Almost 75 years after a couple donated 112 acres of Round Rock farmland to enable Texas Baptists to build a home for abused and neglected children, Texas Baptist Children’s Home has changed a lot, but one thing has stayed constant.

“Children remain at the heart of all that we do,” said Debbie Rippstein, president of Texas Baptist Children’s Home, a part of Children at Heart Ministries. “We just don’t deliver services the same way.”

When Texas Baptist Children’s Home opened on the property Louis and Billie Sue Henna donated, the original campus consisted of three cottages, an administrative building and a superintendent’s residence.

The cottages initially housed up to 20 children—in itself, an improvement over the dormitory approach generally followed by children’s homes at that time.

But by the late 1970s, the children’s home realized it needed to change its approach. A young woman who had grown up at Texas Baptist Children’s Home was going through a divorce. Recognizing her inability to provide for her children, she asked about placing them at the children’s home.

“That’s when Texas Baptist Children’s Home said, ‘We need to do something different,’” Rippstein said. “So, our first family cottage opened in 1979.”

‘It’s what I’ve known my whole life’

Amy Maples’ parents became a host family at the children’s home when she was 5 years old.

“I thought it was amazing. Our cottage was filled with a steady rotation of playmates for me,” said Maples, now program director for Family Care at Texas Baptist Children’s Home.

Her experience growing up in that environment fueled her desire to make ministry to vulnerable children and their families her life’s work.

“It’s what I’ve known my whole life. I can’t imagine not serving others and the kingdom of God,” she said.

The Family Care program at Texas Baptist Children’s Home provides a safe and secure place where mothers and their children can live together, experience healing from trauma, and transition into independent living.

The residential program at the Round Rock campus now has capacity to serve up to 41 families—more than 100 mothers and children.

Clients begin their stay in 6,000-square-foot cottages that house up to five families, along with resident staff supervision, before eventually graduating to more independent living arrangements.

Families have private and secure sleeping quarters and baths, with shared kitchen and laundry spaces and multiple living rooms.

“They find the shared living arrangement stabilizing, since many of them are coming out of trauma,” Maples said.

Focus on long-term holistic health of moms and children

The program focuses on the long-term physical, emotional and spiritual health of mothers and children. While some graduate from the program in 18 months, others may stay longer.

Staff work with mothers to help them set goals in terms of education and employment. Mothers learn how to save and manage money, along with other life skills. Counseling benefits the emotional wellness of families.

Clients are encouraged—but not compelled—to participate in Bible studies and discipleship programs.

“We want to see them grow in their relationship with Jesus,” Maples said.

Volunteer mentors from area churches meet individually with mothers to identify areas in which they want to grow personally and to study Scripture with them.

“They share their faith in a caring—not a pushy—way,” said Melanie Martinez, vice president for programs and services. “They are a reflection of Christ and his love.”

Rippstein noted exit surveys of clients from Buddhist, Muslim and other non-Christian backgrounds “felt respected and appreciated the services provided.”

Once mothers graduate from the residential program and move on to live independently with their children, Texas Baptist Children’s Home continues to provide after-care services.

“We’re still here for them, even when they move off campus,” Maples said. “They’ll always be a part of our family.”

In addition to Family Care, Texas Baptist Children’s Home also offers:

• Home Base, a program that provides a safe haven for young adults who are aging out of foster care or facing homelessness.
• Welcome Home drop-in resource center, which includes a food pantry, hygiene supplies, a washer and dryer and computer access for clients ages 18 to 24 who no longer qualify for juvenile service and youth programs.
• Hope Counseling Program, offering no-cost, trauma-informed counseling at three locations in Round Rock and Georgetown

Looking to the future

Texas Baptist Children’s Home is part of Children at Heart Ministries, a family of ministries dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children and families.

They are Gracewood in Houston, offering family care and family relief to single mothers and their children; and Miracle Farm near Brenham, a ranch where at-risk teenage boys learn Christian values.

Looking ahead, when funds become available, Texas Baptist Children’s Home plans to relocate its residential program to what is the now the back side of the campus—the northeast part of the children’s home property.

Currently, the buildings face Highway 79—which is slated for expansion—and are easily accessible from I-35.

“It’s a move to enhance the safety and security of our residents and staff. It also will more than double our capacity, allowing us to serve 90 families,” said Todd Roberson, president and CEO of Children at Heart Ministries.

However, Roberson has been quick to dispel the fears of some community residents who were concerned change might mean the loss of familiar, comforting sights. The children’s home iconic chapel will remain in place. And cattle will continue to graze on part of the campus acreage.

Relocating cottages away from major thoroughfares in a more secure environment will position Texas Baptist Children’s Home to serve vulnerable families moving into the next 75 years, Roberson said.

“We want to set up for success those who come behind us,” he said.

Mission trips often reveal contrasts—differences between things at home and those far away. Mikey Osborne and his family saw Christmas differently on a recent trip to Uganda.

“It was pretty humbling to see kids get excited over things I wouldn’t normally even buy,” Osborne said. “It’s an awakening to see a different perspective on gifts. It’s easy to think you’re going to Africa to fix things, but I feel like Africa was kind of fixing me.”

Osborne coordinates Texans on Mission’s discipleship and outreach efforts, which include writing materials for evangelism and personal Christian growth.

Some of those materials are used regularly in Uganda as part of Texans on Mission’s Water Impact ministry, but Osborne never had been there, and more materials were needed.

“Groups meet every week, and they’re using some older material that I think could be a little more strategic,” Osborne said. “Their teachers are brilliant and handle the materials well, but we need to put better materials in their hands.”

In Uganda, Texans on Mission works through its ministry partner, Texans and Ugandans on Mission, which has a number of employees focused on drilling water wells and strengthening communities. During Osborne’s trip, the ministry held a Christmas party for those employees and their families.

Mitch Chapman, director of Texans on Mission Water Impact, said he has been amazed at the quality of work and commitment to Christ exhibited by the workers.

“I had not, however, had the chance to interact much with their families,” he said. “The Christmas party gave us a chance to honor these workers before their families and to bless them in a way beyond their normal compensation.”

Simple requests for needs, not wants

The party lasted all day, with food being served throughout and gifts being given at the end of the day, Osborne said.

Angie Osborne said being part of the Christmas party was “one of the greatest blessings” of the trip.

“Seeing the requests some of these children had for Christmas—for needs rather than things for fun—was so touching, and it was amazing to see the joy they had when they received them.”

