A Christian attorney has raised an alarm over an increasing “growing hostility” towards the practice of religion in the public arena within the U.S.
Louis Brown, who serves as a lawyer and executive director of the Christ Medicus Foundation, a Catholic healthcare nonprofit, voiced his concerns during an October 25 webinar. The webinar was convened to discuss the release of the Napa Legal Institute's 2024 Faith and Freedom Index.
This report evaluates states based on their religious and regulatory freedom standings, identifying areas in the U.S. where faith-based nonprofits encounter significant challenges.
According to the index, states such as Michigan, Washington, Massachusetts, and West Virginia rank poorly in terms of religious freedom, with Michigan receiving a religious freedom score of 22% and a regulatory freedom score of 49%, culminating in an overall score of 32%. Washington scored 35%, while Massachusetts and West Virginia both received overall scores of 38%.
Conversely, states recognized for their favorable environments for religious freedom and faith-based nonprofit activity include Alabama, scoring 72%, as well as Indiana, Texas, and Kansas, each earning around 64%.
Brown specifically pointed out, “There seems to be generally a growing hostility in Michigan towards the exercise of religion in the public square,” citing “a discouragement not only in rhetoric but also in law and policy, of Michiganders exercising their religious faith to love and care for God’s people in the public square.”
Emphasizing the significance of the index, Brown encouraged spiritual leaders, elected officials, university presidents, and attorneys general to thoroughly analyze the report to grasp their state’s stance.
He also recommended churches and faith-based nonprofits to organize themselves “in a manner that provides maximum protection for their religious mission under state and federal law.” He further urged community leaders and state policymakers to advocate for changes to state law that more “robustly” protect the exercise of religion.
Brown articulated the essence of religious freedom by saying, “Religious freedom is vital to human dignity, to all other civil rights in America, and to a healthy civil society.” Highlighting the broader cultural climate, he noted, “What we’re seeing, and particularly in the states that rank towards the bottom of this index, is a spirit of the age in our country that is tearing down the very foundations of the human freedoms that we enjoy.”
He asserted the imperative need to defend these freedoms, stating, “The challenge we have today is to defend our human dignity and our human freedom, not just as a tribal community, we’re not here as a tribe but we're here as people of faith to love, care, serve and uplift God’s people so that they can thrive, live life fully alive and fully enjoy the freedom that God intended for His people.”
