To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. At just 15, Carlos fled his home in Honduras to seek medical treatment for an eye condition, a better education, and safety from gang-related violence in his hometown. Carlos crossed the U.S. border alone and was immediately arrested and held at a Texas detention facility. Soon he was transferred to a Miami shelter care facility for unaccompanied children that was his home for the next two and a half months. After 82 days, Carlos was placed under the care of his “sponsor”— an aunt in […]

A child suspended from riding the school bus. A parent working two jobs. A homewithout internet. To the families of Villagebrook Apartments in Carol Stream, IL, these barriersto opportunity occur all too frequently. Although children in these apartments spendapproximately 1,000 hours in school every year, they often fail to succeed academically andsocially, mainly due to a lack of educational, familial, and communal support. Fortunately, thechildren of Carol Stream are supported by a network of faith-based organizations (FBOs). Thework of these establishments in Carol Stream is a microcosm of what we see across the country:namely, churches and FBOs rallying as one […]

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 […]