Decision will impact religious liberty, Baptist leader says
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bostock vs. Clay County June 15 that longstanding, non-discrimination protections in federal workplace law cover sexual orientation and gender identity. The Supreme Court’s opinion came in three consolidated cases—two involving employees in New York and Georgia who said they were fired because they are gay, and one regarding a male employee at a Michigan funeral home who was fired after he told the owner he identified as a female and planned to begin wearing women’s clothing.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, expressed concern over the ruling’s “seismic implications for religious liberty” and its impact on “religious organizations with religious convictions about the meaning of sex and sexuality.”
Debate continues over limits on church gatherings
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has requested an investigation of state limits on worship gatherings amid the Coronavirus pandemic, claiming authorities “have violated the free speech and free exercise rights of religious Americans by treating religious gatherings and speech differently than the speech and mass gatherings of protests.”
In Nevada, church gatherings are limited to 50 people, while casinos and other businesses can be open at 50% capacity. After a judge in the state refused to void the limit on churches, leaders from the Ethics and Religious Liberty wrote that the state’s restrictions “blatantly hold religious organizations and commercial businesses to different standards.”
>Related: U.S. State Department outlines gains, losses in international religious freedom
Greear urges retirement of gavel named for slaveholder
“Southern Baptists, I think it is time to retire the Broadus gavel,” SBC President J.D. Greear wrote in a first-person column for Baptist Press. The gavel, used at the SBC annual meeting, is named for John A. Broadus, a founding faculty member of Southern Seminary who supported the Confederacy and owned slaves.
Greear’s recommendation came amid continuing protests sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, as Christian leaders joined other Americans in calling out systemic racism and injustice. “To be fair, John Broadus seems to have changed some of his positions later in life, and for that I am thankful,” Greear wrote. “But the reality is that given the role that slavery played in the formation of the SBC, mixed messages were still being sent.”
Most churches reported steady giving during pandemic
Almost two-thirds of churches reported total cash giving in April 2020 equaled or surpassed April 2019 giving, according to survey by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. After predictions of economic hardship due to Coronavirus, Christianity Today reports, more than half of the leaders surveyed are feeling optimistic about giving over the summer.
Gen Z faces uncertain future
Pew Research describes Gen Z as a generation in flux, especially as COVID-19 continues to throw the economy and employment into indefinite uncertainty. They are much like their Millennial counterparts in terms of social and policy views, Pew reports, and 24 million Gen Z-ers will be eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
Sources: Baptist Press, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Christianity Today, Pew Research