By Sydney Byerly
The Indiana Citizen
May 23, 2025
The “Churches’ Bill of Rights,” published by the offices of the Indiana attorney general and Indiana lieutenant governor, has already drawn attention and contrasting viewpoints in the week since its arrival with supporters calling it a great resource for faith groups and critics slamming it for being overtly Christian in tone as well as unnecessary.
On May 14, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announced their joint effort in creating the “Churches’ Bill of Rights: A Legal Guidebook for Churches and Church Leaders of Indiana,” a question-and-answer guide that the authors say details the rights and protections provided to churches and other faith-based groups under state and federal law.
“Religious liberty is guaranteed to all Americans by the U.S. and Indiana constitutions, and we want to ensure Hoosiers understand their rights,” Rokita said in a press release. “We encourage everyone to be emboldened to practice their faith and participate in civil society to the fullest extent possible.”
The 30-page guidebook addresses a slew of questions related to the “separation of church and state,” including can churches which have tax-exempt status engage in “partisan activities,” can church leaders discuss controversial social and cultural issues without jeopardizing their church’s tax-exempt status, and does the First Amendment offer any protection to churches “when they engage in election-related activities.” It also delves into other hot-button issues, such as religious objections to vaccine mandates, public funding for churches, and protections offered by the state and federal Religious Freedom Restoration Acts.
Images on the cover of the “Churches’ Bill of Rights” depict a field of corn in front of a Christian church with the sun setting in the background above the book’s title and, below that, a pair of hands clasped in prayer just above the names and titles of Rokita and Beckwith.
In a post to his official X account, Beckwith wrote: “The Churches’ Bill of Rights is a clear outline for churches, houses of worship, synagogues, temples, and all faith-based communities to fully understand their rights under the current law. It’s a bold step forward, and it ensures the protection of the freedoms that allow these vital institutions to help Hoosiers thrive.”
However, in a social media post to his personal account, Beckwith explicitly referenced Christianity. He said he and Rokita had published the guidebook “to hand every pastor a crystal-clear playbook for defending God-given liberties.”
The longstanding metaphor of “separation of church and state” in America is supposed to create a “wall” between religious organizations and the government. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which expressly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” is often cited as justification for the principle.
Rabbi Aaron Spiegel, a Jewish faith leader and president of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance, said he takes issue with the “Churches’ Bill of Rights” document’s and its creators’ claim to be for “all faiths,” when “church” is their word of choice to represent all faith communities. “Whether intentional or not, that says a lot to me,” he said.
Spiegel wasn’t alone in his critique of the guidebook.
Destiny Wells, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully against Rokita in the last election cycle, said she went against her urge to react to what she called “rage bait,” and, instead, shared a post on X in response to the guidebook, saying, “…Some things must be said with urgency: This is outside the scope of a government entity and its preferential treatment of “the church” is discriminatory to an alarming degree. Indiana, you’re killin’ me.”
On the other hand, Curt Smith, chairman of the Indiana Family Institute and author of “Deicide: Why Eliminating the Deity is Destroying America,” said he doesn’t believe the decision to name the guidebook the “Churches’ Bill of Rights” was exclusionary or malicious. He said most Hoosiers of faith are Christian, so he reasoned the guidebook’s authors chose that title for simplicity’s sake.
While a majority of Hoosier adults — 65 percent — identify as Christian, 31% identify as religiously unaffiliated, and 3% identify with other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, according to the Pew Research Center’s “Religious Landscape Study.”
Smith went on to say that he couldn’t be happier now that this resource exists. Maybe that’s, in part, because it was his idea to create it.
“I’m happy and pleased — but it’s easy to have the idea. It’s harder to do the advocacy and the drafting and checking code,” Smith said. “So, I think the credit goes to Lt. Gov. Beckwith and Attorney General Rokita.”
In May of 2024, Smith wrote in his monthly column for the Indianapolis Business Journal a pitch for the creation of a “faith community bill of rights.”
