The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.
A Supreme Court decision that could be as big as Roe v Wade.
Legislating Religious Liberty, WORLD
In a landmark ruling on Monday in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the high court decreed that an employer who fires a worker for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex.” While the court expanded the definition “sex,” it did not address other major issues, including religious liberty in the workplace.
“I personally think the decision shows us that if you’re socially conservative and care about religious freedom, you’ll want to engage in the legislative space to protect religious liberty as much as possible,” said Tim Schultz, president of First Amendment Partnership.
A prominent Conservative reckons with racism.
American Racism: We’ve Got So Very Far to Go, David French
We each like to think we’re not unduly influenced by our immediate environment and culture. That’s a phenomenon that affects other people, we believe. I’m the kind of person who has carefully considered both sides and has arrived at my positions through the force of reason and logic. Sure, I’ve got biases, but that only matters at the edges. The core of my beliefs are rooted in reason, conviction, and faith.
Maybe that describes you, but I now realize it didn’t describe me.
It’s a constant reality for pastors.
When Your Ministry Seems Meaningless, Luke Holmes
We often hear people say things like “What can I do for God? I’m just a teacher, stay at home parent, retiree, bus driver, rancher, farmer, banker, store worker, etc.” It doesn’t matter what your job is in the church or out of the church; it doesn’t matter if the world thinks a lot of you or if you fade into the background.
What matters is if God is in the work that you do. Because nothing can be small if God is in it.
What is “Juneteenth”?
5 Facts About Juneteenth, ERLC
Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official on the first day of January 1863, the news didn’t arrive in Texas until two and a half years later. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston with word that the war had ended and that those who were once enslaved were now free.