Mikey Osborne said the children “had been asked in advance what they would like for Christmas, but the most humbling thing was that multiple kids had asked for a goat or a pair of goats for their family.”

He found that strange until he learned a goat “actually gives the family another area for commerce. … Some of the kids specifically asked for a goat in hopes it would help them raise money to further their education.”

The Uganda ministry, supported by Texans on Mission, came through for the children, providing vouchers for the purchase of a number of goats.

The children also received other gifts.

“We gave out bicycles to almost every kid,” Osborne said. “The kids were overwhelmed.”

One of the fathers said his child “was so excited that he literally slept with their new bike, holding their new bike all night,” Osborne said. “And the bikes weren’t even new. They were used. Some of them were in good shape, but not great shape.”

The ministry also provided mattresses to families.

“I don’t remember how many mattresses we gave away, probably 35 to 40,” he said. “And the mattresses excited the kids because they didn’t have mattresses.”

Osborne contrasted this with his own Christmas shopping plans this year.

“I’m trying to figure out how to buy my son a new baseball bat, and he’s already got one, while the kids in Uganda want a mattress,” he said.

Access to clean water

Besides the Christmas gifts, Texans on Mission Water Impact is providing more substantial gifts for families—water wells, sanitation classes, micro-financing and, most importantly, spiritual nourishment.

“When we’re talking about Texans on Mission water ministry, we’re talking about total impact in a community,” Osborne said. “It’s everything from sanitation all the way to discipleship.

“You have to have water to survive, and these people haven’t had a good source of water at all.”

Angie Osborne noted the “most impactful part of the trip” for her came “when they took us to one village where a new well had just been installed.”

Leaders took the Osbornes to “the little creek” where the people had been getting their water before drilling of their new community well.

“It is a moment I will always remember and an image that will always stick in my mind,” Angie Osborne said.

“It was heart wrenching to think that people would walk over a mile to get water from this nasty source where animals also drink and do other things. It was then I realized how powerful and life-changing” Texans on Mission’s work is in Uganda.

“One well alone is providing clean water to over 400 people,” she said, adding Texans on Mission “put in over 60 wells this past year.”

“That is a huge impact, and thousands of people are being reached” because the Ugandan team does more than provide clean water, she noted.

Spreading the gopsel

“We witnessed the gospel being introduced at each well site to all these people who are flocking there for clean water,” she said. “A Bible study is led each morning while the well is being drilled for the local community, and then local people continue the Bible study weekly.

“Hundreds of people are now attending regular Bible study and have come to know Christ through the installation of these wells.”

The Texans on Mission-supported ministry does more than drill wells. Mikey Osborne said the work “goes well beyond giving people clean water, because not only are we giving people water, we’re teaching them sanitation.

“Not only are we teaching them sanitation, we’re teaching them how to save money,” he continued. “Not only are we teaching them how to save, we’re teaching them how to care for one another. Not only are we teaching them how to care for one another, we’re sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, the living water, and teaching them how to raise up disciples in their own community among their own people.”

The recent trip will help Texans on Mission know how to produce more evangelism and discipleship resources. And Osborne was impressed with the ability of ministry leaders in Uganda. He talked about one leader, Moses.

“I got to see a guy named Moses, who, by the way, one of the best speakers I’ve seen,” he said. “He was unbelievably engaging. He spoke in the local language. The Spirit of God was on that man in such a way. He spoke with authority but also in an engaging manner. It was humbling to watch.

“Moses gave you the sense that he has been given the great responsibility of sharing the greatest gift in the world, and he was full of joy in getting to hand it out for you.”

The entire experience deeply moved the Osbornes.

“To say we were overwhelmed is an understatement,” Angie Osborne said. “We went to help change Uganda, but Uganda changed me.

“It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that in 2024 people are still living in those conditions. It was eye-opening to see that there are thousands of people who live out in the middle of nowhere in little huts with no water, electricity, plumbing or any conveniences we have.

“We got to see the work that Texans on Mission is doing and were blown away.”

Nazareth has few public Christmas decorations this year, marking the second year in a row Jesus’ hometown has been precluded by wartime conditions from traditional celebrations honoring the birthday of its most notable resident of all time.

Jesus’ hometown and the place where his ministry began also is hometown to Yasmeen Mazzawi, a volunteer paramedic with Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency services system.

For her, Nazareth is home, yet she feels the sadness of another year with no Christmas trees in the public square. In normal years, Nazareth has three beautiful trees on display, she said.

With the Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement announced Nov. 27, there’s some improvement over last year. A few Christmas trees can be seen peeking out of windows, Mazzawi noted. But the overall tenor is far from celebratory, her damp, crestfallen eyes in a video call communicate.

Baptist influence

Nazareth is in northern Israel about 70 miles south of Lebanon. An Arab Christian, Mazzawi graduated from Nazareth Baptist School.

Her family did not attend a Baptist church. But, she explained, it was next door to her school, and she was there every day for chapel services.

She said her experience at the Baptist school “contributed a lot to my faith and my life day-to-day and also [her commitment to] helping people in need, definitely.”

Mazzawi said it was amazing growing up in Nazareth, walking the streets Jesus walked. She explained her Baptist school was in the town center, “where we know Jesus walked and where he went to the churches we have only 200 meters from my school.”

She explained her family talks at home about how many people in Nazareth go about life there as if it’s “very ordinary,” never considering Jesus physically inhabited their town. But she and her family think about the fact they are walking where Jesus walked all that time.

Since the war began, she noted, she has been working so much with Magen David Adom, she’s rarely able to attend church.

“It’s day-by-day,” she noted. “No expectations. Nothing is guaranteed.”

Over the last six months, communities in northern Israel, including Nazareth, have been the focus of Hezbollah missile attacks.

The ceasefire between Hezbollah and Isreal may have stilled the rockets, but Mazzawi explained explosions and other smaller acts of violence continue.

Mazzawi works full-time as a business analyst with Deloitte in Tel Aviv. But with increased need for emergency responders in northern Isreal, she has been working remotely in Haifa so she can serve. Mazzawi explained she works two 8-hour shifts a week as a paramedic.

She has served with Israel’s emergency services for about 10 years, joining as a “young volunteer” at 15 years old, until she could take paramedic training at age 18. Mazzawi was encouraged to serve by her parents, Fadoul and Suzanne Mazzawi, according to a news release from Magen David Adom.

