The Weekly is a highlight of the work the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is doing to strengthen you and our churches for God’s glory.

Explainer: Supreme Court to decide the fate of DACA

What just happened?

The Supreme Court is considering the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which gives temporary legal status to undocumented children in the U.S., commonly referred to as “Dreamers.” The program was created by the Obama Administration and rescinded by the Trump Administration.

What is DACA?

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a policy President Obama implemented by executive action in 2010.

Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. President Obama directed the Department of Homeland Security to consider requests for deferred action for certain people who came to the U.S. as children and met qualifications similar to the DREAM Act. (This is why people who qualify for DACA are sometimes referred to as “Dreamers.”)

Those who fill out the required form and qualify for eligibility are allowed to remain, legally work, and/or attend college in the U.S. for a period of two years. As long as they continue to meet the criteria, they are exempt from deportation during the period of deferred action and may be allowed to renew the deferment.

This Week at the ERLC

• Dan Darling and Josh Wester attended the North Carolina Baptist Convention. 

• Phillip Bethancourt was in Louisville, Kentucky, speaking at the Boyce College dorm meeting. 
   
• Dan Darling was in New York on Fox Nation and the Lauren Green Show talking about his Advent book, The Characters of Christmas. In addition, he wrote about human dignity for Decision Magazine. He is also heading to Jacksonville, Florida, for the board meeting of Let My People Go. 
   
• Chelsea Patterson Sobolik spoke at The Heritage Foundation for an event on adoption that the ERLC co-hosted with National Review Institute. 
   
• Travis Wussow spoke at John Brown University about the role of government in Christians’ pursuit of justice.
   
• Jason Thacker and Josh Wester wrote about technology and democracy for Providence Magazine.
   
• The ERLC’s AI Statement was mentioned by The Seattle Times.

What You Need to Know

• Tragically, a recent high-profile Christian walked away from the faith, leaving many questioning how this happens. Stacy Reaoch considers those who are doubting and give five ways we can point them to Jesus. Read her article here. 

How could someone who has been sitting in church for 11 years, attending book studies and moms’ groups, be so confused about what makes a person a Christian and what God calls us to in his Word? It made me wonder how many other people sitting beside us in the pews are plagued with doubts and confusion. So, how should the church respond to those doubting their faith?

• When talking about adoption, the child involved is usually the focus. While this is good, Jenn Hesse and Brittany Salmon remind us that we need to consider birthmothers and give three ways the Church can remember them. Read their article here.

Recognizing the imago dei of birthmothers also affects how we advocate the unborn. Being pro-life isn’t only about preventing abortion; it’s about dignifying life from womb to tomb. We care about babies and the women who are carrying them. This involves removing stigma and shame from our conversations about women who face unplanned pregnancies, speaking truth with kindness and respect.

• We’re accustomed these days to seeing fighting across political aisles. But even more disheartening is quarreling among those who have the blood of Christ in common. Daryl Crouch addresses this and calls Christians to unity. Read more here.

It could be that beyond our simple failure to share Jesus with lost people, the greatest explanation for evangelicals’ anemic efforts in seeing more people saved and baptized is a contrived, holier-than-thou tribalism cloaked as biblical orthodoxy. Rather than rallying around the Cross, we have dug tribal motes with the shovels of secondary issues at the expense of the primary doctrines of our faith.

News From Capitol Hill

To mark National Adoption Month, the ERLC policy team co-hosted an event this week with the National Review Institute and The Heritage Foundation. The theme for the conversation was Adopting a Culture of Life and Love: Protecting and Defending Vulnerable Children and Families Against the Cruelties of Indifference and Ideology.

The morning began with opening remarks from host, Emilie Kao of Heritage, in which she introduced Rep. Robert Aderholt (R–Ala.), co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, for a keynote address. In his keynote, Aderholt contended that the commitment to life should go beyond our defense for the unborn:

“Being pro-life doesn’t just mean being pro-birth, it means being interested in the welfare of that child for their entire formative years.”

Joining Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review, for a panel discussion was Montse Alvarado of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Herbie Newell of Lifeline Children’s Services, and Naomi Schaefer Riley of the American Enterprise Institute. The group discussed how policy, law, and practice can better support the needs of children and families. 

Chelsea Patterson Sobolik, in giving the event’s closing remarks, reflected on a congressional trip she took to an orphanage in Haiti, her service as a CASA volunteer in Washington, D.C., and her own story of adoption from Eastern Europe to her family in North Carolina. You can watch the event’s speeches and panel here.

Featured Podcasts

From The Public Square

A Report from the Religious Liberty Front Lines
Mark David Hall, Christianity Today

An experienced litigator explains why believers and nonbelievers alike have a stake in defending America’s “first freedom.”

ISIS kills 9, injures 71 in Syrian Christian attacks
Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

The Islamic State (ISIS) is claiming responsibility for two attacks on Christians in northeast Syria that killed nine and wounded 71, as Christians continue to flee villages just outside a proposed safe zone at the Syria-Turkey border.

Can Marriage Counseling Save America?
Andrew Ferguson, The Atlantic

The success of the civility movement over the past several years is hard to gauge, though the level of public rancor suggests that it is not really catching on.

Marriage Surpasses Cohabitation in Relationship Quality, But Most Americans Don’t Seem to Know It
Alysse ElHage, Institute for Family Studies

Couples who cohabit before getting married may very well be increasing their later risk of divorce, especially if they cohabit with more than one partner.