To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. My shirt is soaked with sweat after a long day framing on a residential construction crew in the sweltering Western Kentucky summer. I glance back on the day’s work, the house’s wooden exterior taking shape, before hopping into my truck. I think about how this journey began five years ago when I took a carpentry class at my high school’s vocational center. That class turned into another, and then another. Before I knew it, I was cutting boards and hammering nails the summer before attending […]

This article was originally published in Liberty magazine and can be accessed at Proceed with Caution. Faith-based charities come to grips with new church-state rules for government funding. The Biden administration recently has revised the regulations that govern how faith-based organizations can participate in federal, state, or local social service programs funded by federal dollars. These rules cover a broad range of services, from low-income housing and workforce development programs to welfare and homeless services, after-school programs, and more. That’s a wide and important sweep of services, so it is vital that the rules do not push out faith-based organizations […]

This article was originally published in the Journal of Christian Legal Thought, Volume 14, Issue 1 (2024). It is republished here with permission from the original publisher. Christians from many different theological streams share a conviction that our faith ought to have something to say about social-political issues. At the same time, Christians rightly perceive that our influence in the broader culture is waning. Fewer people call themselves Christians in America than ever before, while expressive individualism and its associated harms are culturally ascendant. Common good constitutionalism is one prescription for this diagnosis, a call to abandon positivism and viewpoint […]

On July 19, 2024, the Religious Liberty in the States (RLS) project released its third annual report measuring how well the 50 states protect crucial dimensions of individual and institutional religious freedom. In what will likely be a surprise to many, the report ranks the state of Illinois as most protective (Florida and Montana are next) and West Virginia as the least (Alaska and California are nearly as deficient). That counterintuitive ranking, if nothing else, should encourage advocates, citizens, policymakers, and reporters to visit the project website for the downloadable brief 2024 report and the extensive web-based resources detailing the […]

Charitable giving in 2023 reached a new high in total dollars but declined in actual value when adjusted for inflation, according to Giving USA. Giving by individuals increased less than giving by foundations or corporations, or through bequests, and giving to religious organizations notably decreased. Forty years ago, 58% of all donations went to congregations and other religious organizations; by 2022 that share was down to 29%. One reason for declining individual donations is the 2017 tax law’s weakening of the tax incentive for giving. That negative factor ought to be reversed in any tax reform package adopted by Congress […]

Welcome to the Academics Corner! CPJ’s ongoing series sharing the good work that Christian academics are doing to promote public justice from their research to the lecture hall.  Emily Crouch: How were you initially connected to CPJ?  Jessica Joustra: I was connected to CPJ in 2013. I had just started my PhD. at Fuller Seminary and got to know Gideon Strauss, who was a former executive director [of CPJ] through our shared neo-Calvinist circle. He had a great fondness for CPJ and introduced me to it.  That year, CPJ was doing one of their annual lectures out in California, so […]