Latest Church and state News
Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools Thursday to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil...
Editorial Roundup: United States
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: June 25 The Philadelphia Inquirer on the war in Gaza and the Houthis As hopes for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza continue to dim, it’s important to underline that the United States is...
Editorial Roundup: Missouri
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. June 23, 2024. Editorial: Gun sanity briefly prevails at the U.S. Supreme Court. (Now do Missouri.) The Supreme Court on Friday issued the kind of ruling that would once have been viewed as so obvious as to be unnecessary: Yes, the court said,...
Lawsuit challenges new Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block Louisiana’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, a measure they contend is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs in the suit include parents of Louisiana...
Lawsuit challenges new Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block Louisiana’s new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, a measure they contend is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs in the suit include parents of Louisiana...
New Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display Ten Commandments churns old political conflicts
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A bill signed into law this week makes Louisiana the only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges — and stirs the long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions. Under...
New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a GOP-dominated Legislature pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor. The legislation that Republican Gov....
Missouri abortion ban wasn't about lawmakers imposing religious beliefs, judge says
A judge in Missouri says lawmakers who passed a restrictive abortion ban were not trying to impose their religious beliefs on everyone in the state, rejecting a case filed by more than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders who support abortion rights. The...
From schools to the Olympics, how France's staunch secularism affects religion in public life
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Walk around multicultural metropolises like Paris or Marseille, or any small village in the French countryside, and signs of faith are everywhere. Many Muslim women wear headscarves and historical Catholic churches anchor nearly every neighborhood. But...
This, too, could pass: Christian group's rule keeping beaches closed on Sunday mornings may end
OCEAN GROVE, N.J. (AP) — In this seaside community that calls itself “God's Square Mile at the Jersey Shore,” all the land is owned by a religious group that has for generations enforced an 11th Commandment: Thou shalt stay off the beach on Sunday morning. But there are signs...
