Rights, The Sikh Coalition and Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, also signed the letter.

In Texas, as school boards across the state gathered in recent months to vote on whether to allow chaplains in their regions, faith leaders regularly appeared to voice disapproval, and more than 100 chaplains signed a petition arguing religious counselors in public classrooms would be “harmful” to students.

In their letter, chaplains decried the absence of standards or training requirements for school chaplains in the bill aside from background checks. They pointed to military chaplains or those who work in health care as a point of comparison, noting requirements like extensive training and instruction on how to work across multiple faiths—conditions absent from the Texas law.

“Because of our training and experience, we know that chaplains are not a replacement for school counselors or safety measures in our public schools, and we urge you to reject this flawed policy option: It is harmful to our public schools and the students and families they serve,” the letter reads.

Proponents count on support from Supreme Court

Proponents of the new slate of faith-focused bills appear confident the courts will back them—especially the current conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry declared at a GOP fundraiser that he “can’t wait to be sued” over the state’s Ten Commandments bill.

Walters of Oklahoma—who has accused President Joe Biden, a Catholic, of wanting to destroy “our Christian faith”—told PBS he was unconcerned about legal challenges to his Bible directive because justices appointed by Donald Trump would back him.

“If we get sued and we get challenged, we will be victorious, because the Supreme Court justices (Trump) appointed actually are originalists that look at the Constitution and not what some left-wing professor said about the Constitution,” he said.

Whether or not justices would actually support the laws is unclear. Opponents of the laws point to ample Supreme Court precedent suggesting the statutes violate the constitutional prohibition against establishing a state religion.

However, at least two members of the Supreme Court—Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch—declared in a 2020 concurring opinion they believe the establishment clause only applies to the federal government, not the states.

While their viewpoint is considered fringe by many scholars, it remains to be seen if others on the court, such as Justice Amy Coney Barrett, agree.

And while some of the education bills have died in committee, such as in Nebraska, others have helped spur related legislation. Lawmakers in Indiana, for instance, dropped the chaplains bill as part of a compromise legislation that allows students to leave school for religious instruction if they request it.

But religious opponents to such laws say they are prepared to combat them. In the press conference with those suing Louisiana over its Ten Commandments law, Joshua Herlands, a Jewish parent and one of the plaintiffs in the case, laid plain what he feels the debate is ultimately about.

“The displays distort the Jewish significance of the Ten Commandments in several places and send the troubling message to students—including my kids—that they may be lesser in the eyes of the government because they do not necessarily follow this particular version, or any version, for that matter, of the religious text,” Herlands said. “The state is dividing children along religious lines.”

LAGOS, Nigeria—“You can’t share what you don’t have,” Bob Garrett reminded attendees of the 10th Baptist International Conference on Theological Education, citing the Apostle Paul’s reference to “the peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Baptists from around the world discussed peace and peacemaking during the three-day conference ahead of the 2024 Baptist World Alliance annual gathering in Lagos, Nigeria.

The conference featured panel discussions, papers and responses by Baptists from the United States, Jamaica, Rwanda, Nigeria, Israel, Germany, Ukraine and elsewhere.

“Theological education is an essential part of discipleship” and developing flourishing communities of faith, Elijah Brown, general secretary of Baptist World Alliance, told attendees.

Garrett, retired professor of missions at Dallas Baptist University, called peace a gift from God that “stands overwatch” over followers of Jesus in all circumstances.

He recounted a conversation with a church member in Kentucky during the early days of his pastoral ministry. The man knew people considered him unintelligent and sometimes took advantage of him.

“If they can live with what they’re doing to me, I can live without what they took,” the man told Garrett.

Embodying the Hebrew concept shalom—translated as “peace” or “wholeness”—is exhibited in one’s willingness to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39), Garrett said, or as Pastor Johnathan Hemmings of Jamaica put it, “to break the cycle of violence is to take violence on oneself.”

Presenters and table discussions made clear peacemaking involves more than turning the other cheek.

Peace, justice and unity

For example, Rula Khoury Mansour, a Palestinian-Israeli Christian, attorney and associate professor of reconciliation theology and Christian ethics at Nazareth Evangelical College in Nazareth, Israel, described the ritualized Middle Eastern process of sulha—translated “peace” or “reconciliation.”

