Michael Berry, Esq., is Senior Counsel and Director of Military Affairs for Liberty Institute. He joined Liberty Institute in 2013 after serving for seven years as an attorney with the U.S. Marine Corps. From 2009 until 2013, Mr. Berry served as an Appellate Defense Attorney in which he argued numerous cases before various federal appeals courts and traveled across the country to teach appellate advocacy to junior attorneys. He was also invited to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the United States Naval Academy.

J. Nick Pitts serves as the director of cultural engagement at the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.

He came to the Denison Forum in 2014 after a fateful conversation with its founder, Dr. Jim Denison. Pitts, a Ph.D. candidate at Dallas Baptist University (DBU), had spent the summer studying at Oxford with other students and faculty including Denison, a visiting professor.

He contributes to the Forum in the areas of geopolitics and popular culture, as well as serving as the editor of the Daily Briefing. He continues work on his doctorate and serves as an adjunct professor at DBU, teaching a master’s level course in the philosophy of leadership.

His Ph.D. research centers upon John F. Kennedy’s engagement of the religious community in the 1960 presidential campaign. He presented a paper on the topic at Calvin College’s 2015 symposium on religion and public life.

He is an editor at large for The Liberty Project, an online magazine, and his op-eds have been published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Religion News Service and Townhall.com.

He received a bachelor’s degree in 2007 from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and a master’s degree in 2009 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

He served as the Director of College Ministry at First Baptist Church Arlington (Texas) for five years.

What does the State Department have to do with abortion and sexual behavior-based policies? Unfortunately, a whole lot. Over the last eight years, the State Department under Hillary Clinton and John Kerry has elevated the promotion of the Left’s view of human sexuality and abortion “rights” to the detriment of fundamental human rights like religious freedom.

Clinton made her intentions known early in her tenure that the administration would not only promote special rights based upon sexual behavior within the State Department but would use the State Department to export the LGBTQ agenda globally. These behavior based rights have consistently been a major emphasis of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

Pro-abortion President Barack Obama has finalized a new rule that would essentially prohibit states from defunding the Planned Parenthood abortion business and a leading pro-life member of Congress is not happy about it.

The finalized rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) prevents states from blocking Title X funding (federal dollars for family planning services) to abortion companies like Planned Parenthood.

Responding to the rule, pro-life Rep. Diane Black told LifeNews.com, “With this rule, we see an administration that has become unglued at the knowledge of the impending pro-life sea change in Washington, DC.”

Federal judges are considering arguments about whether to order the destruction of a war memorial because its centerpiece is a large cross.

The case could end up at the Supreme Court, probably after President-elect Donald Trump names a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia.

Bladensburg is a town in Maryland not far from Washington, D.C. In 1925, the mothers of World War I soldiers worked with the American Legion to erect a memorial to the 49 service members from Prince George’s County who served and sacrificed in that conflict. The Bladensburg World War I Veterans Memorial has stood in the town ever since, with a large cross engraved with words like “courage” and “valor,” which one mother said she regarded as the tombstone of her son, who died in France while serving his nation.

A beloved Florida middle school was reprimanded for taking a knee during a student-led prayer on the football field.

Wakulla Middle School football coach Eddie Metcalf did not lead the prayer. He did not recite the prayer. He simply took a knee and bowed his head.

But according to the Wakulla County School Board, that act of reverence is against the law.

“That’s not allowable under the law,” Superintendent Robert Pearce told television station WCTV. “The coach may not participate in the prayer.”

The Air Force Academy found no fault with one of its football coaches after the group Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) complained about his tweeting Bible verses from his personal Twitter account.

The issue arose after Steed Lobotzke, tight-end coach for the Air Force Academy Falcons, tweeted several Bible verses, like Romans 8:38, John 1:1 and John 3:3.

Some public education officials are conflicted this time of year. Oh it’s fine for educators to celebrate all the trappings of Christmas at school. Even to get a couple of weeks off because of it. But dare mention the real reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ, and you’re censored.

That’s what happened to Dedra Shannon, a staffer at Patterson Middle School in Killeen, Texas. She decorated the school’s nurses’ office door with images to recreate a classic scene from the beloved animated television special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” You know the scene. It’s the one where Linus explains to Charlie Brown the real meaning of Christmas. Charlie Brown is wondering why he’s not happy about the Christmas season when everyone else seems to be. He’s particularly dismayed at the over-commercialization of the holiday. The kids suggest Charlie Brown try directing the Christmas play as a possible solution to his depression.

A Texas nurse's aide can now display her poster based on A Charlie Brown Christmas at a middle school after a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Killeen ISD officials who had banned the poster.

District Judge Jack Jones in Bell County sided with nurse's aide Dedra Shannon at a hearing Thursday, the Houston Chronicle reported. He ordered that the poster -- which features the character Linus citing a biblical passage about the birth of Christ -- also include the phrase "Ms. Shannon's holiday message."