Illinois Baptist
A real life saver
Meredith Flynn’s unlikely hero P. 12
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
‘Build Back’ act raises concerns Washington | Religious freedom concerns for faith-based child-care programs plague President Biden’s Build Back Better Act approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in November, according to Southern Baptists’ ethics entity. The bill faces a steeper hill in the Senate. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and other organizations urged congressional members to revise provisions in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. They say the legislation will prevent faith-based centers and schools from participating in good conscience in the proposal’s expansive pre-kindergarten and child-care programs. Its mandates, the ERLC and others say, would affect the practice of faith-based recipients, if they choose to participate, in such areas as hiring, admissions, and teaching. It could open providers to requirements regarding gay and transgender rights that conflict with their religious beliefs, critics say. “Faith-based groups play a vital role in providing quality child-care and pre-K to America’s children,” said Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s director of public policy. “These organizations must have the freedom to serve parents and children according to their religious beliefs. “Many nonpublic schools intentionally avoid federal financial recipient status because of how it could subject them to troubling provisions related to sexual orientation and gender identity language that raises serious religious liberty concerns,” she said in a written statement. “The Build Back Better proposal must respect the religious freedom of these institutions.” P. 3
P. 10
NATE ADAMS
Counterfeit Christmas Can you make it the real thing? P. 2
SBC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Slade urges calm After months of chaos P. 3
GUIDESTONE
Hawkins retires Focuses on needy pastors P. 4
News journal of the Illinois Baptist State Association
DEC. 1, 2021
Vol. 115 No. 12
Nonprofit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Peoria, Illinois Permit No. 325
IllinoisBaptist.org
IB
Do you still feel this way? P. 7
Land of the lost Read about its Chicago connections P. 6