Sulha involves a set of communal rituals and ceremonies: venting, or lamentation, by the victim’s family; pleas by representatives of the offender for forgiveness to restore the offender’s honor; public signing of peace agreements; a handshake, declaration of forgiveness and a ceremonial meal; and “a ‘heavy silence’ [of humility in which] the offender’s family admits wrongdoing and offers compensation, while the victim’s family forgives.”

In contrast to Western understandings of personhood, African and Middle Eastern cultures see one’s identity as wrapped up in one’s community. Therefore, reconciliation involves the whole community.

The church is a community of fellowship with rituals and practices through which “unity, forgiveness, healing and reconciliation” can be fostered, Mansour proposed.

Pressed for peace

President Israel Adelani Akanji of the Nigerian Baptist Convention and Elijah Brown addressed reporters from several Nigerian media outlets at a press conference during the Baptist International Conference on Theological Education.

“Security is the work of everyone,” not just security agents, Akanji said in response to questions about insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in the northern states. “It is not in the hands of the church to handle security. … It is part of the government’s responsibilities.

“So, ours is to continue to pray, to continue to sensitize the government, to continue to speak to the government. This occasion also is another occasion through which we are speaking to our government to ensure that we have security of life and property.”

Responding to questions about hunger, poverty, government corruption and how Baptists will make a positive difference in these situations, Brown noted the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels is the feeding of the 5,000.

“Feeding people is fundamental to understanding the ministry of Jesus, and people of the King work to feed the people of the world,” he continued.

Though Jesus led through service, “we’ve seen far too many leaders who embrace leadership as a means for consumption, that which they can consume and ways in which they can consume others. But we believe that power should be exercised in the form of righteousness, peace and joy” and grace, Brown said. Such grace emphasizes the people who are suffering, he said.

Lessons from Western decline

Speaking to questions about the decline of Christianity in places like the United States, Brown urged Nigerian Christians to learn three lessons from that decline: (1) “Hold on to your passion for evangelism,” (2) “hold to discipleship of all ages,” and (3) “work proactively to create churches of safety, respect and security for all people.”

“I urge every Nigerian church, as well as every faith institution across this country, to adopt and implement immediately policies and practices that will end domestic violence, child abuse and sexual abuse,” Brown said.

“Domestic violence, child abuse and sexual abuse is a sin. It is not a cultural issue. It is wrong, and I ask every faith institution to be at the forefront of creating communities of safety that welcomes every person into that community with policies and practices that will seek to eradicate domestic violence, child abuse and sexual abuse.”

Humanitarian action and development

The BWA International Humanitarian Action and Development Intensive Course ran concurrently with the theological education conference. Participants completing the course had the opportunity to earn a non-degree certificate from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary’s certificate program in conjunction with Buckner International and BWA Aid.

Ernest Adu-Gyamfi of Ghana was honored as an ambassador of peace in recognition of his leadership promoting political and civil peace in Ghana at the local, university and national levels.

As chair of Ghana’s National Peace Council governing board, he led in the development of the Presidential Candidate’s Peace Pact “signed by all aspiring presidential candidates to accept the outcome of the elections without pursuit of violence and to seek any desired redress within the court of law.”

CORRECTION: Nigerian Baptist Convention President Israel Adelani Akanji’s name was corrected in the article and photo caption.

Gen Z continues to present as a generation touched by hopelessness and limited opportunity as they launch into adulthood. However, some graduates of Texas Baptist universities offer a different take.

Lauren Beal graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Beal grew up in Midland, where she attended First Baptist Church and came to faith in Christ at a young age. Beal knew all the Bible stories, and when she was around 8 or 9 and all her friends and her sister were making commitments, she did, too.

“It was a real, sweet, childlike faith,” Beal said.

But in high school Beal felt challenged by a teacher who questioned students about why they went to church. She wasn’t happy with her answer that she went because her family did and it was expected of her. So, she determined to change it.

She made it her goal to work on making her faith more uniquely her own, wrestling through the rest of high school with making sure her faith was for her, not for anyone else. Her faith became about wanting to know and love God more.

Beal said she never really considered any other colleges other than Hardin-Simmons. Her sister attended HSU and had a great experience. So, she convinced her younger sister to go there, too.

