Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist
Joint Committee on Public Affairs, is a church/state lawyer’s church/state lawyer. I cannot tell you how often I
rely on his counsel, or how often I steal his insights (and even his
jokes). He has a great
overview of the past decade in
religious liberty up on the BJC’s home page, reviewing the Supreme Court’s
decisions in Establishment Clause and Free Exercise cases, as well as Religion
in Public Life and Religious Liberty Abroad.
If only the news Brent has to report were better! His conclusion:
In terms of religious liberty and
church-state relations, however, it has been a mixed bag — some good news, some
bad. When compared to the state of religious liberty internationally, we
continue to do reasonably well in the United States.