Author Archives: RFBF

Brian Grim  (葛百彦), Ph.D.

I delivered a keynote speech at the Oct. 13-14 conference at Minzu University in Beijing on religion’s role in China’s Belt and Road initiative using data from my research at Boston University. Below is a summary of my presentation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Belt & Road Initiative in 2013. Over the past five years, scores of countries and international organizations have actively participated in the initiative which, according to Chinese authorities, promotes common development and sharing, policy communication, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, financing, and people-to-people links.

As with any grand plan, challenges are numerous. Just as the pilgrims in the Chinese epic Journey to the West had to overcome a series of challenges to bring Buddhist scriptures back from India, Chinese goods, services and businesses also need to overcome many challenges on the road to success. One leading Hong Kong Business CEO investing heavily into the Belt and Road Initiative pointed to cultural barriers as “quite the most challenging part” of being successful.

In the introduction of my presentation, I shared own personal history in China, beginning in 1982 when my wife and I taught English at Hua Qiao University in Fujian, almost two decades before Xi Jinping was governor of the province. During that year, our oldest daughter (葛天恩) was, we are told, the first American to be born in China after China and the U.S. normalized relations during Pres. Jimmy Carter’s administration. In those years having an electric fan was considered a luxury, and we were the only private individuals we knew with a camera. How much has changes since then! Today, there are about 1.3 billion active mobile devices in China, most with a built-in camera.

I also shared about my work from 1985-88 in China’s northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where I worked with the former governor, Wang En-mao, a Long March colleague of Mao Zedeng and Deng Xioping, on several initiatives to empower Uygurs educationally and economically. During those years, a proposal I worked on for a trilingual graduate school — Uygur, Putonghua (Mandarin) and English — eventually was approved personally by then Chinese Premier Deng Xioping. The school was unfortunately never established.

One highlight of that period was a trilingual concert in Uygur, Putonghua and English at Xinjiang’s newly constructed Great Hall. As part the educational exchanges involving more than 1,000 students and teachers in Xinjiang that I was organizing between U.S. Baptist universities and universities in Xinjiang, a choir of students and young teachers from our summer program performed a song popularized by American Singer, Sandi Patty, “Love in Any Language.”

• Love in any language, straight from the heart
• Pulls us all together, never apart
• And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
• Love in any language, fluently spoken here.

In my 2018 keynote speech, I argued that such experiences from years ago indicate that the possibilities of interfaith and intercultural understanding in Xinjiang are real, and such types of programs need to be revisited.

Religious Diversity: An Aid to China’s Economy

A Pew Research Center religious diversity study – based on methodology I developed with Todd Johnson – finds that about one-in-three people live in countries with high religious diversity (also see Chapter 3 in our book, The World’s Religions in Figures).

While the majority of the world’s countries (59%) have relatively low religious diversity, because many countries with low diversity have small populations, only a third (33%) of the world’s people live in them according to the study. About a third (32%) of the world’s people live in countries with moderate religious diversity and another third (35%) live in countries with high or very high religious diversity.

China has a very diverse mixture of the eight major religious groups counted in the Pew study: Buddhists (18.2%), Christians (5.1%), unaffiliated (52.2%), Muslims (1.8%), other religions (0.7%), Hindus (<1%), folk religionists (21.9%) and Jews (<1%).

During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, religion was completely outlawed and people were routinely beaten and killed for having superstitious or religious beliefs. While it is true that today China has very high government restrictions on religion relative to other countries in the world, current conditions are far less restrictive than they were in the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, China has the world’s largest Buddhist population, largest folk religionist population, largest Taoist population, 9th largest Christian population and 17th largest Muslim population – ranking between Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Pew Research Center 2012).

Acknowledging China’s very high religious diversity is important because countries with higher levels of religious diversity are more globally competitive. Elsewhere (Grim 2015) I have made the case that China’s very high religious diversity contributes to the country’s remarkable economic growth, which has not only fueled global growth but also lifted more than 500 million people out of abject poverty.