Called to be a nurse

Beal currently works as a labor and delivery nurse at Hendrick Hospital in Abilene. She learned about this job while she was in nursing school doing clinical study at Hendrick Medical Center, when she was able to spend a couple of clinical days with labor and delivery.

“Your last semester of nursing school, you do something called a preceptorship, where like a month, you follow a nurse around. And I got paired with a nurse on my [current] unit,” Beal explained. She loved it. So, she applied, and they accepted her, she said.

She said she always wanted to do something in the medical field, viewing it as her calling.

“If I had to change my major, I think I would have been a little lost, because that was the only thing that really made sense for me,” Beal said.

Her faith has helped her face uncertainty, because she has total reliance that God is good, and “God’s will is going to play out no matter what happens.”

“I feel like that was kind of a hard lesson for me to learn. And over the last several years, I’ve learned that in uncertainty, the only thing I can do is just lean on God,” Beal explained.

Beal feels blessed she hasn’t experienced a lot of anxiety or depression, as many of her generation have, but she acknowledged nursing school was hard. At times, she experienced self-doubt about passing and grades.

But, she learned to rely on “the joy we have in the Lord, and just kind of leaning into that, even though you may be anxious about where you’re going,” or if she was going to pass nursing school or not. In those times, she relied on God as her greatest comforter.

At Hardin-Simmons, Beal said she learned about the importance of community in growing faith. She learned the value of being discipled and discipling others.

“That is just where I’ve seen my faith being challenged, people holding me accountable, and also getting to pour into others,” Beal said.

Her church in college emphasized community and growing together. They “poured into discipleship, home groups, and not doing faith alone,” Beal continued, saying: “I think that is the biggest way that I can nurture my faith, help it grow, is just to not do it alone.”

Being able to rely on people she trusts and looks to for wisdom to help her faith grow also is important, Beal said.

Hardin-Simmons isn’t an exceptionally large campus, Beal explained, but coming from a small private school in Midland, it was still eye-opening to encounter so many new ideas at college, having been quite sheltered where she came from.

Growing together in faith

She said finding a church home she trusted to preach truth was pivotal her freshman year in making the adjustment.

She feels lucky to be employed by a Baptist hospital where she can feel comfortable openly talking about faith at work.

“With labor and delivery, I feel like it’s most of the time happy, good, smiles and birthday parties,” Beal said. “But there’s some really hard, hard times on labor and delivery.”

So, “getting to sit and pray with my patients [provides support], because there’s only so much you can say.

“So, finding that the next thing you should say is to sit down and pray with them has been a great tool for me, as a nurse,” Beal said.

Beal was involved in Baptist Student Ministry at Hardin-Simmons, but she feels her biggest growth in college took place through her home group at the church she attended. She was introduced to the church through a church fair on campus, she said.

For Beal, the best thing about HSU was the people. She said she met so many great people who are lifelong friends. She joined a social club, “which is kind of like a sorority.” And she met all her current best friends in college.

“There’s just good people there,” she continued.

One person she is especially thankful to have met there is her husband Daniel. They love HSU and find it “really sweet and special” that they met there, she said.

He is a youth pastor at Beltway Baptist Church, at its north campus. She acknowledged youth ministers tend to move around a little bit, but it is their hope to stay in Abilene for as long as they are able.

For more on Texas Baptist Gen Zs, check out Cynthia Montalvo and Sarah Potts’ stories.

(RNS)—The California Southern Baptist announced it had cut six staff jobs, citing an ongoing decline in giving.

Donations to the state’s Cooperative Program, which funds national, international and state-specific ministries, fell short by $170,000 in the current fiscal year. That 7 percent shortfall is part of an ongoing decline in giving, according to Baptist Press.

State Baptist officials have drawn on reserves to cover shortfalls over the past three years. The staff cuts, including four layoffs and two voluntary retirements, mean the state convention will not need to draw on reserves—as long as giving does not decline.

“The stewardship that God has given me as the executive director in assuring we continue to have a healthy and sustainable future is a heavy burden,” Pete Ramirez, the state convention’s executive director said, according to Baptist Press.

Giving overall to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program is down just under 2 percent in the current fiscal year. The SBC’s annual budget called for $148 million in donations to be given to national and international causes, but actual giving to date is $145.4 million, according to a recent report posted by the SBC’s Executive Committee.

