BJC - Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty

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📢 "Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple, America has no second-class faiths."

^^From the Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement.

No matter your religious belief – including if you choose not to practice a religion at all – each one of us is equal under the U.S. Constitution. We are opposed to attempts to elevate one faith above others or elevate religion over non-religion, ensuring that every person’s right to worship — or not — is respected and protected. Read the full statement: https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/statement

UPDATE: Amanda Tyler will be on MSNBC’s AYMAN tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET. We hope you'll tune in!

🚨NEW BOOK ALERT🚨

"How to End Christian Nationalism" releases October 22!
Preorder now!!

BJC’s Amanda Tyler wrote this book to help Christians name, dismantle, and end the dangerous ideology of Christian nationalism.

Preorders help SO MUCH to get the word out about the book.
You can preorder a copy wherever books are sold.

We can't wait to get this book in your hands 🙌
https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506498287/How-to-End-Christian-Nationalism

We congratulate BJC's Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons on his new position as Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy with Interfaith Alliance and look forward to working with him in this capacity.

We are super excited to welcome Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons to the Interfaith Alliance team!

Guthrie is one of the country’s top advocates and experts working at the intersection of religion, politics and policy, most recently at BJC - Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, where he helped lead the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.

Long before most Americans had heard of Christian nationalism or Project 2025, Guthrie was already a major voice warning of and educating about these threats. At a pivotal moment in our country’s history, he will be a powerful advocate for our movement on behalf of true religious freedom, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, and healthy, inclusive democracy.

Read the full announcement here:
https://interfaithalliance.org/guthrie-graves-fitzsimmons-joins-interfaith-alliance-as-senior-director-of-policy-and-advocacy/

At BJC, we are advocating against the proposed Bible-infused curriculum for Texas public schools.

Why?

Because the state has no business mandating religious instruction for children in state-funded schools. Religious instruction should clearly be separated from government-funded activities.

Read more in this article from Baptist News Global: https://baptistnews.com/article/proposed-new-texas-school-curriculum-infused-with-bible-stories

At BJC, our commitment to “being Baptist” in the best sense of our tradition can be helpful to our pluralistic democracy. As Baptists, we are guided by the “Four Fragile Freedoms”: Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom and religious freedom. This election year, we are seeing threats to all four of those.

Read more from Amanda Tyler in her latest column here: https://bjconline.org/being-baptist-in-an-election-year/

Say hello to David Rice, who joined the BJC team in July as Digital Strategist. Ordained in the American Baptist Churches USA, David will work for BJC from Michigan.

He previously served in rural parish ministry and started his own communications consulting firm. He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in missiology and organizational leadership from Western Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity degree from the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. His undergraduate degree is from Huntington University, where he studied youth ministry and Bible.

BJC is also pleased to announce Karlee Marshall’s promotion to the new role of Media and Resource Manager. Karlee started at BJC as an intern in the spring of 2020. After her internship, she served as an independent contractor assisting with the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign. She joined the team full time in November 2022.

Today we say farewell to two of our staff members: Julia Bradley and Georgia McKee. Julia joined the BJC team in 2021 as Donor Database Coordinator. Georgia started at BJC as an intern during the summer of 2022 and remained on staff following her internship as the Digital Communications Associate. We are grateful for all their contributions to our work advancing faith freedom for ALL and will miss them as colleagues. We wish them well in all their future endeavors!

This week is an exciting time for us at Christians Against Christian Nationalism: The campaign turns five years old! Our team wants to hear from you.

Will you take five minutes to answer these five questions? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD8jmgCfDuG06QfKOxfGVdsEIAGkcDB2ZMtOcKTTVMpu4SgQ/viewform

Say 👋 hi to this year’s class of BJC Fellows! We are in Colonial Williamsburg this week for the 2024 BJC Fellows Seminar. This group of young professionals are participating in conversations about religious liberty, approaching it from perspectives rooted in history, archaeology, Baptist theology, and more Make sure you’re following us on Instagram and watching our stories to keep up with the throughout the next several days.

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Since Louisiana passed a law requiring public schools to prominently display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms, BJC and our allies have been at the forefront, advocating for the religious freedom of all Americans.