She worked with the organization after she became an adult to complete her required years of national service. Then she stayed there as a volunteer paramedic, one of 30,000 volunteer paramedics and EMTs of the 33,000 who serve with Magen David Adom, the release notes.

“I grew up in a loving home on values of accepting the other and loving the other,” Mazzawi said in the release.

“We do not judge anyone for their religion, race, color or language. We have only one goal: saving lives. That means accepting people no matter who they are.”

Difficult work

Mazzawi said serving during wartime conditions is hard. Her paramedic work has called her to cities hit with rockets that could be hit with rockets again.

“It is scary to go to these places, but I turn to my faith for strength,” the release noted. “Sometimes the situation is quite chaotic, and I definitely face fears. But I keep focus on how best to serve the injured and frightened around me. Keeping my attention on how to serve helps me through.”

She noted the difficulty of “disconnecting her heart from her mind” to serve in these challenging locations. “I have to be ‘Yasmeen the paramedic.’ And I have to serve, help and give aid to patients. I have to be with the special units, serving with people I don’t know, who aren’t my team.”

Mazzawi described the noise and the fear she particularly faced serving at the northern border, “but the thing that really helped me is that I believe that our heavenly Father is with us.”

She said she drew all the strength from God she needed to provide first aid and “be the light” in the moment for those she helped.

But she acknowledged that when she got home in the evening, the terrible injuries she treated would come back to her.

“When we go to bed at night, we recall everything,” she explained.

She said her paramedic team was “like her family,” and they rely on each other to get through what they’ve seen.

Mazzawi explained she prayed for the ceasefire to result in better days, noting a colleague’s 10-year-old daughter’s experience—two years of COVID restrictions followed by two years of war with only a year of normalcy between.

“They’re not having their childhood,” she lamented. “They can’t go out and see the country. We have so many beautiful places here.”

She’s grateful the constant rocket explosions, for now, are relieved. However, the ability to move about freely is still largely curtailed by smaller-scale terror attacks that continue to be reported.

Isreal is a diverse country, she noted. She serves with Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze and Bahai, religious and secular. And where there is diversity, challenges are inevitable, she said.

But, “I can see, and I feel that people want to live, and people love life. And so, I really pray for better days.”

A year ago, she responded to a call to resuscitate a baby. The Jewish mother allowed her to pray for her and the infant and began to pray too at Mazzawi’s urging. They have remained in contact, and the baby recently celebrated a first birthday.

The mother commented on the light Mazzawi’s calming, peaceful presence provided in dark times. Mazzawi said she shared it was the Father who loves her shining through.

PHILADELPHIA (BP)—Bible-engaged Christians are the most charitable people in the United States, and giving increases happiness among the generous, the American Bible Society said in releasing the last chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible.

“People who consistently read the Bible and live by its teachings are more likely to give to charity,” American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer John Plake said in releasing the results.

“Our data shows that they also give far more—not only to their churches, but also to religious and non-religious charities. At a national level, we could say that scripture-engaged people form a massive engine of generosity and philanthropy.”

Evangelical households top the chart in the average amount donated, the percentage of people donating and the percentage given to their church or any religious charity, researchers said. Only 20 percent of evangelicals don’t give at all, and 40 percent give all of their contributions to their church.

But while evangelicals give more as a dollar amount, only the lowest income earners give at least 10 percent of their income to charity, researchers said.

“Nonprofits naturally look first to the top-line dollars donated, but God looks at the heart. And giving proportions may be a better window there,” researchers wrote. “Those blessed with great wealth often give from their surplus. It takes a deeper commitment to give sacrificially.

“Our survey shows that donors at the lowest income levels give the greatest percentage of their income to church or charity.”

Families earning under $20,000 a year give as much as 11 percent of their income to charity. But percentage giving largely decreases as income increases, dropping to 5.4 percent for families that earn just under $50,000, researchers said.

Giving rises as high as 8.5 percent of income for families earning between $50,000 and just under $100,000, but drops to the lowest proportion of 2.9 percent for those who earn between $100,000 and $150,000.

It is more blessed to give

In each income bracket, those who give are happier than those who don’t, based on the Life and Happiness Domain of the Human Flourishing Scale the American Bible Society introduced in this year’s State of the Bible.

On the 0-to-10 scale, with 10 indicating the highest level of happiness, givers scored nearly 7.2, while nongivers scored a full point less at 6.1.

“The lowest satisfaction score (5.2) comes among non-givers in the poorest households, those making less than $30,000 a year. But givers at that same income level have a satisfaction score of 6.5, rivaling non-givers making up to $100,000,” researchers wrote. “You might say the joy of giving is better than getting a $50,000 raise.”

The chapter was the final release of the 2024 State of the Bible, a comprehensive report which tracked such topics as faith in technology, human flourishing, love, Americans’ perceptions of church, Gen Z, nones and nominals, and loneliness.

State of the Bible is based on a nationally representative survey conducted for the American Bible Society by NORC at the University of Chicago, using the AmeriSpeak panel. Findings are based on 2,506 online interviews conducted in January 2024 with adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Faith leaders are reacting with concern to a report President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a long-standing policy that discourages immigration officials from conducting raids at churches, schools and hospitals.

According to a report from NBC News Dec. 11, the incoming Trump administration plans to do away with a policy outlined in an internal 2011 U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo by then-ICE director John Morton. The policy discourages government agents from making arrests at or near “sensitive locations,” such as houses of worship.

The news comes amid Trump’s campaign pledge to enact the “largest deportation” in U.S. history, which he has said could begin soon after he assumes office. He suggested in an interview over the weekend U.S. citizens could be deported with undocumented family members.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request to confirm the president-elect’s intent to change the policy, but Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said news of the policy change was “sending a deep chill down the spine of the Latino evangelical church.”

In a separate interview, Salguero noted he recently completed a “know your rights” training with 82 Hispanic evangelical bishops, many of whom have immigrants—undocumented and otherwise—in their congregations. He called the proposed change “a fear-based policy” and voiced concern about whether it will respect religious liberty.

“How are they going to execute these raids in ways that respect religious liberty and in ways that do not strike fear into children who are worshipping in Sunday school? I have 30 kids in a Sunday school class—I don’t know who is documented and undocumented,” Salguero said.

Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of Trump’s evangelical advisers, maintained in an email the policy change is narrower in intent, and he is “convinced the incoming Trump administration will focus on criminal illegal immigrants.”

He insisted the policy “serves as a warning” to undocumented immigrants who engage in criminal activity, such as “sex, human and drug traffickers” or “rapist gang members.”

“I do not foresee in any way, the administration targeting or going into schools or churches, pursuing God-fearing law-abiding immigrants who have been here for 15 years or more, and whose children were born or raised here,” Rodriguez said.

Different situation now

But other faith leaders are not as sure, such as those who participate in the New Sanctuary Movement, a faith-based effort that began under President Barack Obama’s administration and expanded greatly during Trump’s first term.

Participants in the movement—which includes members of many faiths—allow undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation to take up residence in houses of worship, hoping to pressure immigration officials into dropping their deportation orders.

Some immigrants have lived in churches for years, until eventually leaving after deportation orders were rescinded or changed.

Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh was one of a half dozen North Carolina churches that sheltered undocumented immigrants during the first Trump administration. Doug Long—former pastor of Umstead, now retired—suggested he wasn’t entirely surprised by the proposed change, which activists feared would occur during Trump’s first term.

“If they are making that announcement, I think it brings some clarity because we assumed it was already going to happen,” Long said.

When former North Carolina-based sanctuary leaders met last month, he added, the activists concluded churches wanting to help undocumented immigrants would need to pursue new avenues.

“It’s a very different situation than it was five, six years ago,” Long said.

Commitment to ‘love the stranger’ remains

Still, church leaders said they did not expect to retreat from their commitment to protecting undocumented people, a position they said is grounded in the scriptural call to love the stranger.

“When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t also tell us to make sure that they were documented,” said Isaac Villegas, a Mennonite—whose church, the Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, gave sanctuary to an undocumented immigrant during the first Trump administration.

 “He just said love and care for your neighbors. Full stop. Not, oh, check their documentation status while you’re at it.”

Longtime immigrant rights advocate Noel Andersen, a United Church of Christ minister and national field director at Church World Service, a group that helps resettle refugees, expressed outrage over reports of the policy change.

“The right for all people to find safety, refuge and rest in houses of worship is fundamental to our nation’s history of religious freedom and our longstanding values,” he said.

“No one should face fear of deportation when going to houses of worship, seeking medical care, social services, at public demonstrations or taking their kids to school.

“Regardless of what policy the Trump administration rescinds or puts forth, faith communities will continue to look to our sacred texts and centuries of tradition to live out our faith by welcoming immigrants and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

Andersen added: “We must lead with compassion and love instead of cruelty or fear to keep families together and to ensure that all people are treated with their God given dignity.”

Other religious groups appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the news.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement the group of prelates is “aware of the various proposals being discussed with regards to immigration, and are preparing to deal with a range of policies, and will engage appropriately when public policies are put forth by the office holders.”

Representatives for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination that declared itself a “sanctuary church body” at its 2019 Churchwide Assembly and whose members taped “9.5 theses” expressing their concern for immigrants to the door of an ICE building in Milwaukee, declined to comment.

The New Sanctuary Movement is an extension of an earlier effort that occurred in the 1980s, when churches along the U.S.-Mexico border opened their doors to an uptick in migrants, especially those fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala, whom the government largely denied requests for asylum.

In 1986, the FBI infiltrated the movement and indicted 16 activists before ultimately convicting nine. The movement is credited with pressuring President Ronald Reagan’s administration to do more to help Guatemalans and Salvadorans.

Religious activists associated with the movement also pushed San Francisco to pass a “city of refuge” ordinance in 1989 that ended local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The law change was the first example of a “sanctuary city,” a movement that expanded during Trump’s first term—and that he has repeatedly condemned.

As for reports of Trump ending the “sensitive locations” policy, Salguero said he especially was troubled the news came amid the Christian season of Advent. Jesus Christ, he said, was a “refugee fleeing violence.”

“During the highest of our holy days, now we have to talk to our families about this,” Salguero said.

Even so, he remained steadfast in his desire to aid immigrants.

“For us, this is not a political thing,” he said. “This is not a partisan thing. We have to do what Christ has called us to do.”

A man donated $10,000 to Texans on Mission after profiting off rare trading cards he found in a dumpster 25 years ago.

In 1999, Jack—whose identity is being limited to maintain his privacy—found a sheet of first-edition holographic Magic: The Gathering game cards, some of the first of these cards printed in the United States.

Twenty-four years after Jack made his find, he had the cards appraised, when all of his emergency funds were stolen from his van in spring 2023.

“All my life I’ve never had much, and I don’t care, because I’m happy,” Jack said.

But after the robbery, Jack said to God, “In all of your vast array of stuff, I’m sure you can find a little nugget for me, if you want to.”

A year later, Jack sold two of the cards and discovered the “little nugget” he spoke to God about.

In gratitude for his unexpected windfall, Jack felt led to donate some of his earnings to help others in need.

“I told God I’m going to try to be right with the money,” Jack said.

“You guys [Texans on Mission] are doing the right kind of stuff.”

A Texans on Mission Facebook post noted the organization was “more than grateful for Jack’s generosity.

“He has reminded us that when we let go and trust God, anything is possible. Even things like finding rare sheets of Magic: The Gathering cards worth way more than you’d expect!”

According to toy and game company Hasbro, Magic: The Gathering was created in 1993 and is played by more than 50 million players globally, with 13 million registered digital players.

Currently, the most valuable Magic: The Gathering card is called “The One Ring.” The card, printed in the elvish language created by J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, sold for $2.64 million.

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Twelve years ago, Randall Goodgame’s family was in the thick of homeschooling. His wife Amy struggled to help the kids memorize their weekly Scripture verses. Goodgame decided to help in a way that came naturally to him—writing songs.

It worked.

“It worked so well that … within a few weeks I realized, well, this seems important,” Goodgame said in a recent interview with Baptist Press.

Songwriter Randall Goodgame introduced his Scripture Hymnal in front of a live audience in October. “There’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information,” he said.

What started as a project to help his kids soon turned into a new phase of his ministry as a music artist. Now, Goodgame’s Scripture songs fill a new hymnal—aptly titled Scripture Hymnal—which Goodgame hopes will help churchgoers internalize God’s word.

“Music helps people remember things,” Goodgame writes in the hymnal’s introduction. “And music memories conjure much more than just information. … In the time it takes to hear a melody, a whole world can flood our consciousness.”