The SBC Cooperative Program, which turns 100 years old in 2025, is one of the nation’s most successful religious charitable programs, having raised more than $20 billion since its inception. Those funds pay for overseas missions, new church starts, seminary education, disaster relief and other programs.

Cooperative Program giving declines

But giving to the program has declined in recent decades. Southern Baptist churches give less than 5 percent of their income to the Cooperative Program, down from 10 percent in the 1980s. And less than 60 percent of SBC churches give to the program, down from three-quarters in the early 2000s.

The denomination also has lost more than 3 million members since 2006 and has faced a sexual abuse crisis and debates over the role of women in church leadership. The denomination’s Executive Committee also spent several years dealing with leadership turmoil before electing a new permanent leader this spring.

In 2023, the SBC expelled Saddleback Church in Southern California, one of its largest congregations, after the church ordained several women as pastors. At the time, Saddleback was giving $100,000 annually to the Cooperative Program.

It’s unclear whether Saddleback remains a member of the California Baptist Convention, or if the congregation still gives to the convention. In either case, the shortfalls in California predate Saddleback’s removal from the SBC.

It’s also unclear if other states also are experiencing Cooperative Program shortfalls. Most of those conventions will hold their annual meetings in the fall. A 2023 report from Baptist Press found Colorado, Minnesota-Wisconsin and New Mexico conventions also reduced their giving to the program.

The recent Executive Committee report showed giving remained down in Colorado. However, Mike Proud, that state’s executive director, said that is not the case.

“[Cooperative Progam] giving is actually up in Colorado there may be some delays related to getting that money to the [Executive Committee],” he told RNS in an email. “But our giving through June of 2024 is actually up by 2 percent over last year.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, a novel legal strategy emerged for challenging new state abortion bans. It argued near-total bans infringe on religious freedom by imposing a Christian understanding of when life begins.

In recent days, that strategy took a beating in the courts.

Kentucky judge says women lack standing

On June 28, a Kentucky judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by three Jewish mothers who argued the state’s near-total abortion ban violated their religious freedom.

Among their claims, the women argued the abortion ban violated Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which states the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s freedom of religion.” They asserted their Jewish faith allows for abortion and in some cases requires it.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Brian Edwards said the group of women lacked standing to bring the case because they were not pregnant and therefore suffered no injury by the law.

When life begins not necessarily a religious belief

In another case earlier in June, a Missouri judge rejected a clergy-led effort to halt the state’s near-total abortion ban. A coalition of 14 Christian, Jewish and Unitarian leaders argued some religions require access to an abortion and said a Missouri law imposes the beliefs of one religious tradition on others—a direct attack on freedom of religion.

St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser wrote: “While the determination that life begins at conception may run counter to some religious beliefs, it is not itself necessarily a religious belief.”

But advocates argue the religious freedom argument is not yet dead.

In both the Missouri and Kentucky cases, appeals are planned.

“We are in the middle of a long, drawn-out twilight struggle, and the steps that we’re taking are the first steps in a very long journey,” said Ben Potash, one of the lawyers who filed the Kentucky complaint and is now working on an appeal.

Kentucky Jewish women need IVF

In Kentucky, Potash pointed out, the judge didn’t even rule on the merits of the case, dismissing it on the basis of standing, or whether the plaintiffs had cause to bring suit in court. The judge found the alleged injuries in the women’s case were hypothetical.

Potash said the appeal will argue the three Jewish women’s standing is not hypothetical. All three women require in-vitro fertilization to become pregnant. However, they are afraid of beginning the procedure without greater clarity about what the law will permit them to do with excess frozen embryos, or whether they would be required to continue carrying implanted embryos that are determined to be not viable. The three women argued having more children is a religious obligation.

“This ruling ignores critical issues central to our case, which impact many individuals and families across our state,” the three women—Lisa Sobel, Jessica Kalb and Sarah Baron—said.

“Our lawsuit seeks clarity on Kentucky’s complex and conflicting anti-abortion laws, spanning over 80 pages and written over the past 50 years. These laws affect families using assistive reproductive technologies like IVF, creating legal uncertainties that are emotionally and financially burdensome.”

Religious freedom argument still relatively new

In the Missouri case, the judge acknowledged the difficulty of settling the question of whether “life begins at conception” is a religious belief.