Globally, what do the data say about the relationship between religious diversity and global competitiveness? We can see clearly that countries with higher levels of religious diversity are on average significantly more globally competitive by comparing the Religious Diversity Index (RDI) scores of the top 27 economies on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) with the 110 lower ranking economies (China is ranked 27^th), as shown in the table below. The median RDI for the top 27 economies is 5.4 compared with a median of 2.5 for the remaining 110 economies for which the World Economic Forum calculates a GDI score. Looked at another way, 59% of the top economies (16 of 27) have high or very high religious diversity compared with just 17% of the remaining 110 economies (19 of 110).

What are the mechanisms through which religious diversity contributes to economic competitiveness? First, research shows that diversity is in many situations a plus for businesses. And because more than eight-in-ten people in the world practice a religion, religious diversity is one of the most basic ways to increase what is called 2-D diversity, that is two dimensions of diversity, covering inherent traits (such as gender and age) and acquired traits (such as skills and education). Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Hewlett, Marshall and Sherbin (2013) note that “firms with 2-D diversity are 45% likelier to report a growth in market share over the previous year and 70% likelier to report that the firm captured a new market.”

Religion is a unique contribution to organizational and business diversity in that it can involve both inherent and acquired traits. That is, to the degree that someone follows the faith of their parents and/or community, it is inherent. And, to the degree that religion is a matter of personal preference and choice, it is also acquired through religious education and practice.

Second, diversity enhances creativity and is a critical component of building teams or organizations capable of innovating. Diversity stimulates the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. “Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. … Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working” (Phillips 2014).

Religious diversity within a country makes the local marketplace of ideas, products and businesses more diverse and innovative. Indeed, business and technological innovations often come from religious and other minorities who often have different life experiences and frames of reference from the majority population. In a sense, because they are a minority, they often have to try harder. As an example, some of the most successful global companies had leadership from religious minorities, such as Marriott International, which was founded and for many years led by a family who are devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), who number only 16 million worldwide. One of India’s most successful and respected companies is the Tata Group. It was founded and is owned by the Tata family who are members of a very small religious group called Parsis, a small subgroup of Zoroastrianism with fewer than 60,000 members.

And in China religious minorities add significant value to the economy, such as China’s domestic halal market valued at $20 billion annually (Allen-Ebrahimian 2016). And according to a study in the China Economic Review by Qunyong Wang (Institute of Statistics and Econometrics, Nankai University, Tianjin) and Xinyu Lin (Renmin University of China, Beijing), Chinese Christianity – another of China’s minority religions – boosts the country’s economic growth. Specifically, they find that robust economic growth occurs in areas of China where Christian congregations and institutions are prevalent (Wang and Lin 2014).

This also points to the possibility that China can benefit from this internal religious diversity by Chinese religious minorities playing a critical role in helping to successfully deal with businesses from countries and communities that share their background. For instance, even though China produces halal food for export, China’s halal industry remains a negligible 0.1 percent of a world halal market that’s “valued at more than $650 billion and is projected to reach up to $1.6 trillion within a few years. Huge growth is expected over the next several decades as the world’s Muslim population grows faster than every other major religious demographic, and as urbanization and rising incomes in developing countries with large Muslim populations mean that more of the world’s Muslims will be buying, rather than producing, their own food” (Allen-Ebrahimian 2016). Having Chinese Muslims become leaders for halal exports might help win the trust of Muslim populations around the world.

References

• – Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (2016). “China Wants to Feed the World’s 1.6 Billion Muslims.” Foreign Policy. May 2, 2016.
• – Grim, Brian J. (2015). “The Modern Chinese Secret to Sustainable Growth: Teligious Freedom and Diversity,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs Volume 13, Issue 2, 2015.
• – Hewlett, Sylvia Ann, Melinda Marshall and Laura Sherbin. (2013). “How Diversity Can Drive Innovation.” Harvard Business Review, December 2013. Internet:
• – Pew research Center (2012). The Global Religious Landscape
• – Phillips, Katherine W. “How Diversity Makes Us Smarter.” Scientific American, October 1, 2014.
• – Wang, Qunyong, and Xinyu Lin. 2014. “Does Religious Beliefs Affect Economic Growth? Evidence from Provincial-level Panel Data in China.” China Economic Review 31: 277–287.

