This episode of the  Baptist Joint Committee Podcast features the 2014 Religious Liberty Council Luncheon keynote address delivered by Melissa Rogers, the executive director of White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In her speech, delivered June 27 in Atlanta, Georgia, she stressed the importance of religious liberty and explained how her office strives […]

In his second and final presentation for the 2014 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, Michael Meyerson discusses how the Framers of our Constitution worked to ensure religious liberty in the United States. A professor of law and Piper & Marbury Faculty Fellow at the […]

In his first presentation for the 2014 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, Michael Meyerson discusses religious support for the separation of church and state in colonial America. A professor of law and Piper & Marbury Faculty Fellow at the University of Baltimore, Meyerson is […]

Learn more about the prayer case headed to the Supreme Court from BJC General Counsel Holly Hollman and Staff Counsel Nan Futrell. In this podcast, they discuss the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway and explain the religious liberty principles at stake. The BJC filed a friend-of-the-court brief (amicus brief) in the case opposing […]

This is a podcast of the 2013 Religious Liberty Council Luncheon keynote address from Suzii Paytner, the Executive Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. On June 28 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Paynter received the J.M. Dawson Religious Liberty Award from the Baptist Joint Committee, recognizing her work defending our first freedom. She recounts her road […]

Listen to Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Brent Walker deliver his first of three presentations for the 2013 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State. This lecture is titled “First Principles: God-given, but government protected.” The entire 2013 series centered around the theme of “Religious Liberty […]

Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Brent Walker discusses how government accommodates religion without advancing it in his second of three presentations for the 2013 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State.  The entire 2013 series centered around the theme of “Religious Liberty and Church-State Separation: Oh, What […]

In his third presentation for the 2013 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, BJC Executive Director Brent Walker reflects on the 2012 election cycle and examines what the results show about the current relationship between religion and politics in America. The 2013 Shurden Lectures (centered around […]

Was the United States founded as a Christian nation? In his first of three presentations for the 2012 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, Purdue University Professor Frank Lambert begins with a critique of the radical right’s assertion that America was conceived of as a […]

Is America both sacred and secular? In his second Shurden lecture, Purdue University professor Frank Lambert agrees with George Marsden’s notion that the U.S. was from its beginning profoundly sacred and profoundly secular. It explores the many points of intersection between Great Awakening and Enlightenment ideas and influences, and it concludes with a close examination of […]