That creates an opening for appealing the case. Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which brought the case on behalf of 14 Missouri clergy, said the religious freedom argument is still relatively new.

“We are pioneers when it comes to making this argument today before courts,” said Laser. “Don’t forget that for nearly 50 years, the right to abortion was settled law under the right to privacy, so we didn’t need to make these arguments at the same time, even though they were also true.”

There was one bright spot in the religious freedom arguments. In April, an Indiana Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a challenge brought by Hoosier Jews for Choice, four anonymous women who allege the state’s abortion ban infringes on their religious beliefs and therefore violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The court sent a preliminary injunction back to a trial court for a narrower take.

“We have a long road ahead, and we’re going to stay the course in Kentucky along with Indiana, Missouri, Florida and anyone else who wants to join us,” said Potash. “We are going to continue to fight until we win.”

EL PASO (RNS)—An El Paso district court judge ruled Attorney General Ken Paxton violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable government searches and seizures, in his targeting of Annunciation House, a network of nonprofit Catholic migrant shelters.

“The record before this Court makes clear that the Texas Attorney General’s use of the request to examine documents from Annunciation House was a pretext to justify its harassment of Annunciation House employees and the persons seeking refuge,” the judge, Francisco Dominguez, wrote.

El Paso-based Annunciation House filed suit and sought a restraining order against the attorney general’s office shortly after the office visited Annunciation House on Feb. 7 and demanded documents from the nonprofit, including identifying information about its clients. In response, Paxton filed his own lawsuit attempting to shut the shelters down.

The Associated Press reported Paxton also has targeted other nonprofits that support migrants, filing suit against Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley to seek its testimony.

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley is led by Sister Norma Pimentel, the 2018 winner of the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal and one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.

In a Feb. 20 press release announcing the lawsuit against Annunciation House, Paxton’s office said it had “reviewed significant public record information strongly suggesting Annunciation House is engaged in legal violations such as facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house.”

Paxton’s legal strategy follows years of accusations against Catholic Charities. In 2022, Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden sent a letter to the national headquarters of Catholic Charities requesting significant background about the nonprofit’s work with migrants.

“It is irresponsible for Catholic Charities to fuel illegal immigration by encouraging, transporting, and harboring aliens to come to, enter, or reside in the United States,” the congressman wrote.

Paxton’s office did not respond to an email from Religion News Service inquiring whether the ruling in the Annunciation House case would impact the attorney general’s legal strategy regarding Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

Judge denies attempt to shut down Annunciation House

Dominguez’s first ruling allows Annunciation House to ask the court to review any further subpoenas from Paxton.

In a second ruling, Dominguez denied Paxton’s attempt to shut down Annunciation House. The ruling stated the attorney general’s legal strategy “violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening Annunciation House’s free exercise of religion and failing to use the ‘least restrictive means’ of securing compliance with the law.”

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz repeatedly had drawn attention to the case as a violation of religious liberty. In the wake of the ruling, Seitz called the decision “an important moment for religious freedom and a recognition of the important role that faith communities play in helping our nation lead with compassion and humanity in meeting the challenges of migration at the border.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our federal and state partners in identifying solutions to our broken system of immigration, working for reform and addressing the growing humanitarian crisis of deaths at the border,” Seitz wrote.

Dominguez, a Democrat, wrote that Paxton, a Republican, is “the top law enforcement officer in the State of Texas,” and, as such, “has a duty to uphold all laws, not just selectively interpret or misuse those that can be manipulated to advance his own personal beliefs or political agenda.”

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization supporting migrants in the border area around El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “When Paxton attacked Annunciation House, he attacked a resilient and strong El Paso border community, religious freedom and humanitarian aid.”

Paxton “may appeal, but he’s ultimately on the losing side of faith, love and compassion,” Corbett wrote.

When a group from Crosspoint Church in McKinney recently traveled with Proclaim Cuba to minister in that Caribbean country, they took with them water filters provided by Texans on Mission.

“I wanted to personally thank you for the donation of the filters,” Curt Neal, a member of the team, wrote to Mitch Chapman, director of Texans on Mission Water Impact. “You can only imagine the excitement from our Cuban pastors as we turned dark murky water into clear and very drinkable water, which I personally demonstrated.”

The team took about 20 bucket filters and 10 tap filters to churches in central Cuba, the project report said. “We gave several bucket filters to these rural churches. The tap filters were given to the churches that had running tap water.”