Music involves more than just the intellect, he told BP, which makes it an effective teacher.

“God gave us these emotions, and we are spiritual people,” he said. “We are these eternal creatures trapped in these glorious gifts that we call bodies that were made in the image of the creator. And there’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information.”

And even more than that, we are called to sing together.

“First and foremost, [singing is] an act of obedience,” Goodgame said. “The Lord only requires us to do things that are good for us. He sanctioned it. We know that means it’s good for us. … There’s something so powerful about proclaiming the truth of what’s real and what we depend on about this God that we serve and trust—proclaiming it together through song.”

A labor of love

The hymnal opens with “In the Beginning,” based on Genesis 1:1. Hymn No. 55, “Unless You Change,” is based on Matthew 18:3-5. “Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak”—hymn No. 95—is based on James 1:19.

There are 106 songs, all taken directly from Scripture, plus accompanying Scripture readings and indexes listing the songs by topic, musical style, Scripture passage and more.

Scripture Hymnal contains 106 songs, which all have corresponding studio recordings online.

The team of 12 writers who collaborated on the songs committed not to change the Scripture text in any way. They used mostly the NIV, ESV and CSB translations, choosing what they considered the most lyrical translation for a given passage.

Word-for-word rendering made the songwriting more challenging, but Goodgame had strategies for making the songs easy to learn and sing.

First, he simply immersed himself in the verses, reading them very slowly, praying and letting the passage’s theme and text dictate the feel and form of the song.

He took a cue from traditional hymns for the structure of the songs.

“Old hymns were built for unmusical people to sing together,” he said, adding that usually means one syllable per beat.

“I really made an effort to try to be aware of the syllables and where they fell on the beat,” he said. “And then once you’ve constrained yourself to that, then you have to find melodies that sound appealing within that restriction. Then it’s just kind of problem solving and listening and praying.”

Much of his inspiration for which passages to use for songs came from his own Bible study, but Goodgame also asked friends, including several pastors, “If there were one verse that your congregation would be able to sing to each other and to the Lord, what would that one verse be?”

Goodgame premiered the hymnal in a live concert Oct. 11 in Franklin, Tenn., where the capacity crowd was able to sing along with the songs pretty much right away. The lines from the hymnal appearing on the screens helped those who could read music, but even those who couldn’t were able to follow along quickly.

“The goal is you want people to feel like this is how a melody was supposed to be written for these words,” Goodgame said.

What he’s called to do

For more than a decade, Randall Goodgame has been writing songs using the Bible for lyrics.

Goodgame is no stranger to using music to instill important truths. Over the last 20 years, he’s built a kids’ and family music brand called Slugs & Bugs, releasing the first album along with singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson in 2006.

The albums are equal parts silly and serious, with songs like “God Made You” and “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You” appearing alongside ones like “Tractor Tractor” and “Chicken Wiggle.”

But the one thing they all have in common is quality music and production. It’s the kind of kids’ music that parents keep listening to on their way to work after they drop the kids off at school.

After Goodgame’s success in writing songs to help his kids memorize Scripture, he began focusing on using Scripture alone for his lyrics, and the Slugs & Bugs Sing the Bible series was born. Sing the Bible Volume 1 came out in 2014. There have been four others since then.

“It’s what the Lord called me to for well over a decade,” he said. “And I think if I hadn’t had all those five Sing the Bible albums under my belt, I wouldn’t have been prepared to have done what I just did with the Scripture Hymnal. … I’ve done it for long enough that I’ve just gotten better at it. Like you do when you do the same thing over and over.”

A priceless opportunity

The Scripture Hymnal is not for kids, though the songs are singable enough that kids can easily learn them. And for those who don’t read music or who prefer to learn them aurally, there is a studio recording of each song online.

A QR code in the front of the hymnal takes the user to the recordings. The recordings also are being compiled into albums, the second of which released Nov. 29. There will be nine albums in all.

“Even though it was written for congregational singing, I really do hope people also see the value of just personal devotion with it,” Goodgame said. “They don’t have to read music; they can just go to the song through the QR code and flip to the page of the song they want to sing and sing along with the music.”

Goodgame said a main inspiration for the hymnal project was learning how his Sing the Bible CDs helped people internalize the word of God.

“I always have heard for years and years from people, ‘The Lord will bring the song that I need to my mind right when I need it.’ I just hear it over and over again,” he said. “To carry around God’s word with you is just priceless.”

Ultimately, he hopes the Scripture Hymnal will help the church be the church.

Singing together is proclaiming God’s faithfulness “right next to people that you know are going through hard things,” he said. “You are going through something hard, and you’re affirming it, proclaiming it, choosing to believe or at least try to believe by singing what you know is true with a whole room of other people that are doing the same thing.”

And how much more so when the words believers are singing are taken straight from Scripture.

“Every time we engage with the word, we have an opportunity to meet Jesus,” Goodgame said. “And it’s in Jesus that we are redeemed, and we are sanctified, and that dim little spark brightens, and we become lights in the world, caring less about ourselves and more about other people.

“And his kingdom grows because of the outpouring of his love through us to other people. And his word is the beginning of all of that.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A group of faith leaders, activists, law enforcement officials and families of murder victims called on President Joe Biden to spare the lives of about 40 inmates currently on death row in federal prisons.

The campaign is prompted by concerns the Department of Justice will lift a moratorium imposed by the Biden administration in 2021 and begin to execute prisoners after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Thirteen federal prisoners were executed during the first Trump administration—more than four times as many as under all the presidents combined since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

Among those asking Biden to commute the sentences of death row inmates is Sharon Risher, whose mother, Ethel Lance, was one of nine church members killed in the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Risher cited Trump’s promise to restart executions in urging Biden to act.

‘A moral imperative’

“It is vital that you deny him that opportunity by commuting every death sentence remaining on federal and military death rows,” wrote Risher, chair of Death Penalty Action, in a letter to Biden.

The letter, signed by more than 400 religious and anti-death penalty groups, also urges Biden to order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the execution chamber at a federal prison in Indiana where many federal death row inmates are held and to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in current cases.

“Ending the federal and military death penalty is not only an important step toward correcting myriad flaws in the criminal legal system in the United States, it is both good governance and a moral imperative,” the letter reads. “We will continue to work toward that goal.”