In Smith’s column, he advocated for a stronger partnership between Indiana’s state government and its faith communities, taking inspiration from then–Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch’s proposal during the GOP gubernatorial primary and conversations he had with her following COVID. He proposed a “faith community bill of rights,” to be enacted through legislation or an executive order, to ensure faith-based groups felt like they could collaborate with the government without compromising their beliefs.
Smith wrote, “As Indiana does a better job of welcoming the faith community to help solve our many problems of youth violence, mental health, fatherlessness, lack of educational attainment, and more, all Hoosiers benefit.”
The “Churches’ Bill of Rights” is the second iteration from Rokita in the past eight months on the topic. Back in September, the attorney general’s office created a document about how religious leaders and churches across the state could participate in election-related activities without fear of losing their tax-exempt status.
The “Religious Nonprofits Guide to Political Activities and Tax-Exempt Status” from September gives specific legal guidance on tax law and political activity regulations, while the “Churches’ Bill of Rights” goes a step further by attempting to act as a resource of broader constitutional and legal protections offered to churches and other faith communities, as they practice their faith and engage in civic life.
The document in its current form is more expansive and discusses churches’ participation in politics, tax-exempt statuses, freedom of worship, church governance and autonomy, protections for faith-based organizations and other subjects.
Beckwith said that creating this document has been “long overdue” and is a step in the right direction.
“Deep-rooted faith has long defined our great state, and with the Churches’ Bill of Rights, we are affirming that every Hoosier, every church, temple, synagogue, and faith-based community will stand as an equal and respected partner,” Beckwith said in the release publicizing the guidebook. “I am proud to fight for a state where respect for religious liberty guides the decisions we make, ensuring all Hoosiers can live, work, and thrive together in faith and freedom.”
In his social media post Beckwith promoted the new guidebook as providing information to help churches retain their tax-exempt status and not run afoul of the law.
“Ever wonder how far your church can go in speaking TRUTH, mobilizing voters, and keeping its doors wide open – without Uncle Sam breathing down your neck?” Beckwith posted, listing the information contained in the booklet. “Hoosiers of faith don’t need permission slips to live the Gospel.”
Smith also defended the guidebook and said there won’t be significant progress on the world’s most pressing problems until government and the faith community begin working together more.
“I honestly believe that, and so I see this (document) as helpful in that, in that kind of a more realistic, but also robust, partnership between church and state,” Smith said. “I just think it’s good that we’re welcoming the faith community of all types and stripes. And I think this statement is a step forward.”
In contrast to Beckwith’s and Smith’s statements, Spiegel, head of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance, said there was no need to create the guidebook and added that it only promotes a narrow interpretation to bolster a goal of breaking down the separation of church and state.
Spiegel also said religious liberty “is not a constitutional right” in the same way that the right to freely exercise one’s religion is, and he added “They’re not the same thing.”
“This document takes a position that religion is being stifled in Indiana, which I find ridiculous,” he told The Indiana Citizen. “What I do find increasingly stifled is the free expression of religion that doesn’t conform to a minority, Christian nationalist agenda.”
Spiegel also challenged what he called the “incredibly biased” historical interpretations that Rokita and Beckwith expressed in the letter at the beginning of the legal guidebook.
That introductory statement pointed to instances of early European immigration to America to escape religious persecution to claim that religious liberty has long been integral to the country’s legal and cultural heritage and “central to ensuring the success of our country.”
But Spiegel strongly disagreed with that assertion.
“Saying that the founding fathers of our country were moved by ‘historical instances of religious persecution and intolerance’ is ridiculous,” he said. “Their hypocritical response to religious persecution was to do the same to the indigenous people who were already here. I liken this to the way some people will cherry pick pieces of Scripture to meet their requirements totally devoid of context and intention.”
Spiegel concluded: “We don’t need this document. I believe it has a nefarious agenda, and it does nothing to better the people of Indiana.”
Sydney Byerly is a political reporter who grew up in New Albany, Indiana. Before joining The Citizen, Sydney reported news for TheStatehouseFile.com and most recently managed and edited The Corydon Democrat & Clarion News in southern Indiana. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism at Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism (‘Sco Griz!).
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
