Religious Freedom and Human Flourishing

IFWE SELECTS CARLSON-THIES TO JOIN TEMPLETON PROJECT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE) is pleased to announce that Stanley Carlson-Thies has been selected to join the “Moral Foundations of Freedom and Human Flourishing” book project, an IFWE initiative that is funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation. As one of thirteen contributing scholars, Carlson-Thies will provide a chapter to a book that will explore the biblical roots and history of religious freedom and how Christians can become more engaged in preserving it, not just for Christians but for people of all faiths. The book will also explore the relationship between religious freedom, economic freedom, and political freedom. It is scheduled for release in the fall of 2019 by Abilene Christian University Press.

Stanley Carlson-Thies is founder and senior director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, a division of the Center for Public Justice, which promotes the religious freedoms that enable faith-based organizations to make their uncommon contributions to the common good. Carlson-Thies served on the initial staff of President Bush’s White House faith-based office (2001-2002) and in 2009-2010 served on the church-state taskforce of President Obama’s faith-based Advisory Council. He has advised federal departments and states on how to construct productive and respectful relationships with faith-based and secular community organizations. He is the organizer and long-time host of a monthly nonpartisan and multi-faith gathering of religious freedom advocates and leaders of faith-based organizations, the Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom, which monitors and educates Congress and the executive branch.

Carlson-Thies’s contribution to the IFWE book on religious freedom will target the next generation through Christian colleges and universities, as well as current thought leaders and policy makers.

IFWE executive director Hugh Whelchel indicated that more educational material and marketing will be needed to help the IFWE project reach a larger audience of Christians in schools, churches, and in the marketplace. “Please keep this religious freedom project in prayer and consider joining us in this effort financially. Our prayer is that Christians would grasp the biblical roots of religious freedom and see how religious freedom is a prerequisite for human flourishing; where it doesn’t exist or is threatened, economic and political progress and freedoms have difficulty taking root.”

Please prayerfully consider making an end-of-year contribution toward the work of IFWE and this religious freedom project today.