We Cannot Be Passive: Religious Liberty Experts Warnings, Positive Signs for American Freedom

Published

2 years ago

July 21, 2023

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Share Tweet By Billy Hallowell Editor
July 19, 2023

Nathan Berkeley, communications director and research coordinator for the Religious Freedom Institute, believes the religious liberty situation right now in America is a “mixed picture.”

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But while there are positives and negatives surrounding the trajectory, Berkeley said he’s most alarmed by the way cultural elites see faithful Americans.

“What alarms me right now is the fact that there are so many cultural elites who view religious people, people of faith, Christians, and others not only as wrong on kind of core cultural issues, but as dangerous and even bigoted,” he said. “And when you think about it like that, you can see why it’s almost like … throw the restraints off and attack these people because they’re dangerous to society.”

Seeing people of faith as “pernicious,” he said, is “extremely dangerous” and creates a misunderstanding of what religious liberty is supposed to be.

“It makes religious freedom seem like a license to harm as opposed to a fundamental human right that should be protected and upheld,” Berkeley said.

Watch him explain:

Part of the problem is that this narrative becomes pervasive across multiple communication realms, mainly academia, entertainment, and media, he argued.

“We’ve seen these ideas in so many sectors … in such a way that it pitches them in an adversarial way against people of faith,” Berkeley said. “There’s no way that elites across these many sectors could embrace these harmful ideologies without them eventually taking expression in law and being used in various political ways to the detriment of Christians and others.”

Berkeley, who made his comments before the Supreme Court’s most recent rulings affirming religious liberty, said he has been encouraged of late by the high court’s rulings vindicating religious liberty.

In a more general sense, he said there seems to be a recognition among Christians and people are faith more broadly that public faith dimensions are important and helpful to society.

“They’re understanding that we cannot be passive … in the face of things that are happening around us,” Berkeley said. “And we need to bring to bear our convictions in the public square. This is a good thing.”

In the end, he said religious liberty is the cornerstone of any healthy society.

“It can serve as a fundamental kind of basis for other rights, freedom of speech and association and others,” he said.

While there’s a mixed but overall “good” picture for protecting religious liberty at the court level, Berkeley said there are still “cultural forces that are not going away anytime soon.”

And with issues surrounding human sexuality, among other battles, intense First Amendment debates won’t be quelled anytime soon.

“[The current] direction is entirely incompatible with what Christians understand to be true about marriage, sexuality, family formation, and all the rest,” he said of culture. “There is going to continue to be real problems that we have to contend with and, and real pressure on religious freedom as a principle because that will be the principle that allows people of faith to continue to be full participants in our society, or they won’t be full participants.”

Watch the interview for more on this important topic.

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Sports

Stockton fuels comeback as UGA topples Ole Miss

Published

3 hours ago

October 19, 2025

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Stockton fuels comeback as UGA topples Ole Miss

Associated Press

Oct 18, 2025, 07:09 PM ET

Gunner Stockton passed for 289 yards and four touchdowns, including three to tight end Lawson Luckie, and No. 9 Georgia overcame Trinidad Chambliss and No. 5 Mississippi’s powerful offense to rally for a 43-35 win over the Rebels on Saturday.

Georgia (6-1, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) rallied after trailing 35-26 at the start of the fourth quarter. Stockton’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Luckie with 7:29 remaining gave Georgia a 40-35 lead.

Ole Miss (6-1, 3-1) was denied its first road win over a top 10 team under coach Lane Kiffin even though the Rebels scored touchdowns on their first five possessions.

Stockton completed 26 of 31 passes and added a 22-yard scoring run in the crucial SEC showdown.

“It was a great day,” Stockton said. “We just played for each other and that’s the best part of our team.”

Stockton and the Bulldogs had no turnovers.

In previewing the game, Kiffin said winning at Georgia would mean the Rebels have taken “another step” in their move up the SEC. That looked likely when they scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions, taking a nine-point lead in the third quarter.

Suddenly, the Ole Miss offense lost its magic as Georgia did not give up another first down.