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Brian Grim  (葛百彦), Ph.D.

Religious freedom is an economic asset, certainly to the U.S. but also to China. As Trump & Xi meet in Argentina at the annual G20 economic summit, below are some points to ponder.

Religious freedom: Asset to economic recovery and growth

As the world navigates away from years of poor economic performance, religious freedom is an unrecognized asset to economic recovery and growth, being one of only three factors significantly associated with global economic growth, according to a 2014 study. The study looked at GDP growth for 173 countries in 2011 and controlled for two-dozen different financial, social, and regulatory influences. The study also examines and finds a positive relationship between religious freedom and ten of the twelve pillars of global competitiveness, as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (link).

Religious Freedom: Sets Faith Groups Free to Help Tackle Poverty

Poverty, some argue, can only be effectively tackled by governments enforcing top-down, big-P Poverty reduction policies and programs. But a host of religious groups empowered by religious freedom haven’t gotten the memo. Innovative faith-based initiatives worldwide are tackling poverty using bottom-up, small-p poverty alleviation approaches that empower individuals to be resourceful, resilient and self-reliant. Indeed, a central aspect of religious freedom is that it gives faith groups license to innovate and contribute to the wellbeing of individuals, communities and nations. But where religious freedom is curtailed, so are such innovations. For instance, reform-minded Saudi princess Basmah bint Saud argues, religion “should not be a shield behind which we hide from the world but a driving force that inspires us to innovate and contribute to our surroundings.” See examples of poverty reduction set free by religious freedom at this link.

Religious Freedom Yields $1.2T US Religious Economy

Safeguards for religious freedom have helped to produce a dynamic religious environment in the United States that contributes socially and economically according to a 2016 study. Socially, religious groups provide over 1.5 million different social services, such as faith-based job training programs. This religious freedom also contributes $1.2 Trillion dollars to the US economy annually. That is equivalent to U.S. religion being the world’s 15th largest national economy, putting it ahead of about 180 other countries. It’s more than the annual revenues of the world’s top 10 tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Google. And it’s also more than 50% larger than that of the annual global revenues of America’s 6 largest oil and gas companies. So, you might say, that represents a lot of spiritually inspired fuel being pumped into the U.S. economy. See study and short video highlighting the results at this link.

China’s Religious Liberalization After Cultural Revolution Creates Economic Asset

A Pew Research Center religious diversity study – based on methodology I developed with Todd Johnson – finds that about one-in-three people live in countries with high religious diversity (also see Chapter 3 in our book, The World’s Religions in Figures).

While the majority of the world’s countries (59%) have relatively low religious diversity, because many countries with low diversity have small populations, only a third (33%) of the world’s people live in them according to the study. About a third (32%) of the world’s people live in countries with moderate religious diversity and another third (35%) live in countries with high or very high religious diversity.

China has a very diverse mixture of the eight major religious groups counted in the Pew study: Buddhists (18.2%), Christians (5.1%), unaffiliated (52.2%), Muslims (1.8%), other religions (0.7%), Hindus (<1%), folk religionists (21.9%) and Jews (<1%).

During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, religion was completely outlawed and people were routinely beaten and killed for having superstitious or religious beliefs. While it is true that today China has very high government restrictions on religion relative to other countries in the world, current conditions are far less restrictive than they were in the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, China has the world’s largest Buddhist population, largest folk religionist population, largest Taoist population, 9th largest Christian population and 17th largest Muslim population – ranking between Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Pew Research Center 2012).

Acknowledging China’s very high religious diversity is important because countries with higher levels of religious diversity are more globally competitive. China’s very high religious diversity contributes to the country’s remarkable economic growth, which has not only fueled global growth but also lifted more than 500 million people out of abject poverty.

