Monthly Archives: September 2022

Religious Freedom & Business Foundation Vice President, Greg Clark, J.D., and Senior Education Engagement Specialist Christina Clark, Ph.D., will make a plenary presentation at the Eighth Annual Southeast Asia Freedom of Religion or Belief Conference (SEAFORB) Bali, Indonesia 7 – 9 November 2022.

They will present on the benefits of promoting religious freedom within a country, including its connection to economic growth, social stability, human and social development, among other benefits.

They will also describe how religious freedom benefits a company from within, including enhanced bottom line and increased well-being of employees bringing their whole self to work, including their faith and beliefs.

The 5th annual DFW Summit for Religious Freedom at Southern Methodist University will take place on Thursday, October 27. RFBF’s Senior Corporate Advisor, Kent Johnson, will kick off the event with a talk on “Religious Freedom in Business: Where It’s Being Done Well,” focusing on REDI Index leaders like American Airlines, Intel and Dell.

In the afternoon, Kent will also moderate a panel of representatives from REDI Index leaders on “Advancing Human Dignity and Civility in Business: How to Start Faith-Oriented Business Groups that Make a Difference.”

Other Summit topics include “Religion in Public Schools,” “Religion in the Town Square,” “Balancing LGBTQ Rights and Religious Freedom,” and “Living Peaceably on a Foundation of Religious Freedom and Civic Harmony.”

These Summits have been wonderful and thought provoking. Attendees and speakers will include people from a wide range of faiths and worldviews. We hope many of you will come join us, in person or virtually. Register here.

Upcoming Events

Scroll to bottom for past events

November 7-9, 2022 (Bali, Indonesia, in-person)

November 11, 2022 (Lehi, Utah, in-person)

PAST EVENTS

October 3, 2022 (virtual)

October 3, 2022 (virtual)

October 4, 2022 (Charlotte, NC, in-person & virtual)

October 6, 2022 (virtual)

October 19, 2022 (virtual)

October 27, 2022 (Dallas, TX, in-person & virtual)

October 31 – November 3, 2022 (Tel Aviv, Israel, in-person)

Day of Nonviolence Webinar

The International Center for Religion & Diplomacy is hosting a three-day webinar to celebrate the International Day of Nonviolence, with a celebrated lineup of Speakers!

Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, will speak on how business is a powerful force for interfaith understanding & peace.

When? Monday, October 3, at 9:30am ET. Registration required (free)

The virtual event will take place on Zoom and host a lineup of speakers ranging from industry professionals, grassroots advocates, religious leaders, academics, and more! Speakers will discuss topics of nonviolence, tolerance, and peacebuilding.

The Webinar will include interactive activities to encourage collaboration and innovation across fields and disciplines in order to advance nonviolence efforts when addressing conflict. There will be a lunch or happy hour session included each day to allow Speakers and Guests to network and connect as well.

The Webinar dates and times are:

• – Sunday, October 2nd: 1–3:30pm ET.
• – Monday, October 3rd: 9–12pm ET.
• – Tuesday, October 4th: 9–12pm ET.

See related publication:

On September 21, Dr. Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, made an invited presentation to a roundtable with representatives from the Vietnamese government’s Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs (COMINGO). Grim spoke on the connection between faith and business, including faith’s economic value to the US economy ($1.2 trillion annually) as well as the embrace of faith-friendly workplaces by some of the world’s biggest and best companies.

Grim also invited the Vietnamese delegation to participate in Dare to Overcome 2023, to be held in India.

The roundtable took place at Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center in Washington DC, facilitated Suhail Khan, Senior Fellow for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement and Director of External Affairs at Microsoft Corporation.

The roundtable was organized by the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) at COMINGO’s request for the purpose of promoting engagement and cooperation between Vietnam and American faith-based charities and NGOs.

COMINGO was established in 2001 by the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Its mission is to provide coordination between key Vietnamese government ministries and agencies to assist the Prime Minister in addressing issues related to foreign NGOs. The COMINGO delegation is led by its vice chairman, Phan Anh Son.

The discussion included about a dozen faith-based organization representatives.

IGE has been working to promote religious freedom in Vietnam over the last 17 years. While there have been significant positive changes over the last decade, there is still much work to be done. The work continues.

See presentation bellow by the Vietnamese government’s Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs (COMINGO). Click for full PDF.

Global study reveals high consumer demand for more news on religion and faith, along with roadblocks among journalists and editors

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s partner, the Faith & Media Initiative, just released the results of the first-ever Faith & Media Index.

The largest-ever global poll of its kind looks at the portrayal of faith and religion in the media. It reveals a strong demand across the world for more news media coverage on faith, despite the reality that journalists and editors admit coverage of the topics is rarely encouraged in newsrooms.

The study captures the views of 9,000 global citizens as well as journalists and editors in 18 countries covering the world’s major religions. The research was commissioned by the Faith and Media Initiative (FAMI) and conducted by global market research company HarrisX.