Risher and Lisa Brown, whose son Christopher Vialva was executed in 2020, also appeared at several events on Capital Hill Dec. 10, including a news conference with U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Pressley noted the racial disparities among prisoners on death row in calling for Biden to act.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and the death penalty is a cruel, racist and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society,” she said.

In a separate statement, Pressley cited her Christian faith and Biden’s, while making the case against the death penalty.

“As someone who grew up in a storefront church on the South Side of Chicago, I believe that we are one human family,” the statement read.

“As people of faith, we have a collective, righteous mandate to save lives, and one way that we can do that is by abolishing the death penalty—a cruel, inhumane, and racist punishment that has no place in any society. I hope that President Biden, as a man who is guided by his faith, will take action while he still can.”

Among federal inmates facing execution are the gunmen in high-profile mass shootings, such as the one at Mother Emanuel and at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, as well as the Boston Marathon bomber.

Some family members of Mother Emanuel victims made national headlines for forgiving the shooter, Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017.

However, not all families of victims agree with that decision, as reporter and author Jennifer Berry Hawes reported in her 2019 book, Grace Will Lead Us Home. Of the nine families affected by the Tree of Life shooting, seven supported the death penalty for Robert Bower, who was sentenced to death in 2023.

Seeking life sentences, not a pardon

Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said everyone on death row has been convicted of a terrible crime, and activists are not seeking to have death row prisoners pardoned. They are asking Biden to commute the sentences to life in prison, so prisoners still are being held accountable for their actions.

Hodge, a former prosecutor, said her Christian faith motivates her to oppose the death penalty. She believes in the possibility for redemption and in the worth of every person on death row, no matter what they have done.

“Everyone who’s on there did something heinous,” she said. “But that does not change the fact that they still have dignity and worth. And if you are acting in your faith, believe in the power of redemption.”

Faith Leaders of Color, a group made up mostly of Black pastors, and the Catholic Mobilizing Network also wrote letters to Biden asking him to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners, drawing on the same belief in human dignity.

“As Catholics, we understand that every person is made in the image of God and that our Heavenly Father does not shut the door on anyone,” the Catholic Mobilizing Network letter reads, echoing a message forwarded by Catholic leaders over the past week.

“President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in an action alert.

In addition, Pope Francis specifically called for the U.S. to commute the sentences of those on death row over the weekend, asking Catholic faithful to “pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed.” He added, “Think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

In 2018, the pontiff changed the catechism of the Catholic Church to codify teaching that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

Biden, a Catholic, campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty but has not done so. His moratorium on executions did not stop the Department of Justice from continuing to prosecute capital punishment cases.

Appeal to ‘pro-life’ Christians

Joia Thornton, founder and national director of Faith Leaders of Color, cited the president’s faith as well as Biden’s long ties to Black churches in calling for him to commute death row sentences.

“Commuting the federal death row would be an incredible milestone for those who believe life has value, mercy is encompassing and grace covers a multitude of sin,” Thorton said in a statement.

Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, a progressive evangelical group, said his opposition to the death penalty is tied to his beliefs about the sanctity of all lives. Being “pro-life,” he said, means more than opposing abortion. He shakes his head at fellow believers who want to end abortion but who support the death penalty.

“What’s haunting is that the death penalty has survived in America because of Christians, not in spite of us,” he said.

He also pointed to a story in the Gospel of John, where Jesus interrupts an attempted execution. A woman in that story was caught in adultery, and a crowd wanted to stone her to death. But Jesus, Claiborne said, stopped the execution by saying, “Let the ones without sin cast the first stone.”

Jesus also blessed the merciful and said God’s mercy is stronger than any crime people can commit, Claiborne said.

Before Trump’s first term, only three federal death row inmates, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, had been executed since 1988 and none from April 2003 to June 2020. Since 1927, the federal government has executed 50 death row prisoners in total.

Hodge said organizers had yet to hear from the White House but are hopeful Biden will act, especially given Trump’s promises to resume what organizers called an “execution spree.”

She also pointed to a proposal in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document outlining its hopes for a second Trump term in the White House, which called on Trump to “do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row.”

“We know what will happen under a new administration,” Hodge said. “Forty lives are hanging in the balance.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the largest single-day act of clemency in recent history, the White House announced Dec. 12 Biden is commuting the sentences of about 1,500 individuals who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoning 39 convicted nonviolent offenders. The clemency did not affect federal death row, but Biden said he would continue to review clemency petitions and take further action in the weeks ahead.

MEXICO CITY (BP)—Ten Catholic priests and a seminarian were murdered during the six-year term of former Mexican President López Obrador that ended Sept. 30, the Catholic Multimedia Center said in its 2024 annual report.

Seven bishops and seven additional priests were attacked during the same period but survived, the center said, chronicling concurrent attacks on churches and holy sites that mark “an escalation of aggressions that demonstrate the progressive desacralization and absence of any respect towards the holy and sacred.”

Another priest has been killed since President Claudia Sheinbaum began her term in October—Marcelo Pérez Pérez of the San Cristóbal de las Casas Diocese.

“His assassination was not circumstantial, nor was it ‘collateral damage,’” the report noted. “And, in a cunning manner, it showed that his pastoral actions and activity in favor of human rights was inconvenient to those who cut short his existence.”

While persecution of Catholics in Mexico is not disputed, report authors Guillermo Gazanini Espinoza, head of multimedia center information, and multimedia center Director Sergio Omar Sotelo Aguilar, describe the persecution as especial to Catholics alone.

“Catholic priests in Mexico continue to be treated as second-class citizens, while other ministers of worship, whether from religious groups or ideological movements, enjoy freedom, without any sanction, to express their civic opinions,” the two wrote in the report’s prologue.

“This is an affront to freedom of conscience and the rights of democratic participation that are permitted by our Constitution.”

Non-Catholics also in danger

Reports by international religious liberty advocates agree Mexico is dangerous for Catholic priests, but also cite persecution of others, including Indigenous groups and any religious leaders who advocate for morality.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its 2023 report on Religious Freedom for Indigenous Communities in Latin America, noted persecution of Indigenous communities in Mexico.

Currently, about 150 Baptists are displaced from their indigenous villages in Hidalgo, Mexico, after leaders in the majority Catholic area reneged on an agreement that would have allowed them to return home. Baptist pastors and others have been severely beaten.

The U.S. State Department, in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, cited the multimedia center’s statistic from an earlier report tallying 800 incidents of extortion and threats against priests in Mexico between October 2022 and October 2023.

