Proposed religious liberty exemptions for wedding vendors — such as bakers, florists and photographers — opposed to same-sex marriage keep making headlines. Here at GetReligion, we've highlighted recent media coverage of a ballot initiative in Oregon and legislation in Kansas (where the Senate, for now, has killed a controversial measure). The Tennesseanreported this week on a similar bill failing in Tennessee.
Meanwhile, LifeWay Research released results of a national survey today. LifeWay's Bob Smietana has the story:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Americans have always had mixed feelings about religious liberty. Most say it’s important, but they don’t always agree how much liberty is enough or too much.
That’s the issue at the heart of the upcoming Supreme Court hearings between Hobby Lobby and the Obama Administration over the HHS contraceptive mandate.
It’s a dispute that is unlikely to go away, no matter what the Supreme Court decides.
American preachers, it turns out, are more than a bit uneasy about religious liberty these days.
A survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found seven out of 10 senior pastors at Protestant churches say religious liberty is on the decline in America. About seven in 10 also say Christians have lost or are losing the culture war. The telephone survey of Protestant senior pastors was taken Sept. 4-19, 2013.
Of course, social media such as Twitter are the modern-day water cooler, and the religious liberty issue inspired an interesting discussion Wednesday between two of Religion News Service's national correspondents: Sarah Pulliam Bailey (of former GetReligionista fame) and Cathy Grossman (who has blogged on the "values tug-of-war").
Lots of Christians seem upset with @kirstenpowers10 today for saying xians should just bake the cake for a gay couple http://t.co/o4b8de4JvQ
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) February 19, 2014
.@spulliam@kirstenpowers10 Some seem to find it stressful to live like the Jesus they claim to follow, the one who dined with sinners
— Cathy Lynn Grossman (@CLGrossman) February 19, 2014
@CLGrossman Hm, I think that's missing the other side, which sees the government having no right to compel businesses what to do.
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) February 19, 2014
@spulliam where does that line stop? Which religious objections are going to be allowed and which ones not and who decides validity?
— Cathy Lynn Grossman (@CLGrossman) February 19, 2014
@CLGrossman That is the question, yes, but I found the earlier point was unfair, suggesting that people find it stressful to live like Jesus
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) February 19, 2014
In my post last week about the Kansas legislation, I praised a Wichita Eagle story, while raising concerns about national coverage by Yahoo! and Time. My take prompted reader Robert Chacon to comment:
Yes, the local papers outside of big NY, LA , Chicago, SF Metro areas and the national outlets generally do a much better job of professional journalism.
Host Todd Wilken and I discuss that notion on this week's episode of "Crossroads," the GetReligion podcast. We also talk about questions reporters should be asking — and facts they should be providing — when reporting on the religious liberty issue and same-sex marriage.
Click here to listen to the podcast. As always, the Oklahoma accent is free.