Editing Alliance Defending Freedom (section)

== Other activities ==
===Blackstone Legal Fellowship===
[[Blackstone Legal Fellowship]], named after the English jurist [[William Blackstone]], is ADF's summer legal training program. It was founded in 2000 for the purpose of preparing Christian law students for professional legal careers. The first class comprised 24 interns.<ref name="dexter" /> The program is made up of interns, called Fellows, from a diverse selection of law schools as well as elite institutions such as Harvard and Yale.<ref name="dexter" /> [[Amy Coney Barrett]], who went on to be Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]], was a paid speaker at Blackstone on five occasions between 2013 and 2017.<ref name="WaPoBlackstone" />

=== Public campaigns ===
In 2003 the ADF launched the "Christmas Project", aiming to discourage non-Christian holidays from being celebrated and to promote Christmas celebrations in public schools.<ref name="The Christian Post" /><ref name="oreilly-donate" /> The annual initiative was organized in an effort to prevent school districts from holding secular holiday celebrations, or what the organization called the "censorship of Christmas". In its press release ADF singled out the American Civil Liberties Union as the chief target of the campaign.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://adflegal.org/detailspages/press-release-details/alliance-defense-fund-announces-plan-to-fight-censorship-of-christmas |title=Alliance Defense Fund Announces Plan to Fight Censorship of Christmas |date=October 20, 2003 |publisher=Alliance Defending Freedom |access-date=February 14, 2018 |archive-date=February 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216204943/https://adflegal.org/detailspages/press-release-details/alliance-defense-fund-announces-plan-to-fight-censorship-of-christmas |url-status=live }}</ref> By 2004, the organization had contacted 3,600 school districts to inform them that they were not required by the Constitution to have holiday celebrations inclusive of all religions.<ref name="The Christian Post" />

In 2005 the ADF and [[Focus on the Family]] began sponsoring a counter-protest called the Day of Truth (later called "[[Day of Dialogue]]") to oppose the annual [[Day of Silence]], an annual event to promote awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools. The ADF asserted that 1,100 students from 350 schools participated in ADF's event, which ADF billed as a response to the "[[homosexual agenda]]".<ref name="day-of-stats" />

===Church political activity and tax exemption===
[[File:Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2011.jpg|thumb|right|325px|Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2011]]
In 2008, ADF launched the first [[Pulpit Freedom Sunday]] to promote political messaging and endorsements in Christian pastors' sermons in defiance of the prohibition on political endorsements by non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations under the 1954 [[Johnson Amendment]].<ref name="johnson-amend">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/513187940/the-johnson-amendment-in-five-questions-and-answers|title=The Johnson Amendment In 5 Questions And Answers|date=February 3, 2017|first=Tom|last=Gjelten|publisher=[[NPR]]|access-date=July 24, 2022|archive-date=July 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724204616/https://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/513187940/the-johnson-amendment-in-five-questions-and-answers|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="eckholm" /><ref name="vile-johnson" /> The practice of political endorsement is not broadly accepted within the evangelical community, with most Evangelical pastors opposed as of 2017.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nae.org/pastors-shouldnt-endorse-politicians/ | title=Pastors shouldn't endorse politicians | publisher=National Alliance of Evangelicals | access-date=March 19, 2022 | archive-date=February 27, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227013449/https://www.nae.org/pastors-shouldnt-endorse-politicians/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Pulpit Freedom Sunday]] is an initiative aimed to overturn the [[Johnson Amendment]], which restricts political campaigning by tax-exempt non-profit organizations, which includes most churches. According to ''The New York Times'', ADF's campaign is "perhaps its most aggressive effort."<ref name="eckholm" /> In the first year about 35 pastors participated, in what they consider an act of civil disobedience, endorsing political candidates in their sermons and defying the Internal Revenue Service regulations. In Minnesota, Reverend Gus Booth encouraged his congregation to vote for [[John McCain]] rather than [[Barack Obama]].<ref name="lampman">{{Cite news |last=Lampman |first=Jane |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2008/0926/p03s02-uspo.html |title=Pulpit politics: Pastors to defy IRS |date=September 26, 2008 |work=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=February 4, 2018 |archive-date=February 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205000819/https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2008/0926/p03s02-uspo.html |url-status=live }}</ref> {{As of|2014}}, participation in the event had grown to about 1,800 pastors. The IRS indicated that it would increase enforcement of the Johnson Amendment.<ref name="kumar">{{Cite news |last=Kumar |first=Anugrah |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-1800-pastors-take-part-in-pulpit-freedom-sunday-127914/ |title=Over 1,800 Pastors Take Part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday |date=October 11, 2014 |work=The Christian Post |access-date=February 4, 2018 |archive-date=March 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20150303032404/http://www.christianpost.com/news/over-1800-pastors-take-part-in-pulpit-freedom-sunday-127914/ |url-status=live }}</ref>