The State Department also reported “incidents of violence against religious leaders did not appear to be based solely on religious identity,” referencing Mexico’s National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination.

“Some NGOs said cartels and other criminal groups continued to single out Catholic priests and other religious leaders because of their condemnation of criminal activities and because communities viewed them as moral authority figures,” the State Department reported.

Still, the Catholic Multimedia Center’s report shows widespread persecution of Catholics in Mexico, documenting almost 900 cases of Roman Catholic ministers and church workers being extorted or threatened, and 26 attacks on religious buildings during Obrador’s presidency.

Christian persecution watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, in announcing the report, called on the Mexican government to protect Catholic priests and other religious leaders from harm.

The Catholic Multimedia Center “has been documenting this trend for almost 35 years, and it is of deep concern that attacks on priests and religious leaders spiked and have remained steadily high over the past three presidential administrations, with no real sign of improvement,” CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said.

“We stand in solidarity with (the center) in calling for the international community, in collaboration with the Mexican government,” she said, “to effectively address the various factors, including impunity, corruption and the proliferation of violent organized criminal groups involved in the international trafficking of human beings, weapons and drugs, that have made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a Catholic priest.”

According to Mexico’s 2020 census, 78 percent of the population is Catholic, 10 percent is Protestant or evangelical Protestant, and 1.5 percent is aligned with other religious groups, including Judaism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Islam.

Just over 8 percent described themselves as nonreligious, and 2.5 percent said they practice an unspecified religion. The U.S. State Department estimated Mexico’s population was 130 million in 2023.

WACO—“How can we disciple our young people well on matters of biblical sexuality?” Gary Stidham, director of training for Texas Baptists’ Center for Collegiate Ministry, asked a Texas Baptist group.

Stidham raised the question during a breakout session held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting last month.

Stidham credited Sean McDowell, a professor at Talbot School of Theology, with observing that prior generations wanted to know about Christianity, “Is it true?” But Generation Z is asking, “Is it good?”

The shift from intellectual questions to moral questions among young people means churches must be sensitive in how they discuss matters of sexual identity, if they want to reach Gen Z.

Today’s critique of the church by those outside the faith isn’t so much that Christianity is illogical or unreasonable, but that it is unloving and uncaring toward people on the margins—particularly women, immigrants, people of color and those in the LGBTQ community, Stidham noted.

But if church leaders want to help students and young families love the gospel, the church and the word of God, “we have to tackle issues around sexual morality, because that’s where the culture has gotten so far off the rails in the last few decades,” Stidham said.

Stidham suggested to address this conversation, Christian leaders should talk about the subject of sexuality holistically, starting with Genesis; make affirming marriage a priority; celebrate chastity, singleness and celibacy; teach wise dating; and fight pornography aggressively.

Stidham served as a campus missionary with Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Texas in Arlington for 21 years. He now oversees 60 campus missionary interns for their first couple of years out of college serving with BSM. His doctoral work focused on LGBTQ issues.

He noted 12 years ago, after a time when the BSM at UT Arlington had “gotten really good at gathering large groups” but was not seeing very many college students come to Christ, “God led us to shepherd a really powerful evangelistic movement.”

As a result, the BSM began to see at least one student a week come to Christ, a trend, Stidham noted, “that continues to this day.”

One thing his team at UT Arlington began to realize was these new Christians’ “lives were messy,” and they came with “a lot of baggage to unpack, and a lot of that baggage had to do with gender and sexuality issues.”

While Stidham acknowledged issues about sexuality “have always been around,” the increased cultural focus on sexuality and gender identity means issues around sexuality are even more present and complex. In fact, sexual confusion and brokenness permeate Gen Z.

Increasing numbers

Gallup reported this year 19 percent of Gen Z (ages 12-27) identify as LGBTQ, compared to about 10 percent of Millennials, 5 percent of Gen X and 2 percent of Baby Boomers.

A recent Barna poll reflects an even higher percentage, with 39 percent identifying as LGBTQ and half of that number identifying as bisexual.

But more Gen Z identify as same-sex-attracted than who act upon that attraction, Stidham pointed out. Most of this generation who claim a bisexual identity only date the opposite sex. They “want that identity, so they say they’re bisexual, even though they don’t act upon it.”

What has led to the burgeoning numbers who identify as LGBTQ? First, Stidham noted, is the “straight-up reality that there are people who are same-sex attracted.”

From ancient times all the way up until now, in a “complicated mix of nature and nurture,” he said, there are people “who didn’t ask for it” or “wake up and decide one morning, ‘I’m going to like people like me (same sex).’”

Another factor is the epidemic of loneliness affecting this generation. Sexual identity has coalesced into a “movement of belonging for disaffected youth,” where they can find connections that eluded them outside of the LGBTQ community.

Another contributor is social pressure, especially for people who in years past would have been described as “tomboys” or “sensitive boys.” Now, there is pressure for such natural personality differences to be understood as signifiers of homosexuality or gender nonconformity, he explained.

Mental health and LGBTQ are related, Stidham noted, pointing out there is a “tremendous correlation” between anxiety and depression and LGBTQ identity. And neurodivergence—autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder—has an even higher correlation to LGBTQ identity than anxiety.

“Almost every one of the reasons means what these young adults don’t need is our scorn and a wagging finger. What they typically need is our arms welcoming them in.

“They need patience. They need help meeting Jesus, so that with discipleship they can unpack all the confusion,” he noted.

Trying to “own the liberals” isn’t the way to love LGBTQ people. Instead, loving the teenagers who struggle with confusing messages about sexuality is how to reach LGBTQ people, he said.

Powerful forces, talked about in Colossians 2:8, are working to indoctrinate Gen Z. In every generation, Satan wants to capture the minds of the people and move people away from God. Stidham sees the increase in LGBTQ identities as evidence of an ongoing spiritual battle with “elemental forces.”

Stidham pointed to “radical individual autonomy” that came out of the sexual revolution of the 1960s as being at the heart of why LGBTQ has become such a heated issue. So, he cautioned pastors against playing into a “nobody can tell me what to do mindset.”

Core identity realignment

For a good many people, sexuality has become the ultimate identity, seen as being at the very core of who they are.

“I’m not a man who happens to be same-sex attracted. I’m a gay man,” Stidham gave as an example to clarify this idea.