The water is “notoriously undrinkable throughout Cuba and especially in rural areas,” the report said. The filters are expected to improve the water for more than 250 people.

Andrew Wischmeyer, director of development for Proclaim Cuba, said the water problems are related to “drought, an aging infrastructure, bacteria in the cisterns.”

One of the pastors expressed his thanks for the filters in a video, saying, “The water filters will be a blessing for all of us, and in our churches, they are very, very useful.”

He spoke of the darkness of the tap water and how, when his own grandchildren came to America, a hospital discovered lead in their blood. A team tested their water supply in North Carolina, which proved to be free of lead. It was determined they had contracted the lead in Cuba.

“Our pipes are very old, so there’s a lot of heavy metals in it and a lot of people keep getting sick in their kidneys because of the poor quality of water,” the pastor said. Despite efforts by the government to improve the water, it remains “very dirty with very poor quality.”

Neal said the “filters supplied are capable of supplying 100,000 gallons of clean drinking water when properly maintained.”

 “We all know clean water is vital to sustain our physical lives,” Wischmeyer said. “When we offer clean water in Cuban communities through the Sawyer filters, provided by Texans on Mission, it opens the door for the churches to share about the hope of ‘living water’ offered by Christ, which sustains our spiritual lives and gives hope to all of us in this life and the life to come. Keep the water flowing.”

FORT WORTH (RNS)—Robert Morris, former senior pastor of the nondenominational Gateway Church in Southlake, resigned two weeks ago after Cindy Clemishire accused him of molesting her for four years, beginning when she was 12.

The case has prompted calls for reforms not only in the church but at the state Capitol.

“These actions demand public exposure, should never be tolerated, and any person who harms a child should and must be held accountable,” said Texas state Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican whose district neighbors Southlake.

“I will continue to speak the truth regardless of who it affects, and I will continue to advocate for legislation that protects children from abuse.”

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a conservative Christian who chairs the powerful Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, told the political newsletter Quorum Report he plans to hold hearings and consider all remedies, including changing statutes of limitation in such cases.

“The Texas Legislature must improve our laws protecting and ensuring justice for victims of childhood sexual abuse, including substantially strengthening our criminal and civil statutes of limitation,” Leach said.

“We should be leading in this area. As the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a longtime advocate for victims and their families, I intend to continue to do just that.”

Morris, 62, became a political force as well as a spiritual leader in North Texas after founding Gateway in Southlake in 2000.

Last year, Lifeway Research in conjunction with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research listed the church as the ninth largest in the United States—and one of the fastest growing, with about 25,000 worshippers attending every Sunday on 10 campuses in Texas and Wyoming.

Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board during his 2016 presidential campaign, and in 2021, Morris was part of an initiative to energize conservatives ahead of Trump’s 2024 run for president.

Trump visited the church in 2020, during his failed reelection bid. In 2017, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott enlisted Morris to support his push for a bill restricting access to bathrooms for transgender children.

Morris publicly acknowledged his involvement with a young woman two days after Clemishire made her accusations.

“When I was in my early 20s, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying,” Morris told The Christian Post after the allegations first were reported by The Wartburg Watch, a website focused on abuse in the church.

Morris said he had confessed and repented of the sin in 1987. Gateway acknowledged in a statement that he confessed to “a moral failure he had over 35 years ago,” but church leaders said they had no idea the person involved was a child.

Clemishire has disputed that claim, saying a church leader responded to an email she sent in 2005 informing them of her age. A transcript later came to light in which Morris discussed making a payment to Clemishire in restitution.

Ramifications

The church announced on social media it had hired a law firm, Haynes and Boone, to “conduct an independent and comprehensive inquiry related to the recent events.”

At the firm’s recommendation, Gateway’s new pastor, Robert Morris’ son James, temporarily has stepped aside to avoid conflicts of interest. It also recommended that Kevin Grove, Steve Dulin and Gayland Lawshe, who served as elders from 2005 to 2007, take temporary leaves of absence.

The church said the temporary leaves do not mean they knew of the allegations, and Grove and Lawshe remain employees of Gateway—Grove as the executive global pastor and Lawshe as the network pastor.

