In 2025, across the courts, Congress, and federal agencies, questions of institutional religious freedoms, about how faith-based organizations (FBOs) participate in public life, have surfaced repeatedly. For those of us committed to a vision of public justice grounded in principled pluralism, 2025 offered both encouraging developments and cautionary lessons for churches, schools, charities, and other religiously motivated organizations that carry out their public missions in accordance with their deepest convictions. Judicial Developments Two cases in particular drew attention to how institutional religious identity functions in civic and public spheres. In Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that […]

On November 1, outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility near Chicago, Catholic Auxiliary Bishop José María García-Maldonado and eight other faith leaders attempted to celebrate Mass and offer the Eucharist to immigrants being held inside. They were denied entry. According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), “Mass organizers said they followed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s guidelines to obtain access and submitted the request weeks in advance.” For years, Catholic ministers had been permitted to enter that facility and bring Holy Communion to detained immigrants who desired it. That longstanding accommodation has now been withdrawn. The […]

Throughout this past year, something far more consequential than a funding crisis has taken shape across faith-based civil society. Public partnerships that once allowed churches, synagogues, mosques, and faith-rooted nonprofits to accompany vulnerable neighbors have narrowed, stalled, or been recast under political conditions that many sacred institutions simply cannot accept without compromising who they are. These shifts surface a deeper question of public justice: whether our society is willing to safeguard the institutional freedom religious communities need to live out their sacred callings without coercion, and whether government will honor the rightful role of civil society rather than bending it […]

Few expect the answer to fractured nations and polarized communities to begin with a quiet table and a handful of unlikely partners. Yet again and again, that is where hope has taken its seat. If you want to understand how divided people learn to trust each other again, don’t first look to political institutions or international agreements. Instead, focus on a table, a simple open table where people from every background, belief, and ideology sit down regularly, listen carefully, and begin working as partners. This is the story of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable. It began quietly in Washington, […]

This article is part of Better Together — a storytelling series from the Center for Public Justice highlighting how faith-based organizations have partnered with government to see their communities flourish. It’s troubling but far too common.  In many cities across the United States, churches struggle to partner with one another, and at times, even contend for congregants, resources, and recognition. Surprisingly, this happens with churches who share the same denominational affiliations, and, of course, with congregations who operate in vastly different traditions. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? Steve King, the former lead pastor of Cherrydale Baptist Church […]

This article is part of Better Together — a storytelling series from the Center for Public Justice highlighting how faith-based organizations have partnered with government to see their communities flourish. It started as a typical night out for dinner. But Chris and Scott Seaton had made plans not only for a meal but also to attend a book launch event in Washington, D.C. The book being released was Unleashing Opportunity: Why Escaping Poverty Requires a Shared Vision of Justice by Michael Gerson, Stephanie Summers, and Katie Thompson. It explores how Christians might understand and respond to some of the most pressing issues […]