Globally, what do the data say about the relationship between religious diversity and global competitiveness? We can see clearly that countries with higher levels of religious diversity are on average significantly more globally competitive by comparing the Religious Diversity Index (RDI) scores of the top 27 economies on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) with the 110 lower ranking economies (China is ranked 27^th), as shown in the table below. The median RDI for the top 27 economies is 5.4 compared with a median of 2.5 for the remaining 110 economies for which the World Economic Forum calculates a GDI score. Looked at another way, 59% of the top economies (16 of 27) have high or very high religious diversity compared with just 17% of the remaining 110 economies (19 of 110).

Welcome to our interview with Kent Johnson. Kent is a Senior Corporate Advisor for the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) and a management consultant on religious diversity at work. Kent works with RFBF to help companies adopt and practice best practices regarding religious diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Kent recently retired from his role as a Senior Counsel at Texas Instruments Incorporated and now serves as a consultant to multinational companies on topics related to religious accommodation and faith in the workplace. Kent helps companies see the appropriate role of religious expression and religious diversity at work, in order to strengthen corporate cultures of trust, mutual respect and organizational effectiveness.

I’m Bill Fox, Co-founder here at Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Kent Johnson today. I shared my reflections on my interview with Kent at Are you religious?

Kent, welcome to this forum and thank you for contributing to the questions that are at the heart of Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces.

Q1: How can we create workplaces where every voice matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

The starting point is to truly value our employees. Not to merely look for what they can do to help us achieve corporate profitability goals and short-term time-related goals, but to care about them as human beings.  My particular focus in this vein is on religious diversity, and here’s why:

If we really want to unleash diverse perspectives and energy, we must look for ways to help employees engage work in accordance with their deeply held beliefs. That crucial connection of passion with work is key to flourishing.

One of Webster’s definitions of “religion” is “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” In that broad sense, nearly everyone is “religious.”  Everyone has some deeply held principles and beliefs. We must free people to connect their “religion” to their work.

There’s a wonderful story that comes from the movie Chariots of Fire. The protagonist is a very religious person who competes for an Olympic gold medal.  His religious sister asks why he spends so much time and effort running.  His reply is classic: , “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”

Think about that:  When I invent, I feel God’s pleasure! When I resolve conflicts or stand up against favoritism, I feel God’s pleasure!  When I help others succeed, I feel God’s pleasure! When I work hard – at great personal cost – to do what’s right though nobody’s looking, I feel God’s pleasure! Is there any employer who wouldn’t want this kind of motivation in their workplace?

Religion – defined as a set of deeply held personal principles and beliefs – is an appropriate focus for the workplace.

By definition, religion is personal. Our workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse. It’s counterproductive to try to press people into a predetermined mold. If we value people, we will try to understand the deeply held beliefs that define and motivate them.

… Read full interview …

Businesses do much more than just create profits. Businesses are where people find employment and a means to support themselves and their families. Businesses are also engines of social change and development.

Businesses support civil society through foundations and enterprises that work on everything from alleviating poverty to promoting peace and development.

Enterprises are places where people from different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds can come together for shared purpose and goals. This session will look at the multiple ways that businesses help create sustainable development and peaceful, flourishing societies.

View full STS&P Website

<Program & Composition>

Time and Venue : 2018. 11. 30^th (Fri.) 10am~12pm @ Room 306, KINTEX

Moderator Doyoung Kim/ CSR Forum Korea President

Keynote Speech 1 Brian Grim/ RFBF President

Keynote Speech 2 Siwon Kim/ Editor in Chief, Chosun Media Better Future

Keynote Speech 3 Eundong Hwang/ SK Telecom AI Business Unit Head

Keynote Speech 4 Dongwon Seoh/ EBS General Manager

Panel Discussion Prof. Yonghee Yang/ Seoul Theological University, President of KANPOR Donghyung Lee/ Center Manager, Chosun Media Better Future Eundong Hwang/ SK Telecom AI Business Unit Head Dongwon Seo/ EBS General Manager Siwon Kim/ Editor in Chief, Chosun Media Better Future.