Following the first punt of the game by either team with 12:44 remaining, Stockton led a nine-play, 67-yard drive capped by the 7-yard scoring pass to Luckie that gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half.

Following another stop by Georgia’s defense, Stockton led a 10-play drive to set up Peyton Woodring‘s third field goal of the game, a 42-yarder, to stretch the lead to eight points with 2:06 remaining.

World

Hamas hands over bodies of two more hostages, Israel confirms

Published

3 hours ago

October 19, 2025

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Hamas hands over bodies of two more hostages, Israel confirms

Israel has received the bodies of two more hostages from the Red Cross, the Israeli prime minister’s office has confirmed.

Shortly after 10pm UK time on Saturday, Israel’s military said Hamas handed over “two coffins of deceased hostages”.

There has been no identification of the bodies yet.

The news came as tensions were beginning to rise over the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office had said earlier on Saturday evening that it would stay closed “until further notice” – as the deadline for Hamas to return the bodies of the hostages had passed with no confirmation.

Mr Netanyahu had warned that its reopening would depend on how Hamas fulfilled its role in returning the remains of all 28 dead hostages.

The handover brings the count of returned bodies to 12 hostages, up from 10, according to Israel’s tally. Another 16 deceased hostages would then still have to be returned.

All 28 were supposed to have been handed over by last Monday.

The handover of remains is among key points – along with aid deliveries into Gaza and the devastated territory’s future – in the ceasefire process meant to end two years of war.

Israel’s foreign ministry had originally said the Rafah crossing would likely reopen on Sunday – another step in the fragile ceasefire. This has now been revised to being closed “until further notice”.

A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family in Egypt, which is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.

It is unclear who will operate the crossing’s heavily damaged Gaza side once the war ends.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruins were being scoured for the dead, over a week into a ceasefire. Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian toll above 68,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. But the ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Famine declared

Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the attack on southern Israel that sparked the war on October 7 2023.

Gaza’s more than two million people are hoping the ceasefire will bring relief from the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s offensive. Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid entry to Gaza – sometimes halting it altogether.

Famine was declared in Gaza City, and the UN says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.

Officials in Israel say they have let in enough food, accusing Hamas of stealing much of it. The UN and other aid agencies deny this claim.

Technology

Close to half of Kalshi user base experienced glitches, delays during Saturday college football games

Published

5 hours ago

October 18, 2025

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Close to half of Kalshi user base experienced glitches, delays during Saturday college football games

The Kalshi logo arranged on a laptop in New York, US, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Close to half of Kalshi’s user base experienced glitches and delays on Saturday during college football games, a major source of trades, as some said they were temporarily unable to process orders.

In a message sent to a user obtained by CNBC, the predictions market service’s website apologized for any inconvenience and said it was “looking into” the issues traders were experiencing.

“The Exchange is experiencing temporary delays,” the message read. “Balances and positions may not be accurately reflected at this time.”

One user shared a screen recording and screenshots with CNBC that showed they were unable to see their balance or bets while the issues persisted.

A number of users on X reported the website was down when they were trying to place bets on college football games, with some saying they had open orders that wouldn’t process. When CNBC visited the website, it wouldn’t load, showing only a green K with a spinning circle around it for more than 20 minutes. The platform later loaded.

“Earlier today, Kalshi experienced minor glitches that temporarily affected some user experiences. No exchange outage occurred, no funds were affected, and the issues are now resolved,” the company said in a statement.

Earlier, a spokesperson denied there was an outage and said the exchange “never stopped functioning properly.” He added that there has been no impact on clearing, advanced trading, or institutional trading.

“There were some glitches and delays on our web and app product, which affected less than half of our user base,” the spokesperson said.

A little over a week ago, Kalshi announced a $300 million Series D funding round that valued the company at $5 billion, more than double its $2 billion valuation in June after its Series C round.

The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Paradigm. Additional backers included Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Capital and CapitalG.

The company, founded in 2018, rose to prominence by offering bettors the ability to trade on a wide range of real-world events, from football games to who President Donald Trump could pardon this year.

WATCH: Kalshi CEO on $2B valuation: We’re one of the fastest growing companies in America