The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

ERLC Co-hosts Conference on Racial Unity and Martin Luther King Jr.

Earlier this week, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and The Gospel Coalition (TGC) hosted a two-day conference in Memphis, Tennessee to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

Nearly 4,000 people turned out for “MLK50: Gospel Reflections From the Mountaintop," an event which was designed not only to honor the civil rights leader but also to consider the state of racial justice and how to achieve unity amid the country's ongoing division. 

In an interview with Faithfully Magazine, Daniel Darling, ERLC's vice president for communications, explained the goal of the conference. 

“Our desire is for pastors, church leaders, and church members to listen and learn from the diverse group of pastors, leaders, and speakers who will then work intentionally in their local churches and local communities toward racial unity,” said Darling. “We hope attendees will be challenged, afresh, to see racial unity as a gospel issue and to repent of ways in which we have been silent or indifferent to the burdens born by many of our minority brothers and sisters in Christ.”

On Wednesday the conference hosts also announced the establishment of a program in King's memory that will enable minority students from Memphis to receive full and partial scholarships to 15 Christian colleges, universities and seminaries. According to Baptist Press, more than $1.475 million already has been raised for the fund.

During his keynote speech, ERLC president Russell Moore said that in a world of racial injustice, hatred and bigotry, "the answer is not to rebrand but to repent.” 

“[T]ime and time again in the white American Bible belt, the people of God had to choose between Jesus Christ and Jim Crow because you cannot serve both,” said Moore, “and tragically many often chose to serve Jim Crow and to rename him Jesus Christ.”

You can watch videos of most of the sessions using the links below:

Russell Moore: King and Kingdom: Racial Justice and the Uneasy Conscience of American Christianity

Isaac Adams: Spoken word poem

Jackie Hill Perry: Equipping the Next Generation to Embrace Gospel Diversity

A spoken word from Preston Perry and panel discussion with Mika Edmondson, Russell Moore, Carl Ellis, Charlie Dates, and Trillia Newbell: The Complex Aspects of MLK 

John Perkins: The Civil Rights Movement 50 Years after MLK

Charlie Dates: Justice and Righteousness

Matt Chandler: Understanding and Overcoming the Inconsistencies in White Evangelicals on Racial Issues 

Trip Lee: Christian Hip Hop and the Next Generation of Christian Racial Unity

Panel discussion with Collin Hansen (moderator), Christina Edmondson, Justin Giboney, Juan Sanchez, and Benjamin Watson: The State of Racial Tension in America

Karen Ellis: To the Ends of the Earth: The Great Commission, the Global Persecuted Church and Racial Unity

John Piper: The Glory of God and Racial Unity

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Lee Strobel about sharing the gospel in an increasingly secular world. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matthew Hawkins talks to Chelsea Patterson Sobolik about childlessness and the church. On the Countermoves podcast, Andrew Walker talks to Tim Goeglein about the ten years since the death of William F. Buckley. And on the ERLC podcast, Crawford Loritts has some lessons on integrity from a father who lived it.

Other Issues

American Culture

How DACA Helps Curb Teen Pregnancy
The Atlantic

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era policy that allows 1.3 million undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to stay and work here legally. Those who meet the criteria are protected from deportation for a period of two years, which can be renewed. The Trump administration plunged this program into a state of uncertainty last September.  

New data clearly illustrate the poverty-to-prison pipeline
Quartz

In the US, boys born into poor households often end up in prison as adults. Boys born into rich ones almost never do. This is the eye-opening finding of a recently released analysis by the Brookings Institution. The report finds that boys born into households in the bottom 10% of earners are 20 times more likely to be in prison on a given day in their early 30s than children born into the top 10%.

Bioethics

Supreme Court Sows Confusion About Abortion Law
RealClearPolicy

Clarifying and settling the law are among the most important responsibilities of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional system, and something the Court is frequently called on to do. Ultimately it is this Court's responsibility to clarify the scope of its own holdings, as Justice William Brennan said more than a quarter of a century ago. 

Allowing Abortion For Down Syndrome Babies Puts All The Vulnerable At Risk
The Federalist

Unborn babies with Down Syndrome deserve legal protections, because allowing them to be systematically eliminated in the womb is barbaric and puts other “genetically undesirable” people groups at risk. In a recent Washington Post column, Ruth Marcus argues that laws in Ohio, North Dakota, and Louisiana — where a woman cannot abort her baby solely because he or she has Down Syndrome.

Washington Post Op-Ed Defends Right to Abort Fetuses with Down Syndrome
National Review Online

Abortion-rights proponents refer constantly to the all-important "right to choose," but they consistently ignore or deny that the choice being protected is the choice to kill an innocent.

Freezer Malfunctions Underscore The Dark Realities Of Artificial Reproduction
The Federalist

On March 4, Pacific Fertility Clinic of San Francisco and Cleveland's University Hospitals Fertility Center both experienced a similar technical malfunction of their embryo and egg storage tanks. These resulted in increased storage tank temperatures at both clinics, which endangered the viability of thousands of frozen human eggs and embryos.  

Christianity and Culture

For #MLK50, Christian Schools Launch $1.5 Million in Minority Scholarships
Christianity Today

Dream Forward initiative by Wheaton, Gordon, SBC seminaries, and others builds on Martin Luther King Jr. commemorations in Memphis. Twenty Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries have raised $1.5 million in scholarships to offer minority students in Memphis as part of a new initiative in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated there 50 years ago today.  

50 Years After MLK, Sunday Segregation Isn't Theological
Christianity Today

According to sociology's top survey, black and white evangelicals have more in common than politics conveys. One of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most enduring statements regarding the church was his observation that "the most segregated hour of the week" was 11 a.m. on Sunday.  

Megachurch pastor indicted on $3.5 million fraud
ABC News

The religious leader allegedly sold phony Chinese bonds.

International Issues

China says it protects religious freedom, but the Bible is disappearing from online bookstores
Quartz

Just as China pledged to uphold religious freedom, China's 70 million Christians are finding it harder to get a copy of the Holy Bible. Online bookstores in China have pulled the Bible off their shelves in recent days, with searches for the Bible in Chinese on major e-commerce sites including Alibaba's Taobao, JD.com, and Amazon China yielding no results.  

This Is Making a Lot of Christians in China Very Nervous'
The Atlantic

The Chinese government detained a beloved Catholic bishop earlier this week in an apparent attempt to keep him out of sight around the Easter holidays, just as an end to a decades-long split between Beijing and the Vatican may be in sight. The bishop, Guo Xijin, is recognized by the Vatican but not by the official Catholic Church in China, which is under government control.  

Solace amid persecution for India's Christian minority
Baptist Press

Christians comprising just 2.3 percent of India's population noted two legal successes this Easter as religious persecution mounts under the Hindu nation's ruling Indian People's Party (BJP).

Religious Liberty

Christian col. suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Baptist Press

A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him.

Domestic Challenges to Religious Liberty—From Left and Right
Public Discourse

In yesterday's essay , I described the threat of both religious and secular totalitarianism, which threaten religious liberty on a global scale. Today, I focus on threats that are closer to home. The Challenge from the Left I will start with the challenge from the left because I think it's more obvious and better known.  

Unordained Music Minister May Claim NJ Parsonage Exemption
Religion Clause

In Clover Hill Reformed Church v. Township of Hillsborough, (NJ Tax Ct., March 23, 2018), the New Jersey Tax court held that, even though he is not ordained, a church's Minister of Music qualifies as an "officiating clergyman" so that he may claim the parsonage exemption from state property tax for the home furnished to him by the church.