グリム博士が光祥さまと面会,大聖堂6F特別応接室,庭野光祥,光祥さま,庭野光祥,光祥さま

Last month Brian Grim, RFBF president, met leaders of Rissho Kosei-kai to discuss Dare to Overcome, our Global Business Festival & Peace Awards in support of the Paralympic Movement.

Rissho Kosei-kai is a worldwide Buddhist organization founded in Japan in 1938 by Nikkyo Niwano and Myoko Naganuma. It combines the wisdom of both the Lotus Sutra and the foundational teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. Its purpose is to bring these transformative teachings to the modern world.

Centrality of Peace

Rissho Kosei-kai members pledge to follow the bodhisattva way: To bring peace to their families, communities, and countries and to the world. As part of their religious practice, Rissho Kosei-kai members render altruistic services through activities dedicated to peace. These include supporting the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

The World Conference of Religions for Peace is a multireligious congress that first convened in Kyoto, Japan, in 1970. Religions for Peace invites world religious leaders to take part in congresses to share their goals and contribute to world peace in the spirit of interreligious cooperation. Religions for Peace’s membership includes religious leaders from the Baha’i; Mahayana and Therevada Buddhism; Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic Christianity; Confucianism; Hinduism; indigenous faiths; Islam; Jainism; Reform Judaism; New Religions; Shinto; Sikhism; and Zoroastrianism.

In 1973, Religions for Peace was granted Consultative Status, Category II, by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Founder Niwano delivers opening address at the 6th WCRP The sixth assembly was held November 1994 at the Vatican and Riva del Garda, Italy. To further its efforts as an action-oriented organization, Religions for Peace established six commissions in the following fields during this assembly: Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation;  Human Rights and Responsibilities; The Child and the Family; Development and Ecology; Disarmament and Security; and Peace Education.

Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, delivered the opening address and joyfully welcomed Pope John Paul II as the first papal participant in a World Assembly of Religions for Peace. Since then, the congress has been actively involved in conflict resolution processes in civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and so on.

In November 1999, the seventh assembly of Religions for Peace was held in Amman, Jordan, and in August 2006 the eighth assembly was held in Kyoto, Japan. On July 2-3, 2008, the Japanese Committee of Religions for Peace convened the World Religious Leaders Summit for Peace in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, with the cooperation of its international body, Religions for Peace.

The conference was held shortly before the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations (G8) held July 7-9 by Lake Toya near Sapporo. The participants discussed pressing global issues and worked out a statement to the G8 leaders. The religious summit was attended by about 300 religious leaders, including 100 delegates from 23 countries and regions. It was one in a series of multireligious conferences preceding annual G8 summits. For further information about the WCRP, visit http://www.religionsforpeace.org/.

by Brian Grim

What’s Thanksgiving got to do with religious freedom? For Americans, they recall the story of Pilgrim’s escaping persecution and surviving the first harsh winter thanks to Native Americans. In what seemed like a desolation, the Pilgrims experienced a great consolation as the indigenous people put the Golden Rule to practice, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

This Thursday, my wife and I mark Thanksgiving day at a lunch in Tokyo with people of different faiths discussing how to advance religious freedom in Asia and the world. This seems quite an appropriate way to spend the day, because looking back on my own work this past year there are many reasons for gratitude.

In religious freedom work, where stories of persecution tend to be the default narrative, I truly believe that by focusing on the good that is being done is critical to seeing the hand of God at work. In that spirit, meet some of the people I have the honor to work with worldwide who make gratitude an important part of religious freedom advocacy:

Netherlands

Mr. Mark Woerde, Founder Havas Lemz and LetsHeal.org, believes he can make the world a better place through advertising. This year his team advanced interfaith understanding and peace in a global campaign featuring the world’s most prominent religious leaders – from Pope Francis to Ayatollahs, Chief Rabbis and Hindu Swamis – making a joint appeal to “Make Friends Across Religions.” Mark with his team received a gold medal at the 2018 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards for this work.

