Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC)

The group has received funding from left-of-center funders, including the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and the Pillsbury Foundation. ⁵

Background

The Baptist Joint Committee was founded in 1936 as the Committee on Public Relations of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and was later known as the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a schism grew between committee leadership and the SBC, which opposed the committee’s shift toward left-leaning politics as the SBC itself moved to the right. The committee’s support for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions ending mandatory prayer and bible-reading in public schools, as well as its work on abortion and women’s issues, led to increasing hostility between the committee and the SBC. In the early 1990s, the SBC withdrew financial support from the committee, which continued to operate with support from smaller left-leaning Baptist conventions and left-leaning foundations. ⁶

In 2005, the committee changed its name to the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty to emphasize its ostensible focus on religious liberty issues. The organization acquired the Center for Faith, Justice, and Reconciliation in 2023 to expand work on race issues and house the BJC’s Project on Race and Religious Freedom. ⁷

Activities

The Baptist Joint Committee files amicus briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases, testifies before the U.S. Congress, and lobbies on legislation that it defines as not being sufficiently aligned with strict church-state separation. It has opposed school-choice programs, public funding for religious institutions, and changes that would permit churches to endorse political candidates. The group has criticized immigration-enforcement practices, joining calls for legislation to restrict Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions near churches. ^{8 9 3}

Through its Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, which launched in 2019, BJC promotes the view that merging Christian and American identities poses a threat to religious freedom.¹³ The organization produces the Respecting Religion podcast, publishes books and reports, and runs fellowship programs for emerging leaders. ^{1 10}

The group has been a vocal opponent of many policies of both the first and second Trump administrations, particularly opposing the administrations’ school-choice and immigration-enforcement policies. ⁹

In July 2025, the BJC joined more than 500 left-of-center organizations in a letter condemning investigations by the House Homeland Security Committee and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) into left-of-center organizations receiving federal grants for a variety of programs on topics including labor and immigration. ¹¹

Funding

The Baptist Joint Committee receives support from individual donors, churches, and moderate and left-leaning Baptist denominations, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Churches USA, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. ¹² It has also accepted grants from foundations, including the Prichard Family Foundation, the Wayfarer Foundation, the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Christian Mission Concerns, the Eleanor Crook Foundation, the Foundation Beyond Belief, and the Pillsbury Foundation. ⁵

Due to its affiliation with Baptist congregations, the committee, which has 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, is exempt from filing tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, making specific financial details regarding the group unclear. ¹³

Leadership

Amanda Tyler has worked as the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee since January 2017. She previously worked as a staffer for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) in various roles. ¹⁴ Holly Hollman is the general counsel and associate executive director of the group. Hollman is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, where she co-teaches the Church-State Law Seminar. ¹⁵