The Daily Signal reports on faith and religion in America, covering Christian, Jewish, and other faith communities, with analysis and commentary on cultural trends, religious liberty, and moral issues that influence public life.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on an important case involving the intersection of the rights to exercise religion and to direct the upbringing of children. The court’s decision, expected by the end of June, may advance or curtail an expanding recognition of the fundamental right to exercise religion. In October 2022, the Montgomery County,…
An Arkansas bill prohibiting state officials from forcing faith-based adoption and foster care organizations from placing children in homes that go against an agency’s religious or moral beliefs was signed into law by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders, former White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, signed Act 509 last Thursday along with…
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Harvard University announced Monday it will not agree to the Trump administration’s demands to address antisemitism on campus. The Department of Education sent a letter to the Ivy League school April 11 demanding the school agree to a host of reforms, including adjusting and enforcing disciplinary processes, improving screening of international students for “hostile”…
Some Catholics in Spain are asking the Catholic Church to save a religious site in Madrid from threats of alteration and decommissioning by the Spanish government, which claims the site honors a former right-wing dictator. Critics claim the government is opposed to the site because it is religious, noting that officials have already removed 35…
On Wednesday, Georgia’s State Capitol was the stage for a “heated debate” over legislation aimed at sparing taxpayers from funding gender transition procedures for inmates—including “sex change surgeries, hormone replacement therapies, and cosmetic procedures designed to alter sexual characteristics.” While the measure garnered strong support from Republicans, Democrats voiced their displeasure with the bill and…
Editor’s note: This piece has been updated at the end with Harvard’s response to the government’s review. The federal government has initiated a grant review of Harvard University as part of its efforts to combat antisemitism, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday. A joint task force from the Department of Education, HHS,…
Is YouTube discriminating against Christians? Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is raising the alarm about evidence suggesting the tech giant—which has a long history of censorship—has unfairly treated a Christian family TV station. “[I]n the case of YouTube TV, concerns have been raised alleging that your company has a policy (secret or…
The Trump administration, not yet two months old, is making clear it wants a better reading of the First Amendment’s protection for religious freedom. And it’s taking concrete steps to make that happen. In October 2022, the school board in Montgomery County, Maryland, approved certain “LGBTQ-inclusive” books for use in in the public school curriculum…
Everyone agrees that those in certain positions, from teachers to doctors, should report instances of child abuse and neglect. Democrat lawmakers in Washington state, however, are advancing legislation that would require clergy members to report, even in circumstances that would violate the Sacrament of Confession, a central tenet of the Catholic faith. Washington legislators have…
President Donald Trump last week announced a new task force dedicated to eradicating anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Trump noted that the federal government under President Joe Biden “engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.” The new president pledged not to “tolerate this abuse of government” and…
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—A proposed law in Washington state would require priests to violate Catholic Church law by breaking the seal of confession. The bill would amend the current state law that requires law enforcement, teachers, medical professionals, or child care providers to report cases of child abuse or neglect to include church clergy that…
In the first week of February, Washington, D.C., will play host to the International Religious Freedom Summit, the largest annual nonprofit-led gathering of religious freedom advocates globally. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should take the opportunity to quickly reorient religious freedom policy so that it is once again an American foreign…
After 15 months of terrorist-supporting thugs engaging in acts of violence and intimidation against Jews with impunity, America finally has a president who takes combating antisemitism seriously. On Jan. 29, President Donald Trump signed an executive order making it “the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal…
In a culture dominated by feminism, young men are starved for icons of masculinity. Young men crave heroes to imitate, but a neutered, castrated, effeminate society produces precious few, if any—and many of the heroes of history are hidden away and forgotten. Ever prescient, the author C.S. Lewis warned of the dangers of such a…
Thomas Jefferson’s resume is hard to beat. At 23, he was serving in the Virginia Colonial Legislature and, within a decade, he was in the Virginia governor’s mansion. He followed that up as ambassador to France, secretary of state, vice president, and a two-term president. From a lifetime of profound accomplishments, he chose three to…
Alliance Defending Freedom is voicing its concerns to Republicans in the Virginia Legislature about a Democrat-introduced resolution that would inject "gender" into the state Constitution, deeming it distinct from sex. The Marriage Amendment, which includes gender provisions, eliminates the state's current definition of marriage—between one and one woman—to recognize same-sex marriage. Deeming "gender" or "gender…
What some see as a shot across the bow aimed at President-elect Donald Trump, Pope Francis announced Monday that left-wing Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego would be the next archbishop of Washington. McElroy, 70, will succeed the retiring archbishop, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, who shepherded the more than 600,000 Catholics who…
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Russ Salerno lost his job at a Fortune 500 financial institution after several years because his employer concluded that his conservative Christian convictions “don’t line up” with the company’s “core values” on LGBTQ issues. Now, Salerno serves as the CEO of ProLifeFintech, an online banking company that launched in November. Salerno…
As soon as President-elect Donald Trump had nominated Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, the legacy media unleashed a torrent of breathless stories about Hegseth’s “extremism” because he displays tattoos of the Jerusalem Cross and “Deus vult,” a Latin phrase associated with the Crusades. The Associated Press reported that a fellow service…
Unrest and sporadic violence in the Dutch city of Amsterdam is ongoing in the wake of an incident last week in which Israeli soccer fans were targeted in what authorities have described as antisemitic attacks. As the rate of antisemitic incidents increased across the globe following Hamas terrorists’ Oct. 7 attack last year on Israel,…