Author Archives: RFBF

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.

1st of the Monthly RFBF CEO Roundtable call

Thursday, October 6 from 12-12:30PM EST/ 9-9:30 PM PST.

Featuring Becky Pomerleau, Director SOX Program at PayPal and Global Co-Lead at Interfaith at PayPal

After having three heart attacks in 4 days, Becky made the decision to dedicate her life and work to advancing faith in the workplace. Join us as she shares her story and the impact that the Interfaith network has had on the productivity, inclusivity, and impact at PayPal.

FORMAT:
5 minutes: Intros and welcome
15-20 minutes: Presentation
5-10 minutes: Q&A

For those interested and able to stay, we will continue the conversation for another 30 minutes for an “off the record” conversation with the CEO Roundtable.

Join the Zoom call here on Thursday, Oct. 6.

The Purpose of the Roundtable

Open to women and men, the Women’s CEO Roundtable led by Ingrid Vanderveldt is a gathering of global CEO’s and business leaders who come together in shared fellowship to address business issues facing the world today. The CEO Roundtable is by invitation only and is part of The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF).

Keynote speakers (l-to-r): Justin Green (Accenture), Masako Tanaka (Sophia University), Hiroyasu Ito (Japan Abilities Association), Brian Grim (Religious Freedom & Business Foundation)

Dare to Overcome (DTO) Japan next step toward India 2023

Keynote speakers at DTO Japan discussed concrete steps for overcoming some of society’s biggest challenges, beginning with war and peace, moving to human trafficking, and concluding with the stigmatization of people with disabilities.

Brian Grim, Global Chairman of Dare to Overcome, kicked of the summit with a brief history of Dare to Overcome and its mission of peace. He then discussed why the future of business lies in embracing diversity, and how that is a practical strategy for building peaceful and prosperous societies. Grim exemplified this with examples from the global network that is part of Dare to Overcome. He conclude by inviting all to stay involved and join DTO India in September 2023.

Watch or read Grim’s entire address here, supplemented with video examples given as part of his address.

Masaka Tanaka dove into the problem of how human traffickers exploit the Japanese Technical Intern Training Program (TITP). For example, as reported by Japan Times:

The [TITP] program, which was created in 1993 as a means to transfer skills and nurture talent in developing countries, has been criticized as a hotbed of exploitation and as a means for human traffickers to entice foreign workers to Japan, where they can be forced to work as victims of “extortion contracts” with severely limited freedoms. The program came under renewed scrutiny this year, when the government revoked the license of an intermediary company that recruited technical interns from overseas after a Vietnamese construction worker suffered repeated beatings at the hands of his coworkers. It was the 33rd time a permit had been revoked for failures to uphold worker safety obligations since regulations were introduced in 2017.

Hiroyasu Ito, the father of disability inclusion in Japan, gave a history of the movement from official policy allowing exclusion of people with disabilities from the workforce to a policy where companies are now required to have 1.2% of their workforce be people with varying disabilities, or face fines. He recounted his own personal history of being denied employment to now leading the largest Abilities association and company in Japan today.

Read more about Mr. Ito, recipient of our 2021 Global Business Overcomer’s Award.

Finally, Accenture’s Justin Greene also shared his personal journey of greater effectiveness and more significant opportunities for leadership once he made his neurological disability known. He had helped lead Accenture’s employee resource group for people with disabilities, helping fulfill the company’s tagline: to be the world’s most human company.

At the bottom you can see Justin Greene’s talk from the 2021 virtual Tokyo DTO. Justin’s in-person participation was thanks to the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s partnership with American Airlines, who also supports such initiatives that reflect their mission to care for one another along life’s journey.

Our venue was the prestigious Sophia University, a Jesuit university set across from the State Guesthouse and just up the road from the Japanese Diet and with walking distance of the Imperial Gardens and Palace. Our Japan partner MetaVenture has worked with us to provide excellent mission-driven programming, both virtually and in person!

And finally, thanks to Templeton Religion Trust for their sponsorship of the initiative.

Stay tuned for more details on Date to Overcome India, to be held September 24-26, 2023, in New Delhi.

Summary by Melissa Grim, J.D.

Dr. Judith Richter, Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award Gold Medalist, delivered a keynote address at the 2022 Dare to Overcome National Faith ERG Conference in Washington DC. (See recording below.)

Download Full Prepared Comments

Dr. Judith Richter is an accomplished entrepreneur and among Israel’s most distinguished business leaders. In 1993, Dr. Richter co-founded Medinol, a global medical device company that acquired a significant international position in the Interventional Cardiology and stenting industry. She has served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer since its founding.

Dr. Richter realized her vision for the social impact of her company’s when she founded the NIR School of the Heart, a bright ray of hope in a region where prejudice and violence are present in the hearts of too many people. The NIR School is a unique academic and social program, that assembles teenagers from different backgrounds to learn the basics of cardiology. Despite times of great tension in the region, the NIR School has operated continuously, and today is proud to have more than 800 graduates, and more than 25% of these graduates are pursuing careers as physicians or other medical-related professions.

Of her father and the Holocaust, she shares:

But not less important I’ve learned that the heart is a common symbol across all religions and cultures of our shared humanity. In working to open hearts, I was inspired by the legacy of my father, a survivor of the Holocaust, one of the darkest times in human history.

Through his heroic life story – risking his own life to save the lives of others – my father taught me that while one’s possessions, friends and even family can be ripped away, the single asset that no one can take away from you is knowledge.

Knowledge empowers. Knowledge humanizes. Knowledge is the foundation upon which respect and peace are built.

Over the years I have come to learn that there are moments in life when one has to go above and beyond the call of duty, follow his/her personal values, and stretch a hand to those in danger and need.

Dr. Richter stresses that in these troubling times, the agony of the Ukrainian people is calling upon humanity to take action and help save lives. The management and employees at Medinol are taking part in this global noble front. On the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2022, Medinol shipped stents as a donation to Ukraine.

She called upon leaders in the corporate world, in the business sector, and in the halls of power, to inspire others to open their hearts, break down barriers allow friendship and creativity to flow across borders, and help build bridges between hearts, over and through walls.

In closing, Dr. Richter said that “We should all appeal to our common humanity and the parts of religion that call upon each of us to take a greater human responsibility – doing good for a better world. We have proven it at Medinol and in the NIR School. We can do it anywhere.”

Dr. Judith Richter – We Must Dare to Overcome

Greetings from the MIT World Peace University in Pune, India (near Mumbai)! I’ve started a series of terrific planning meetings for our 2023 Dare to Overcome Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. They’ll be held in New Delhi, Sept. 24-25, 2023, in tandem with the G20 hosted by India.

American Airlines is our partner and the official airline of Dare to Overcome. See pic of the fun sendoff the gate staff gave as I boarded the 15-hour non-stop flight from JFK. They truly put to practice their motto of caring for one another along life’s journey.