Government officials have no business forcing public schools to display religious texts. Doing so would elevate them above families and local religious leaders regarding religious instruction — something that many US citizens don’t want and that the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow. This could lead to a situation where children of different faiths or no faith at all feel excluded or pressured in their own schools.

The Baptist Standard recently asked Holly Hollman, BJC's general counsel and associate executive director, for her thoughts on the new Louisiana law. In the article, she shares her concerns about the potential impact of the law on religious freedom and the constitutional rights of all Americans. You can read the full article here: https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/nation/louisiana-requires-ten-commandments-in-classrooms/

"Texas sits at the center of the Christian nationalist movement, said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, communications director for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and he said it has taken a particular interest in public schools, where children are most impressionable."

Texas’ Christian-influenced curriculum spurs worries about bullying, church-state separation Some secular groups and members of other faiths say the curriculum could give schools too much control over how children are taught religion.

Did you hear BJC’s Amanda Tyler on NPR today talking about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump?

Listen to or read the story at the link in the comments!

BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler is in Milwaukee today to speak at the "We All Belong Rally For Democracy," sponsored by MICAH (Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope). Here's some of what she shared at the event:

"We come together today – local leaders in Milwaukee with those of us who have come here from other parts of the country – to rally for democracy and to draw awareness to an urgent threat to our democracy and to our faith – white Christian nationalism.

Our democracy is even more fragile today as we all reckon with the horrific violence yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. We pray for all the victims and their families, including Former President Trump. Violence is never justified. Political violence is abhorrent and anti-democratic.

Violence must not lead to more violence. For our country to recover, we must reaffirm that we have many differences in our country — but those differences can never justify violence. We will not be intimidated from being actively involved in this critical campaign year. We must insist that we struggle over ideas and not fight with weapons. We protect free and fair elections, and we commit that we will accept the results of those elections in a peaceful and orderly manner.

We must reject the merging of our religious and political identities. God is not an American. God is not a Republican. God is not a Democrat. God is love. We insist that our faith not be used as a political prop that results in the marginalization or oppression of any person, all of whom we see as made in the image of God with full religious liberty. Adding a religious fervor to extremist political movements will only lead to more violence. We will work together to dismantle white Christian nationalism – from ourselves, from our congregations, from our communities and from our politics – for the sake of our faith and for the sake of our democracy."

Say hi to our two newest BJC team members, Jonathan Davis and Sara Barrack!

Jonathan Davis is our new director of development at BJC, leading all of our fundraising and donor stewardship activities. Ordained in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Davis previously served as the associate vice president of communications and chief information officer at the Jesse C. Fletcher Seminary in San Antonio, Texas. Davis earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University, and a Master of Divinity degree from the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Originally from Houston, Davis now resides in Georgetown, Texas, with his spouse, Audrey, and their three children. His family belongs to Peace of Christ Church in Round Rock, Texas, where Davis previously served as the interim pastor of worship and preaching.

Sara Barrack is our new operations manager, providing administrative support for our educational and advocacy programs. She previously served as assistant director of Jewish life at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C. She also served as leadership development manager at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Originally from New Jersey, Barrack is a graduate of The George Washington University. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her two cats, Callie and Wilford, volunteers with City Dogs and City Kitties Rescue and serves on the Access to Reproductive Care and Health (ARCH) Board.

Learn more about Jonathan and Sara by visiting our BJC staff page: https://bjconline.org/staff-board/

We had a great time seeing so many friends at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C., last month, connecting with people concerned about Christian nationalism, leading workshops, hosting a Baptist trivia night for CBF Young Adult Network, and listening to prophetic wisdom from others. Here are just a few photos from our time together!

Happy Fourth of July! Remember: patriotism ≠ nationalism.

“Patriotism” is love of country that is expressed in many ways, such as waving an American flag, volunteering at a food bank, teaching in the public schools, serving in the military, running for public office, or protesting policies with which you disagree. “Nationalism” is an extreme form of patriotism that demands a position of superiority and has little or no room for dissent or disagreement.

How can you tell the difference between patriotism and nationalism? Ask yourself: Is my patriotism requiring me to minimize or sacrifice my theological convictions? If so, it’s not patriotism; it’s nationalism. While our faith should certainly inform our political activism, the mission of the church should be apparently distinct from the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. When we align our identities as Americans and Christians to the point that we can tell no difference between the two, we lose the ability to use our religious convictions to critique the actions of the state.

