By the Hon. William Wagner (Ret.) Executive summary Nigeria stands at a crossroads between social collapse and constitutional renewal. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), in its statement “Peace in Nigeria: Moving from Fragility to Stability,” offers an urgent, morally lucid, and legally grounded diagnosis of Nigeria’s spiraling insecurity and repression. The instant Issue Brief amplifies this warning and calls the international community to attend to it. This

By Hon. William Wagner (Ret.) “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 Each Thanksgiving, we American citizens do something quietly radical: we pause a nation that never stops moving, and we give thanks—publicly, communally, and often in language that acknowledges God. That custom is older than stuffed turkey and older than the football. It is woven into the culture and the deeply rooted cultural history and

By Hon. William Wagner (Ret) WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom, Spring Arbor University Executive Summary Violent attacks and hate crimes against Christians in Europe rose sharply in 2024, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) —data first brought to international attention through reporting by The Christian Post. While the total number of incidents decreased slightly from the previous year, the severity

By the Hon. William Wagner (Ret.) WFFC Distinguished Chair for Faith & Freedom, Spring Arbor University Abstract This Issue Brief contends that Federal involvement in education rests on unstable constitutional ground and that renewed efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED) highlight, rather than resolve, deep structural questions about federalism, ordered liberty, and religious freedom. Drawing on constitutional text, original meaning, historical practice,

The Michigan Department of Education’s most recent revision of the Health Education Standards represents not merely administrative fine-tuning, but a wholesale ideological shift in the purpose and scope of health instruction in Michigan schools. The Board voted to approve the updated health-education/sex-education standards on Thursday, November 13, 2025. The magnitude and nature of these changes raise profound constitutional concerns—particularly regarding parental rights, l

Dr. Rubina Feroze Bhatti, a renowned Pakistani human-rights and peace activist, is this month’s featured speaker at the Christian International Professors Forum, hosted jointly by the Instituto dos Juristas Cristãos do Brasil and the Wagner Faith & Freedom Center at Spring Arbor University. Known for her decades of work advancing communal harmony, gender equality, and the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, Dr. Bhatti brings a deeply practical and hard-won perspective

November 1, 2025 Washington, D.C. / Abuja The United States Department of State announced that Nigeria has been designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC)  under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, citing what it called “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.”  President Donald Trump, in a social-media post on October 31, asserted that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being kil

October 31, 2025 In this compelling episode, Hon. William Wagner (Ret) exposes the ongoing humanitarian and religious freedom crisis facing Christians in Nigeria. Over the past six years, more than a million Christian families have been displaced  and an estimated 29,000 believers have been killed  amid violent attacks amidst government inaction. Wagner examines why the U.S. State Department’s “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC)  designation matters—and how reapplying it to

The Hon. William Wagner, Distinguished Chair of the Wagner Faith & Freedom Center at Spring Arbor University, participated in the 2025 Education Freedom Legal Network (EFLN) Annual Summit held October 23, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia. The EFLN—an initiative that convenes attorneys, scholars, and policy advocates focused on protecting and advancing the freedom to educate—brought together leaders from across the country for a day of high-level strategy and collaboration.  Advan