Dallas, Texas

We welcome Kent Johnson as RFBF’s Senior Corporate Advisor. Read Kent’s interview “How to Help Employees Engage with Passion,” with Bill Fox, Co-founder at Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces, and see link below for the recent event he led in Dallas. Kent Johnson says that if companies truly want to unleash employee passion and energy in the workplace, then we must allow people to work in accordance with their deeply held beliefs.

Manchester, U.K.

Hinna Parvez Maluch, RFBF’s coordinator in Manchester, U.K., reaches out to refugees and asylum seekers to facilitate an interfaith initiative helping people apply faith as part of attaining job search skills. The latest course was delivered to a group of participants at the Cornerstone Day Centre for Refugees, a project of Caritas of the Catholic diocese of Salford. The group comprised of Catholic and Muslim participants. The group was coordinated by Amir Raki (Caritas staff) and Hinna Maluch (RFBF’s Empowerment+ Coordinator), and facilitated by a couple from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Alan and Janeth Dudley.

Hollywood, CA

Shirin Taber is Iranian-American and the author of Muslims Next Door (Zondervan) and Wanting All the Right Things (Relevant). The Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Fox News Christianity Today and NewYorkTimes.com have featured her writing and work among Muslims and Christians alike. She served with Cru, Inspirational Films and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Shirin is passionate about helping women become world-class leaders by creating media for their mission. Partnering with various United Nations, NGOs and faith-based agencies, she helps leaders develop media strategies to expand their visibility and outreach platforms. She is coordinating the film competition in partnership with RFBF.

Washington, DC

Paul Lambert serves as Secretary/Treasurer and Senior Business Fellow at the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. He is helping to develop the foundation’s in-company and campus-based executive education seminars on religious diversity & inclusion in the workplace. He has been spearheading this joint training initiative with the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute, including meeting with companies and producing training materials like the video below.

Davos, World Economic Forum

What faith-based narratives have the potential to emphasize the value of pluralism while promoting a sense of belonging and unity?

This session was live-streamed from Davos on Jan. 26, 2018, as part of the formal program of the 2018 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. It is available on TopLink and the Forum website.

Start of Paralympic Games, South Korea

The 2018 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Grand Hilton Hotel in Seoul. This is the second Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. The inaugural awards were given the day before the opening of the Rio Paralympics in 2016. The 2018 Awardees and Symposium delegates held high level meetings at the Korean National Assembly (Parliament), the Presidential Blue House, and with the Mayor of Seoul. Delegates from the conference were also welcomed by senior politicians at the Korean National Assembly, where RFBF President Brian Grim was awarded the Main Prize at the World Peace Prize Ceremony.

Philadelphia, PA

In April of this year, RFBF Board member, Chris Seiple, wrote a short piece for the World Economic Forum about how faithful patriotism helps defeat religious nationalism. This article led to an October invitation from Philadelphia’s Foreign Policy Research Institute to give the 22^nd Annual Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs. Chris has been doing a lot of thinking about beyond the diversity of side-by-side tolerance, to a mutually respectful engagement of each other, rooted in liberty of conscience.

Dear Friends,
Below I share the link to comments by a U.S. corporate leader following the terror in Pittsburgh. Ellyn Shook’s statement is titled Stop wondering if Faith is a workplace issue. It is. Indeed, Corporate America is a powerful force for advancing respect for religious freedom for all in society – a need tragically brought home this weekend.
Brian Grim, RFBF President

Immediate Release: Beijing, Oct. 13, 2018

Dr. Brian Grim will be the only foreigner to deliver a keynote speech at the Oct. 13-14 conference at Minzu University in Beijing on China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative (or One Belt One Road, OBOR). Using data from his work at Boston University and his previous work at Penn State and the Pew Research Center, Grim will outline the the role of religion in the OBOR countries where Beijing is hoping to do and expand business. He argues that successful international relations requires a good understanding of these dynamics.