Because sexuality has assumed such a preeminent place in identities, in order to disciple young people, church leaders must learn how to speak thoughtfully and with nuance about these issues.

Christian students want to talk about these issues, Stidham noted. They want to know the truth concerning sexuality. In fact, “they’re more eager to hear than we are to share.”

These conversations should be approached by church leaders with genuine questions, seeking to understand what students are hearing and feeling about matters of sexuality and identity.

“We are ministers and missionaries, not political pundits,” Stidham noted. There is a culture war happening, “but don’t be a culture warrior,” Stidham urged. “The reason we talk about these issues is to help people come to Jesus.”

1 Corinthian 6:18-20 demonstrates sexual morality is profoundly important to our spirituality, he said.

When Christian leaders are discipling students on matters of sexuality, they should stress the flourishing that can come when identities are found not in sexuality, but in Christ.

ELDORET, Kenya—Thirty-six Kenyan teenage boys and young men came together in November for a leadership training camp. At the end, 13 of them accepted a challenge to lead future gatherings locally and start encouraging other boys and men.

Six Kenyan churches brought together the group in Eldoret, about 200 miles northwest of Nairobi. Five adult leaders of Texas Royal Ambassadors, a ministry of Texans on Mission, provided the training.

The camp grew out of an RA-led meeting earlier this year.

“Pastors went home intentionally looking for young men in their churches they believed were leaders and wanted to get them some training,” said Savion Lee, state RA coordinator.

Those attending the camp learned leadership skills through adventure recreation and team building challenges.

“The lessons highlighted unity and cooperation, responsibility and the importance of prayer in everything we do,” Lee said.

Steve Darilek, a long-time RA trainer from Bridgeport, likened the camp in Kenya to the annual RA Leadership Training Camp held in Texas.

“We use a lot of different things … to produce leaders and raise a passion” for leadership among youth, Darilek explained. “It looks like it’s just fun and games,” but there is a spiritual application.

“We hope they will take it back to their churches, to bring about change and open the eyes of their youth group,” he said.

The Kenya group included young men ages 14-23, Darilek said.

“They were very, very respectful,” he said. “I was impressed with their ability to stay focused,” even when language translation created challenges.

As the camp drew to a close, Lee said the pastors “put out the vision and asked who would be willing to help coordinate recurring meetings in their towns. Thirteen young men responded to that invitation.”

Since the regional meeting, the 13 already have held an initial meeting coordinated via the WhatsApp digital platform.

The Texas RA leaders and Kenyan pastors have the same hopes for what happens as a result of the camp.

“They wanted a group of young men to become leaders and to come back to their church and assist them in leading others to Christ … and to be leaders in their church,” Darilek said.

The pastors want the young men to know Christ, “speak Jesus,” give testimony of their faith and unify their group within their church, Darilek said.

The RA approach used in Kenya included the sharing of personal experiences.

“The Lord has done many things in all of our lives—the most important of which is our salvation,” Lee said. “Learning how to share your personal testimony can give courage to any young man, boy, man, whomever, to share about who God is and who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them.”

The young men in Kenya “were interested in learning from us, especially about Scripture,” he said.

“I look forward to seeing how the encouragement they received through the camp will make an impact with their families and with their churches,” Lee said.

MINNEAPOLIS (BP)—Some Minnesota Christian parents are challenging a state law that blocks certain Christian colleges from a program that allows colleges to enroll high schoolers in tuition-free college credit courses.

Through Minnesota’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, 10th through 12th graders have been able to take college credit courses tuition-free at state colleges since 1985, according to attorneys at Becket Law.

But the state changed the program in 2023, blocking Crown College and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul from participation because the schools require on-campus students to sign statements of faith.

“We raise our children to put their faith at the center of everything they do,” parents Mark and Melinda Loe, plaintiffs in the suit, said in a Dec. 9 press release.

“Unfortunately, Minnesota is depriving kids like ours of the opportunity to get a head start on college at schools that embrace their faith. We hope the court will strike this law down and protect all religious students and the schools they want to attend.”

The Loes have 16-year-old and 13-year-old children. Dawn Erickson, also a plaintiff in the case, has a 16-year-old child.

Historically, Becket Law said, secular and religious schools qualified for participation in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, although courses that were “sectarian in nature” were excluded from course offerings.

Program requirements amended

But in 2023, Minnesota amended the program to stipulate, “An eligible institution must not require a faith statement from a secondary student seeking to enroll in a postsecondary course under this section during the application process or base any part of the admission decision on a student’s race, creed, ethnicity, disability, gender, or sexual orientation or religious beliefs or affiliations,” according to the text of the adopted bill available on the Minnesota Legislature’s website.

“The state of Minnesota has a fundamental right to protect its students from discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Jeff Timmerman argued at a Dec. 9 hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, CBS News reported

Becket Law first challenged the new rule in May 2023 in Loe v. Walz, securing a preliminary injunction the following month blocking the rule’s enforcement while the lawsuit is active. The case continues as Loe v. Jett.

“The legislative history confirms that amendment’s point was to single out these religious institutions,” Becket wrote in its original complaint, referencing Minnesota House sessions where the bill’s author, “explained that both the faith-statement provision and the antidiscrimination provision were included in the amendment to force schools to admit students without regard to their religious beliefs.”

Crown College, aligned with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul, confirmed as a “Christian community,” are also plaintiffs in the case.

Crown College President Andrew Denton expressed appreciation for the decades the school has participated in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program.

“Crown College is committed to providing all our students the tools they need to excel intellectually and spiritually through our biblically-integrated education,” Denton said in the Becket press release.

“We pray that the court will continue to allow every student in Minnesota to use PSEO funds at the school that best meets their needs and matches their values.”

University of Northwestern-St. Paul President Corbin Hoornbeek issued a similar plea.

“For over a century, Northwestern has existed to offer students a Christ-centered education that prepares them to serve in the home, church, community and the world,” Hoornbeek said. “Minnesota wants to single out our university because of this unique campus culture which integrates faith and learning. We pray the court will recognize that and continue to allow us to help on-campus PSEO students flourish in their faith and education.”

Becket bases its case on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, accusing Minnesota’s law of five violations including religious targeting, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine of the First Amendment, saying the schools must give up their religious identity to participate.

Becket also accuses Minnesota of violating the schools’ freedom of speech and of discriminating against the schools based on the schools’ religion. Becket expects a ruling in the coming months.