While we are celebrating our nation’s independence on this day, let’s remember that Christian nationalism is NOT patriotic.

We’ve seen a lot of troubling news about religion in public schools over the past few weeks. What exactly is going on here? Amanda Tyler shares her thoughts in this piece for CNN Opinion.

Opinion: Public schools are not Sunday schools | CNN Oklahoma’s latest attempt to mandate Bibles in public schools is yet another reminder that public schools are not Sunday schools — and families should feel free to send their children to school without worrying about state officials interfering in their choices about religious instruction, write...

Big news: Christians Against Christian Nationalism Lead Organizer Amanda Tyler’s first book event was Saturday! She spoke at the American Library Association Annual Conference alongside “Preparing for War” author Bradley Onishi and “The Violent Take it by Force” author Matthew D. Taylor. All three of their books are published by Broadleaf Books.

Pre-order today: https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506498287/How-to-End-Christian-Nationalism

📢And the winner is…

For this year’s Religious Liberty Scholarship Contest, high school juniors and seniors were invited to submit an essay or a TikTok-style video illuminating the connection between Christian nationalism and book bans in the United States. We had entries from across the country, spanning 25 different states, and we’re pleased to announce the winning essays!

Our Grand Prize winner is Omar Reyes from Houston, Texas, for his essay titled “The Danger of Christian Nationalism: How Book Bans Threaten Religious Freedom for All.” He will attend Johns Hopkins University this fall, majoring in economics and potentially neuroscience while fencing on their varsity NCAA team. “As a proud Muslim American, I cherish the freedom to practice my faith openly and without government interference. It’s a right enshrined in the First Amendment and a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to religious pluralism,” he wrote, noting that the freedom is under threat from Christian nationalism.

Shreya Nallamothu, a rising senior in high school from Normal, Illinois, took home the second prize with her essay titled “Reading Between the Lines: Book Bans and Christian Nationalism.” She shared two main reasons she saw people who embrace Christian nationalism engaging in efforts to ban books: to impose their religious beliefs on others and to turn our government into a religious government.

Congratulations to both of our winners! You can also see this year’s (and previous year’s) winners on our website: https://bjconline.org/contest/

"As the only state with a law mandating displays of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, Louisiana is a standout among a host of states pursuing legislative measures that would upend religious freedom as we know it."

Why is this still happening? Louisiana is making history, and not the good kind. As the only state with a law mandating displays of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, Louisiana is a standout among a host of states pursuing legislative measures that would upend religious freedom as we know it. Last year, its....

Holly Hollman, general counsel and associate executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, lamented the Louisiana law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in all of the state’s public schools.

“It is a sad day for religious freedom when government officials in America take on the role of high priest, selecting favored Scripture passages and mandating their permanent display in public school classrooms,” Hollman said. “Families, not government authorities, are responsible for teaching and guiding children in religious matters.”

Louisiana requires Ten Commandments in classrooms Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law a bill mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in all of the state’s public schools. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick promptly responded by pledging to pass a similar bill in the Texas Senate

Governor Jeff Landry signed legislation this week requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana. As BJC’s Holly Hollman mentioned in her letter to Gov. Landry, “This legislation wrongly suggests that the government holds religious authority over school children.”

Legislation promoting Christian nationalism is being introduced across the country and Christians have a unique obligation to speak out against it. Start by signing the Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement today and visiting our website to see how you can engage in our campaign: https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/

Hello to all of our friends at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly! We hope you will stop by our photo booth to embody the separation of church and state!

Looking for something to read today? Here are some helpful substacks about Juneteenth, linked in the comments below.

Today, we honor and mark the 159th anniversary of Juneteenth, the date in 1865 when news about the Emancipation Proclamation made its way to the state of Texas in an order from the Union army.

As we continue to work for Faith Freedom for ALL, we have to acknowledge the fact that religious freedom has been white too long. Change cannot happen without first acknowledging this fact and then being willing to talk about it with our peers.

There is a lot at stake this election year. Start making a plan for voting now! Even if you know you are registered, double check your registration status at Vote.org. Encourage people you know to register to vote and check their own status!