The Role of Religion Along China’s Belt and Road Initiative

One Belt One Road Religious Literacy: Part 2

Brian J. Grim, Ph.D. (葛百彦)

Abstract

In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR, also known as the Belt & Road or Silk Road initiative). Over the past five years, scores of countries and international organizations have actively participated in OBOR which promotes common development and sharing, policy communication, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, financing, and people-to-people links. As with any grand plan, challenges are numerous. Just as the pilgrims in the Chinese epic Journey to the West had to overcome a series of challenges to bring Buddhist scriptures back from India, Chinese goods, services and businesses also need to overcome many challenges on the road to success. One leading Hong Kong Business CEO investing heavily into OBOR pointed to cultural barriers as “quite the most challenging part” of being successful.

Grim’s presentation is the second in a two-part study contributing to successfully meeting those challenges. The first study provided data on and analysis of the religious demography of the 63 countries (besides China) participating in OBOR. This study provides data on additional religious dynamics in OBOR countries, including how religion impacts governments and economics.

Grim will present the pivotal research he and Roger Finke published in the American Sociological Review that shows how government restrictions on religion contribute to religious violence, which in turn adds to social regulation of religion, setting of a cycle of religious violence. These dynamics are impediments for sustainable development and economic growth in OBOR countries.

Grim will also present his research  from the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion (with Greg Clark and Robert Snyder) showing that government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion in OBOR countries are key factors holding back economic growth.

You are invited to attend a groundbreaking breakfast meeting with a select group of diversity/inclusion influencers and a spectrum of faith leaders, at 7am, Friday, October 26 at the Doubletree Dallas on North Central Expressway.

Attendees will hear eyewitness reports about the effects of opening the workplace to diverse religious expression, including positive impact on:

• › Employee recruitment, engagement and retention
• › Culture of ethics and integrity
• › Product and service quality
• › Creativity, inventiveness and productivity
• › Dissolution of unwarranted and toxic fears and prejudices

They will also hear a crisp business case for action, including:

• › Demographic trends in religious affiliation
• › The fact that, for increasing numbers of people, their religious belief defines the core› principles by which they live and work
• › The importance of freeing employees to connect their faith to their everyday life, so they can bring their whole selves to work
• › Increasing claims of workplace religious discrimination and other negative effects when companies stifle faith-related communications

Lastly, speakers will introduce:

• › Some policies and best practices for accommodation and encouragement of relevant religious expression at work (including a corporate pledge), and
• › Available tailored seminars/how-to resources

The breakfast is sponsored by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF).  Among others, speakers will include the Foundation’s President, Brian Grim.

See the following links for information about Brian Grim and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation:

• › https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/brian-j-grim
• › https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/

Please RSVP to Kent Johnson, Senior Corporate Advisor, RFBF:

• kent@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org
• Tel: 972-977-5420

Workshop: Private sector’s contribution in supporting interfaith understanding

The UN Global Compact Network Egypt hosted the 2018 Business for Peace Annual Event that took place on the 7th and 8th of November in Cairo, Egypt. About 300 leaders from the private sector, civil society, Governments and the United Nations came together to explore innovative approaches to, and opportunities for collaboration in, sustaining peace.

• Nov. 7-8, 2018, Marriott Mena House

• Hosted by Brian Grim, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

In many countries around the world, sectarian conflicts can paralyze the society’s potential to grow and to develop. However, Businesses can play a very effective role in promoting inter-faith understanding as a substantial condition for peaceful social coexistence. Business can often be at the forefront of creating space where people from different cultures and religions can meet and cooperate. When companies are sensitive to religious and cultural issues around them, they can strengthen their social license and increase employee morale and productivity, while addressing difficult social needs at the same time. Beside being a moral commitment, promoting interfaith understanding is also important for business in terms of financial profit because it makes the work environment healthier and more productive.

During this workshop, the audience will explore how businesses can effectively uphold interfaith understanding within the communities in which they operate by providing examples and best practices from different countries.