Religion & Global Affairs Newsletter, Vol. 7, Issue 33

Today (Saturday) is the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby. For this celebratory occasion, I've penned my annual primer about the Derby. The race is considered the most exciting two minutes in all of sports, so I recommend you make time to watch. And I hope you’ll take a few additional minutes to read the rest of the newsletter.

On the personal front, in April I was named the inaugural Executive Director of the Everett Center for Global Religious Freedom. In the context of global persecution, the Center exists to inspire and equip students, churches, and policymakers to advance religious freedom for all. The Center is an initiative of Dallas Baptist University, and we will have offices in Texas and in Washington, DC (where I will remain). 

The Everett Center is trying something new by focusing on students, churches, and policymakers simultaneously, which we believe can achieve long-term progress. In addition, we differentiate ourselves by advocating for all with an exclusively global outlook. While many universities have domestic religious liberty programs, the Everett Center is only the second university center devoted entirely to international religious freedom after BYU.

To launch this ambitious initiative, we’ve assembled a great team: founder and Senior Fellow Randel Everett; Emily Cole, Director of Research and Partnerships; Jonathan Fechner, Senior Fellow and DBU Chief of Staff; and Lindsay Bauslaugh, who supports the Center’s work.

For the Center to succeed, partnerships will be essential. We were thus very encouraged by our recent DC launch. Over 100 people attended, including senior State Department officials, Commissioners from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Hill staff, embassy representatives from Bahrain, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan, as well as faith groups from across the spectrum. Check out our video highlighting the Center’s approach and mission that we shared at the launch.

Since joining the Everett Center, I’ve enjoyed two different speaking opportunities. First, I joined the Council on Foreign Relations’ webinar titled "The Future of Strategic Religious Engagement in U.S. Foreign Policy." I shared how including international religious freedom promotion into an overall strategy of religious engagement can ensure U.S. foreign policy fully grasps the complexities and challenges across different societies. Secondly, I spoke at chapel at Dallas Baptist University about our vision for the Everett Center and how we want to engage students in the work.

Before joining the Center, I was honored to give remarks at the Embassy of Bahrain’s interfaith iftar dinner during Ramadan. With the 250th anniversary of our independence, I shared about how George Washington and Thomas Jefferson promoted interfaith relations and religious freedom. Their examples helped shape the American approach to religious freedom.

Looking abroad, I returned to The World and Everything in It for a wide-ranging discussion covering religious freedom violations in Nigeria, Iran, and China, and why policymakers should care. My segment begins at 17:20. I also joined The Bulletin podcast to discuss the current Afghanistan–Pakistan conflict, the state of religious freedom in both countries, and the life of Pakistani advocate Shahbaz Bhatti as portrayed in our new graphic novel Blood & Water.

Speaking of our graphic novel Blood & Water, we had great launch events in Toronto and London. It's received positive reviews in Aleteia, World Magazine, the Baptist Standard, the Catholic Register, the Lee Clarion, Bitter Winter, the Ignatius Press podcast, and The World and Everything in It. Check it out!

Lastly, in wrapping up my Templeton Religion Trust grant at Pepperdine, we convened a fantastic conference to highlight our Sacred Sites Promoting Pluralism research hosted by Regent’s Park College, Oxford University. Afterward, down in London, we also organized a House of Lords event about transatlantic FoRB advocacy. The insights from this thoughtful discussion will inform a report I’m coauthoring with Elizabeth Cassidy and Emily Cole, focused on how advocates can navigate this period of disruption—not just to survive it, but to achieve meaningful progress. Also, bookmark the forthcoming “Modeling Religious Pluralism: Cultivating Religious Equity in Today's World” (Oxford University Press). Many thanks to Simran Jeet Singh for developing the idea and editing the book, as well as inviting me to submit a chapter on the importance of religious freedom advocacy.

You can check out my previous newsletter here, which covers the Trump administration’s approach to international religious freedom, Iran’s treatment of religious minorities, religious freedom in Venezuela after Maduro’s ouster, how the U.S. should rethink strategic religious engagement, and my IRF Summit remarks.

Feel free to share with others. As always, the views expressed here are my own.