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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: What you should know about the Hong Kong protests

What just happened?

For the past four months, hundreds of thousands of protestors in Hong Kong have been demonstrating in opposition to legislation by China’s communist government that would allow citizens of the semi-autonomous region to be extradited to mainland China. Human rights activists—including many Christians—worry that dissenters and critics of the Chinese regime could be extradited to a location where they might be subjected to abuse and torture.

"Some Christians, including me, are afraid that if the extradition bill is passed, it could affect freedom of religion in Hong Kong and freedom of religious activities," says Joshua Wong, the city's most prominent young political activist.

Many Christians have been involved in the protest and the hymn “Sing Hallelujah To The Lord” has become the unofficial protest anthem.

Although the extradition bill has been suspended, protestors worry that it could be resurrected. The activists have also begun calling for direct elections to choose legislative council members and the chief executive.

Where is Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is a territory located on the south coast of China. The land is comprised of a peninsula and more than 200 small islands. Although Hong Kong is roughly the size of San Antonio, Texas (426 sq. mi.), it has four and a half times as many people (7 million), making it one of the most populous areas on Earth.

This Week at the ERLC

Dan Darling talks to Marvin Olasky at WORLD about human dignity.

What You Need to Know

Words matter. And as believers, how we talk about and to people is of utmost importance. This is especially true when it comes to adoption. Brittany Salmon discusses 4 ways we can use our words to build up families who have adopted. Read her article here.

As believers, we care about our words and how they affect others. We believe and understand that our words have the power of life and death within them (Prov. 18:21). So, when given the opportunity to learn how our words injure others, we should jump at the chance to repent and learn to speak a true and better word.

The definition of marriage is a contentious issue in our society. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that the Church is clear on what the Bible says about marriage. Marissa Postell gives a brief overview in her latest article. Read it here.

We should not be intimidated by the role marriage is supposed to play in mirroring God’s relationship with his people. Rather, our understanding of this role should humble us and lead us to honor and uphold marriage as a good gift from God, especially in a culture moving farther away from God’s design.

It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to be thrown in prison or denied a livelihood because of faith in Christ. Yet, it’s the reality of many of our brothers and sisters around the world. Casey B. Hough writes about several ways we can remember these Christians, even as we live on the other side of the globe. Read his article here.

As Paul’s letters reveal, when one member of the body of Christ suffers, we should share in that suffering. We would do well to resolve to remember the chains of our brothers and sisters who are imprisoned and persecuted. And we can do this by prioritizing the Kingdom of God, praying for the persecuted, and encouraging those who are imprisoned, keeping in mind that what we do unto these brothers and sisters of ours, we do unto Jesus (Matt. 25:35-40).

News From Capitol Hill

This summer brought an end to the latest legal challenge to ministerial housing allowances with the conclusion of the Gaylor v. Mnuchin case.

While the longstanding practice of providing clergy with church-owned property was not threatened, the case did consider whether or not providing faith leaders with cash housing allowances was constitutional.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) brought the challenge in 2016 by suing the IRS claiming the legality of cash housing benefits for ministers violated the Establishment Clause. The Western District Court of Wisconsin agreed and struck down the housing allowance as unconstitutional using the Lemon test to find that it had no secular purpose and gave preferential treatment to religious individuals. For more on the Lemon test, see our recent Capitol Conversations episode, Supreme Court rules 7-2 for the Bladensburg Cross, for a discussion on how this troublesome legal framework.

Thankfully, the Seventh Circuit rejected the arguments from FFRF and reversed the District Court’s opinion. This ruling upholds the constitutionality that §107(2) of the Internal Revenue Code provides that cash allowances to ministers used for housing payments be exempt from a ministers’ taxable gross income. Among other reasons, the Seventh Circuit noted in its opinion that, “the government does not transfer part of its revenue to churches but simply abstains from demanding that the church support the state.”

This summer in June was the deadline for FFRF to appeal the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Gaylor v. Mnuchin to the Supreme Court, and the atheist group declined to appeal their suit. This means the ruling stands. For more, see the ERLC policy team’s latest Explainer: The ministerial housing allowance is still constitutional.

Featured Podcasts

Mark Vroegop joins Dan Darling on The Way Home Podcast to talk about lament and how to deal with deep pain in a broken world. Vroegop is author of Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy and serves as lead pastor of College Park Church in Indianapolis. Listen to their conversation here.

From The Public Square

Japan approves first human-animal embryo experiments
David Cyranoski, Nature

The research could eventually lead to new sources of organs for transplant, but ethical and technical hurdles need to be overcome.

In fatal police shootings, race of officer not predictive of civilian's race: Study
Dr. Aaron Cook, ABC News

Research into racial disparities in officer-involved shootings has been limited by a lack of publicly available data. But new research published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses a more complete data set of fatal police shootings.

They Tried to Start a Church Without God. For a While, It Worked.
Faith Hill, The Atlantic

Secular organizers started their own congregations. But to succeed, they need to do a better job of imitating religion.