Kansas, Missouri Score High in Faith and Freedom Rankings

Both Missouri and Kansas scored high marks in the 2025 Faith and Freedom Index from the Napa Legal Institute.

• “Out of 51 U.S. jurisdictions, Kansas ranks No. 2 overall for its friendliness toward faith-based nonprofit organizations, making it one of the best states to operate a faith-based nonprofit in the United States,” the report said. “Kansas has several laws that facilitate the contributions of faith-based nonprofits, including an automatic exemption from state corporate income tax for religious organizations that have 501(c)(3) status and a broad, automatic exemption from charitable registration requirements for religious organizations. Kansas, however, has some policies that are burdensome to faith-based nonprofits operating in the state, such as a Blaine Amendment and no meaningful exemptions from state sales tax on religious organization’s sales.”
• “Missouri has several laws that facilitate the contributions of faith-based nonprofits, including an automatic exemption from state corporate income tax for religious organizations that have 501(c)(3) status,” according to the report. “Additionally, Missouri has broad exemptions from state sales taxes upon application and no audit requirements. Missouri, however, has some policies that are burdensome to faith-based nonprofits operating in the state, such as a broad Blaine Amendment and a lack of protections for religious exercise during a state of emergency.”

A state’s religious freedom score is determined by several factors, such as the presence or absence of state constitutional protection of free exercise; whether the state has passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act; religious freedom conditions for nonprofits with public programming; religious freedom conditions for faith-based employers;  protections for religious exercise during a state emergency and state Blaine Amendments.

The report singled out Michigan and Washington as states that “overburden and are even hostile toward faith-based nonprofits.” Alabama topped the freedom rankings, followed by Kansas, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.

Michigan scored 22%, according to Napa. It was closely followed by Delaware at 25%, Washington at 26%, Maryland at 27%, and Nevada and Hawaii at 29%.

“The many religious freedom attacks over the past few years are chilling reminders that without staunch state-level protections for religious freedom, ordinary Americans will suffer, regardless of how supportive the current Administration may be,” said Frank DeVito, the institute’s senior counsel. “Too many Americans have been forced to spend precious time and money litigating issues that should never have gone to court in the first place.”

–Alan Goforth