Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty

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SOLID, RELIABLE, CONFIDENT — these are three words that describe the Baptist Joint Committee as we carry out our work every day on Capitol Hill.

From the halls of Congress, to the agencies and in the courts, the BJC works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all people.

With its guarantees of our most fundamental freedoms, the First Amendment must be defended if we are to preserve religious liberty for everyone. Our challenge is great, but we are determined to meet it.

For more than 70 years, the BJC has sounded the alarm and fought the battles from our office on Capitol Hill. We are the only religious organization in the country that works solely on religious liberty issues.

As always, we need your financial support to continue to wage the fight for religious liberty.

Won't you make an investment in religious liberty for your children and grandchildren?

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Faith-based council presents reform recommendations to Obama Administration

President's Advisory Council presents proposal to improve the rules regarding faith-based organizations' partnerships with the government

March 9, 2010

WASHINGTON - A council of religious and secular leaders charged with improving the operations of the White House faith-based office and its partnerships has presented to senior Obama Administration officials recommendations for the office, including a list of 12 proposals that would implement reforms.

The 25 members of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships presented more than 60 recommendations from the task force charged with reform of the office and the five other task forces.

The reform of the office task force's 12 specific recommendations aimed to strengthen the constitutional and legal footing of public-private partnerships by clarifying the prohibited uses of direct financial assistance, providing guidance on the protection of religious identity while providing social services and assuring the religious liberty rights of clients and beneficiaries of federal social service funds.

Baptist church-state group helps draft statement of current law

Document will not end debates about religious expression in American public life, but will make them more productive

While there is much debate about how law should address issues at the intersection of religion and government, there is much less debate among experts about the current state of such law. brookings-holly-wide-tighte

In an effort to improve public dialogue, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has joined with a diverse group of religious liberty experts to draft a document that provides a summary of how the law currently answers some questions regarding religious expression and practice in public life.

"Religious Expression in American Public Life: A Joint Statement of Current Law," is sponsored by the Wake Forest University Divinity School's Center for Religion and Public Affairs. BJC Executive Director J. Brent Walker and General Counsel K. Hollyn Hollman served as members of the committee that drafted the 32-page document.

Read the full BJC statement here.

Click here to download a pdf version of the document.

Is the Faith-Based Initiative On the Road to Improvement?

Two somewhat opposing views on that question. First up, AU's Barry Lynn, argues that nothing has changed: During his presidential campaign, Obama specifically promised that "if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help a...

Obama Criticized for Lack of Religious Freedom Ambassador

Thomas Farr, former head of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom, writes in today's Washington Post to protest the Obama Administration's failure to - as he sees it - live up to the promise of the Cairo speech with a real focus on religious liberty. He poin...

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