Ideas

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has built a religion-heavy docket for its 2026-27 term. On Oct. 1 it agreed to hear Missionaries of St. John the Baptist v. Frederic. Catholic priests in Park Hills, Kentucky, want to build a grotto shrine to the Virgin Mary beside their church. Kentucky's Supreme Court held that the zoning ban did not violate the federal land-use law RLUIPA. It reasoned that a smaller shrine elsewhere would be allowed. The justices will decide whether a ban at the chosen site is a "substantial burden" on religious exercise. The court also has St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. In it, Colorado says its nondiscrimination condition for universal pre-K funding is neutral. The parishes say it burdens their faith by requiring them to admit children of LGBTQ families. A third case, Grand v. City of University Heights, concerns threats over home worship in Ohio. Supporters call the trend a restoration of religious liberty. Critics say it erodes church-state separation. Rulings are expected by summer 2027.

LONDON — The think tank Theos has published Beyond "Christian Nationalism", based on an April 2026 survey of 1,765 UK adults. It sorts respondents into five groups. Committed Separatists are 34 per cent and Cultural Separatists 16 per cent. Values Integrationists are 26 per cent, Belief Integrationists 13 per cent and Identity Integrationists 11 per cent. Theos treats the Identity group as the closest to Christian nationalism. Only 13 per cent of that group attend church weekly, against 11 per cent of the whole sample, and 82 per cent of it endorse the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. Belief Integrationists, the most devout group at 31 per cent weekly attendance, are the most likely to want faith promoted in public life. Two-thirds of them also accept that theory. Humanists UK argues that about half of weekly churchgoers sit in the two groups most sympathetic to the idea, so it cannot be separated from Christianity. Academic John Heathershaw calls the methodology rigorous.