Gateway remains one of two closely related powerful nondenominational churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The other is Gateway’s church plant, Mercy Culture, where Schatzline was once a pastor. Both churches have drawn attention for their outspoken support of local political candidates and opposition to restrictions on politicking by tax-exempt organizations under the federal measure known as the Johnson Amendment.

“Both have toyed with Johnson Amendment restrictions by listing the names of church members running for political office during church services,” said David Brockman, a nonresident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“Morris did so in 2023 when he displayed a list of local school board candidates who are members of Gateway-affiliated churches.

“Morris also voices two complaints commonly voiced by Christian nationalists—the prohibition on official school prayer and the legalization of abortion—as signs of America’s departure from the intent of the Founders and descent into sin,” Brockman added.

He cited a 2023 sermon in which Morris claimed that “America was founded—and you can look it up—William Bradford stood on Plymouth Rock and said we found this nation for the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

With the allegations, Morris’ impact on politics has shifted. Leach told a local NBC news affiliate he would focus on extending the civil statute of limitations, limiting nondisclosure agreements and adding penalties for mandatory reporters who don’t report suspected abuse.

“As a born-again believer, I love the bride of Christ,” he said. “I want to protect the church. But the church in many cases like in the case of the pulpit at Gateway has been defiled. We ought to be stepping up and turning over tables and protecting victims.”

He was joined by Rep. Steve Toth of The Woodlands, near Houston, who chairs the Texas Prayer Caucus, part of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation’s American Prayer Caucus Network.

Toth told a local ABC affiliate he was furious about the accusations and wants to increase penalties in sex crime cases against children and require church board members to be mandatory reporters. Texas’ mandatory reporting requirement currently applies in churches to certain clergy members.

“We want to bring total clarity to the fact that you do this stuff, you cover up, and there’s going to be criminal and civil consequences,” he said. “The civil consequences can include lawsuits of hundreds of thousands of dollars and wipe you out.”

That includes board members, who he said should be sued.

The next Texas legislative session begins in January.

Wayland Baptist University entered a new chapter July 1 with the arrival of Donna Hedgepath, as the university’s 14th president. She is the first woman to lead the 115-year-old institution. Hedgepath joins Wayland from Campbellsville University in Kentucky, where she served as provost and was instrumental in driving significant enrollment growth at the multi-campus Baptist university. As president, Hedgepath is eager to collaborate with faculty, staff, students and alumni, stating: “Collectively, we can move this university forward.” She has prioritized student success, development and service, emphasizing cooperation and forward-thinking strategies. Hedgepath expressed enthusiasm about becoming an active member of the Plainview community, noting she is eager to contribute and engage with business and church leaders.

Howard Payne University recently appointed Wade Ashby as dean of online education and associate professor and chair of the department of computer information systems. In his new role, Ashby will help provide tools and training for HPU faculty to offer high quality online instruction. He will advocate, facilitate and lead HPU in offering quality, flexible degrees targeted at adult learners who are seeking continuing education or a career change. He will support the academic programs at HPU to develop online programs and courses as needed to fulfill the university’s mission of impactful Christian education. Ashby previously served at Hardin-Simmons University for 20 years, where he taught computer science and directed the online bachelor’s degree in business administration. Ashby completed his Ph.D. from Northcentral University in May. He also holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech with a focus of interactive intelligence and an M.Div. in pastoral ministry from Logsdon Seminary at HSU.

Hardin-Simmons University has been designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The designation is granted to universities by the U.S. Department of Education and requires a minimum of 25 percent of an institution’s full-time undergraduate students identify as Hispanic. Currently, approximately 26 percent of HSU undergraduates identify as Hispanic. Reaching HSI status has been a goal for the university since 2021 when it was recorded in the school’s strategic plan, but efforts have been in place since before then. Achieving federal recognition as an HSI will make HSU eligible to apply for a range of federal grants, strengthen institutional programs, facilities and services, and expand educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and other underrepresented populations. Moving forward, HSU will work to direct efforts and resources toward improving admission, yield and retention rates for Hispanic students andcontinue to make HSU an affordable option for all students.

