Church/State

One of our readers emails information about a variety of organizations that litigate in the area of church/state, 1st Amendment issues (I've supplied the links):

"The August 26, 2006 issue of World Magazine lists a number of Religious liberty legal organizations which may be of interest to those reading your blog. They are: American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Rutherford Institute (Virginia), Liberty Counsel (Florida), the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy (Mississippi), the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (Washington, D.C.), and Alliance Defense Fund.

Smaller groups, such as the Pacific Justice Institute concentrate on regional work. For example, they helped the city of San Diego file the appeal to the U S Supreme Court involving the cross on the war memorial located on the top of Mt. Soledad. (Arizona).

"One of the most interesting attorneys is John Whitehead who heads up the Rutherford institute. He was a former pot smoking, left-wing underground journalist. In 1974 he turned from scoffer to believer and in 1982 founded the Rutherford Institute. He realized Christianity had become a minority viewpoint and in need of legal protection."

Each of these organizations has a different perspective on many religious liberty issues than the Baptist Joint Committee, although few [none?] are membership organizations and Seventh Day Baptists would no doubt disagree with positions they take, too.