Religious Liberty Essay Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsored by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
The Religious Liberty Scholarship Contest is an annual event that encourages high school students to delve into church-state matters by articulating their perspective on a topic related to religious freedom.
For our 2024 competition, we are inviting students to submit essays or videos that explore the relationship between Christian nationalism and the banning of books. More details can be found below. The deadline for all submissions is March 15, 2024.
Submissions will be evaluated based on the depth of their content, the understanding of the subject matter, and the quality of writing or presentation.
Essay or Video Prompt for 2024
By March 15, submit an original essay OR a TikTok-style video in response to the following:
There is a growing trend of book bans across the United States, which has significant implications for religious freedom. Censorship attempts are often defended with religious arguments against reading the book in question. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded more requests to censor library books and resources in 2022 than any other year since they started tracking this data over two decades ago.
In your essay or TikTok-style video, shed light on the link between Christian nationalism and book bans in the United States.
Your submission should explain what Christian nationalism is, discuss how this ideology motivates efforts to ban books, and propose effective strategies to counter book bans that uphold religious freedom for all.
Who Can Participate?
The competition is open to all high school students who will be graduating in 2024 and 2025. There are no prerequisites related to GPA, religious beliefs, or participation in extracurricular activities or clubs.
Awards
Video grand prize: $2,000
Essay grand prize: $2,000
Video second place: $500
Essay second place: $500
Submission Guidelines and Deadline
To participate, students must submit an original essay (800-1200 words) or an original TikTok-style video (90-180 seconds) via this Google Registration Form by midnight Pacific Time on March 15. Students can submit only one entry – either a video or an essay, but not both.
Evaluation Criteria
Entries will be assessed based on the depth of their content, the comprehension of the topic, and the quality of their presentation. Students should formulate a viewpoint on the issue and demonstrate critical thinking by providing relevant examples, arguments, and other evidence to support their stance. Submissions should be error-free, clear, concise, and well-structured.
Essay Submission Requirements
- Essays should be typed in 12-point font and double-spaced. To ensure impartiality, your name (or any other identifying information) should not appear anywhere in the essay.
- Essays should have a title at the beginning of the first page (a separate title page is not necessary).
- The word count for essays should be between 800-1,200 words, excluding the title and bibliography.
- Sources should be properly cited and acknowledged in a bibliography, following an accepted citation style. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
Video Submission Requirements
- Videos should be shot in portrait mode (or a 9:16 aspect ratio) using a phone or a camera.
- Videos should be submitted as a .mov or .mp4 file.
- The duration of the video should be between 90-180 seconds.
- All videos should be posted on TikTok or Instagram in April 2024. Use the tag @endchristiannationalism and the hashtag #christiansagainstchristiannationalism. Students who do not have Instagram or TikTok accounts are exempt from this requirement.
- Sources should be properly cited (either as a visual overlay or verbal citation in the video). Additionally, a separate “works cited” document listing all the sources used in the video should be submitted.
- Videos should not violate the privacy or personality rights of any individual or deceased person. Students must adhere to the Terms of Service of TikTok, which stipulate that users must be at least 13 years old and cannot post material that is defamatory, obscene, offensive, pornographic, hateful, racist, discriminatory, or inflammatory.
- To avoid copyright issues, do not include non-original music in your video. Originality and creativity are highly encouraged!