The study reflects the feeling among the general population that media coverage can perpetuate faith-related stereotypes rather than protect against them. It also lays out some of the factors that journalists and editors think can lead to religious and faith stereotypes in news coverage.

The study also signals universal recognition among journalists and editors that coverage of faith and religion needs a reset. It captures detailed insights about the complex set of factors that have created the current status quo affecting editorial coverage. See full press release.

As part of the initiative, I recently published Faith Can Be a Core Element of DEI — And a Way to Convene a Dialogue Around These Issues. Also, my colleague Simran Jeet Singh from the Aspen Institute just published How to Talk About Religion at Work in Harvard Business Review. He argues, “Religion is a conversation that is not just overlooked but often deliberately avoided in the workplace. However, by ignoring the problem, we further exacerbate it.”

Avoiding talking about religion creates polarization, but including religion – albeit tricky at times – overcomes suspicions and creates opportunity for understanding and trust.

See Background on Study from our Dare to Overcome Conference

As Western business exits China, Xi seeks to forge an alternative world order on first trip outside China

By Brian Grim

In Xi Jinping’s first trip abroad in nearly 1,000 days, he emerges in Kazakhstan from a China still in Covid locked-downs and with a situation in Xinjiang where the UN has said that China has committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, including Kazakhs.

China indeed does offer a different world order, one which is driving Western business from its shores, an exodus known as “friendshoring” – moving supply chains and manufacturing to friendlier shores.

At the same time in Kazakhstan, in a separate interfaith peace event, Pope Francis called for an end to Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine.

It is not likely Pope Francis and Xi will meet, as China’s Xi will go on from Kazakstan to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where he will meet Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

No such calls for peace have yet come from Xi.

This alternative world order suffers a lack of the social, economic and religious freedoms that have created the conditions for China’s rise to power. By denying these freedoms, China is hobbling its chances going forward.

Without freedom, innovation is stifled and competitiveness dwindles. India, on the other hand, is offering a freer model, one which is hopeful (as I’ve argued before). As a result, India’s freer system is attracting a great influx of business friendshoring investment.

What can we do as an authoritarian world order is growing? One thing we can all do is protect each other’s freedom of religion or belief by standing up for everyone’s freedom, not just our own. This perspective is beautifully captured in the concept of Covenantal Pluralism.

To learn more, check out the video below, and join me in putting it into practice through RFBF’s core value – love of neighbor.

by Brian Grim

As part of the Faith & Media Initiative, I just published Faith Can Be a Core Element of DEI — And a Way to Convene a Dialogue Around These Issues in TriplePundit.

If you’re not familiar with TriplePundit, for over three decades they have reported on the intersection of people, planet and profit, believing business can be a force for good. They make the business case for corporate responsibility and sustainability, and the private sector’s leadership to secure social justice and fair economic opportunities for all. In other words, TriplePundit reports on the business of doing better. And including Faith as part of DEI is business doing better.

The Faith & Media Initiative is a new program whose mission it is to bring together leaders of faith ERGs, DEI practitioners and content creators (among others) to heal division, promote understanding, inspire more balanced faith stories in news and entertainment, and foster a healthy conversation about spirituality.

The article …

A senior engineer and practicing Muslim at a major Silicon Valley corporation wanted to block time on his calendar each week to attend Friday prayers. He was told: “We don’t do religion here.” Across the Valley at Salesforce – a cloud-based software company – he heard they do.

It wasn’t long before he was there, and his previous firm was doing a serious rethink of their no-religion policy. …

Read full article

By Brian J. Grim (葛百彦教授)

China has committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in its western Xinjiang region that could amount to crimes against humanity, according to an August 31st report by the UN human rights commissioner. China rebutted the highly critical 48-page UN report with a 131-page rejoinder.

The accusation of committing crimes against humanity, what the US and several other nations have referred to as genocide, has resulted in economic costs for the People’s Republic of China. These come in three main forms.

First, the enforcement of draconian controls over the Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim populations in its western regions is an economic drag. The rapid growth in security spending is an anchor pulling against the forward advance of the more productive sectors of the People’s Republic of China’s economy.

Second, compounding this economic drag, the People’s Republic of China’s economy takes a hit in the form of various sanctions, ranging from US Treasury sanctions targeting key Chinese government officials to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) signed into law by President Biden on December 23, 2021.

Third, research suggests that the companies in Xinjiang complicit in human rights abuses, such as forced labor, will not only suffer sanctions, but risk their long-term viability as they underestimate the socio-economic costs of a business model that is unsustainable.

For more on the economic challenges related to restrictions on religious freedom in the People’s Republic of China, see China’s Economic Secret Under Threat.

For a fuller discussion of the historical background that helps explain the People’s Republic of China’s repression of religious groups, see Chapter 5 of The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.