Smith County officials awarded volunteers with Texans on Mission disaster relief team with a Smith County Community Hero Award, after the group helped more than 100 residents clean up their properties damaged by severe weather in late May and early June. Texans on Mission, historically called Texas Baptist Men, has worked all over Smith County for the past three weeks. Incident Commander Jim Lawton, of Waxahachie, said they received 140 work orders from people requesting help clearing downed trees on their property. Several teams have worked to complete 100 of those work orders and will complete as many more as possible before they leave Smith County. Chainsaw teams from Tyler and Athens were joined by volunteers from Katy and Pittsburg, as well as teams from Louisiana and Arkansas, he said. County Judge Neal Franklin and Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore presented the group with the award.

Baylor University will host a one-day conference Sept. 13 to consider leadership approaches and practices in a crisis-weary world. Sponsored by Truett Theological Seminary’s Program for the Future Church, participants will learn from and with nationally recognized thought leaders, to enjoy interactive panel discussions and to network with other Christian leaders—speakers include Linda A. Livingstone, Nancy Brickhouse, Sandeep Mazumder, Tiffany Hogue, Tod Bolsinger, Audrey Martin, Charlie Dates, Jovan Overshown, Jonathan Tran, Steve Wells, Coté Soerens and Don Corley. Participants also will have an opportunity to hear about Baylor’s new strategic plan and to consider best practices for guiding visioning processes in local ministry, nonprofit and business sectors. Lunch and refreshments are included in the cost of registration. Register one person for $50 or four people for $100. More information, including the registration link, can be found here.

The Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities will host OsoAble Transition to Adulthood on Oct. 10. This full-day event is tailored for adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 30 with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their parents, educators and service providers. It aims to provide valuable information about postsecondary opportunities for transition-aged youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Anniversary

Big Springs Baptist Church in Garland will celebrate 150 years on Aug. 18. Charlie Bell is pastor. A schedule of commemorative events throughout the summer can be found here.

PEARLAND—“Sin Limites/Without Limits” was the Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas meeting theme as speakers challenged Hispanic Texas Baptists to consider limitless possibilities, because they serve a God of unlimited power.

“It is not about what we have accomplished but what God accomplishes through us,” Josue Santos, pastor of Iglesia Hispana Bautista Buena Tierra in Houston, said in the annual sermon.

Santos urged Hispanic Texas Baptists to practice greater dependence on God and humbly pursue greater intimacy with God.

Johnny Tec, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Agape in San Antonio, recalled how his father, California Baptist Pastor Manuel Jesus Tec, was kidnapped in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2008. His abductors held him 13 days, demanding a $1 million ransom for his release.

Margarita Zavala de Calderón, then first lady of Mexico, learned about the pastor’s plight while attending a prayer meeting, and she urged her husband, President Felipe Calderón, to intervene. Calderón dispatched the top hostage negotiator in the Federal Police, who secured Tec’s release.

“No ransom was paid,” Johnny Tec said. “When God moves, he has no limits. Felipe Calderón didn’t know us. But God knew him.”

Preaching from the Old Testament book of Joshua, Tec recalled the time when the people of Israel were preparing to cross the Jordan to enter the Promised Land, and Joshua commanded the people to “consecrate” themselves before God.

The people obeyed, and just as he had done at the Red Sea, God parted the Jordan River and allowed the Israelites to cross on dry land.

“We must consecrate ourselves if we want God to do wonders among us,” Tec said.

Antonio Gonzales Sr., pastor of the Hispanic ministry of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, similarly called on Hispanic pastors who want to see God do the seemingly impossible in their churches to practice obedience in three areas—prayer, forgiveness and love.

During the business session of their annual meeting, Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas messengers approved a $478,353 budget for the next year, an increase of more than $28,000.

Messengers reelected Sergio Ramos, church engagement officer for Buckner International, as president; Edson Lara of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in McAllen as first vice president; and Claudia Treviño of Iglesia Bautista El Calvario in San Antonio as secretary.

They elected Fernando Rojas of Iglesia Bautista Azle Avenue in Fort Worth to his first term as second vice president.

Messengers approved as Convención Executive Board directors Eder Ibarra of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen, Sylvia Villareal of Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, Nick Holguin of Oak Ridge Baptist Church in San Antonio and Abigail Rojas of Iglesia Bautista Azle Avenue in Fort Worth.

UPDATE: After being re-elected president of Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, Sergio Ramos was appointed to lead GC2. Convención First Vice President Edson Lara is now president. Second Vice President Fernando Rojas is now first vice president. Convención’s executive board will select a new second vice president.