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80% of business leaders say it’s “good for company culture” to encourage employees to be open about their faith, according to a new Deseret News/HarrisX nationally representative poll

A summary of the findings by Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas notes that while business leaders are at times reluctant to reveal their own faith, they are more open to religion-related programming in the workplace. The survey finds that 8-in-10 business decision-makers say that it’s “good for company culture” to encourage employees to be open about their faith.

Additionally, according to the survey, 3-in-4 business leaders said discussions about religious beliefs make workers happier.

RFBF’s senior corporate advisor Kent Johnson, coming from a 37-year career with Texas Instruments, shared his thoughts on this with Kelsey Dallas. Read more here.

Also, see more on Kent’s thoughts on the contributions faith makes to corporate culture in the video below, or meet him at the 5th Annual DFW Summit for Religious Freedom on Oct. 27th in Dallas at SMU!

By Brian Grim

NEW: First Comprehensive Resource on Religion’s Impact in America

Faith Counts, a multi-faith nonprofit group, recently launched a first-of-its-kind database that distills the latest research on how religion positively impacts the most important issues facing America.

Two of the studies that my daughter, Melissa Grim, and I did on the economic contribution of faith to society are featured:

• Socio-economic impact: Religions in the United States today contribute a combined $1.2 trillion a year to the economy and society.

• Substance abuse addiction: Faith-based recovery programs provides $316 billion annually in savings to U.S. economy.

However, studies highlighting the impact of faith and religion are often aimed at scholars and academics, making it difficult to find the meaningful information too often buried in published works that can be difficult for the non-scholar to navigate.

Faith Facts uses videos, infographics and shareables to pull out key data points to detail the invaluable role faith communities play in supporting the economy, healthcare, immigration, criminal justice, substance abuse and disaster relief. They have been particularly critical during this historically difficult period, supporting:

• — Disaster relief:  About 58% of all emergency shelter beds are faith-based
• — Criminal justice:  There are 12,000 congregations in the U.S. that have prisoner outreach groups
• — Immigration: Over 30,000 congregations have programs to help immigrants

Check it out!

Related Video

by Steven A Hitz. Steve is a co-founder of Launching Leaders Worldwide. Launching Leaders, a partner of Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, has engaged participants in more than 70 countries on six continents through a faith-based personal leadership curriculum which empowers participants everywhere. This is a guest post in our ongoing blog series, Authenticity & Connection.

A pastor noticed that a parishioner had stopped attending his services. The parishioner evidently felt he was no longer noticed, loved, or missed by his attendance, so he simply stopped coming.

The pastor gave it some prayerful thought and paid a visit to the elderly man on a very snowy and cold winter day. He knocked on the door. The man opened the door, and they had a cordial greeting, but beyond that, neither said a word.

The man motioned to a chair to join him by the fire. After a good time of only the sound of wood and coals crackling and feeling the warmth of the fire, the pastor picked up the fire prod and began poking at the coals. He moved a glowing coal away from the fire. They both sat watching as the coal lost its heat and eventually stopped glowing. Several minutes went by in silence. Then, the pastor pulled the coal back to the edge of the fire as they watched it rekindle and glow again, adding heat and luster as the glowing embers glistened off their warming faces. The pastor put the prod down, tipped his hat and walked to the door and let himself out.

The following Sabbath, the man returned to the congregation. The pastor welcomed him by name and asked what brought him back. The man said “Pastor, at my home by the fire, you gave the best sermon I’ve ever heard you give without saying a word.”

This story I recently heard is directly relatable to the epidemic of anxiety and depression in our world today, especially among our youth. Feelings of anxiety and depression often lead to isolation. The healing process is a two-way street. Those who notice the dying ember must reach for it and bring it back into the fire. Those who are the dying ember must allow themselves to be open to authentic outreach and be willing to be moved (both on their own and by the love of the community).

The question is how to begin this outreach. One of the more evident answers is to do as the pastor did, and not say a word—just listen and be there for each other.

In his book, Happy Mind Happy Life, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee articulated 10 rules for listening to others.

1. 1. Be non-judgmental.
2. 2. Be curious.
3. 3. Practice true sympathy: not “I know how you’re feeling,” but, “I don’t know how you’re feeling but I am here for you.”
4. 4. Take time to really listen; don’t just think about the next thing you’re going to say.
5. 5. Show them you are listening with your body language—posture, tone of voice, eye contact, not being distracted by your phone.
6. 6. Don’t try to predict where the conversation will go next.
7. 7. Embrace silence.
8. 8. Repeat back what they’re saying in your own language.
9. 9. Don’t try to fix them or rush in to tell them what you would do. Instead, try asking “How did that feel for you?” and then actively listen without interruption.
10. 10. Have no attachment to the outcome of the conversation.

There are also keys for listening to ourselves and surrounding ourselves with people in selective circles of trust. Parker J. Palmer, talks about developing circles of trust in his book, A Hidden Wholeness. Not surprising, he notes both the need for companionship and community in our journey, as well as being able to live in silence to effectively “listen” for our inner voice. He writes “….We all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader.”

Becoming acquainted with our inner voice (or teacher) is essential. Though it is a unique voice for each of us, it still requires community for our inner truth to leave isolation. This journey toward inner truth, he said, is too taxing to be made solo, too deeply hidden to be traveled without company, and needed to find the courage to venture into alien lands (a new life of fulfillment).

The space we make to discover and listen to this inner voice is highly individual. No two people may take the exact journey, and that is the beauty of discovering our inner voice It is OUR personal teacher—no one else’s. It is OUR personal tutor and speaks only to us if we are listening.

For me, finding my inner voice requires peace. In some recent travels I had a chance to compare total chaos in a busy city to the absolute peace of a secluded lake. What was the difference between them? The city was a cacophony of noise with masses of people like salmon swimming upstream. While at the lake, I could sit and hear myself breathe as I viewed the large expanses of mountains and water. The silence around me brought the peace I was seeking, and my inner voice began to speak to me. Those trusted friends who were with me were kind enough to watch me breathe without saying a word, until I was ready to reveal some of what my inner voice was telling me. I extended the same courtesy to them. This became a beautifully healing experience.

In all my research and lived experiences dealing with these issues, I’ve felt simple observations and suggestions like these are helpful. The formula that works for me in lowering my anxiety and limiting bouts of depression are these:

• – Find a place for peaceful silence without being too isolated; a space to hear the inner voice guiding your next steps.
• – Be with trusted friends and family who have the skills to listen, really listen (sometimes without saying a word), and to enjoy the warmth of their figurative fires to keep the embers of hope alive.
• – Practice the art of listening as you figuratively reach for the fire poker and gather in the dying embers to ignite hope.

Evolution requires reflection. I hope as you reflect on the impressions of the inner voice, ponder the story of the dying ember, and commit to a being a better listener, you will discover ways to be reignited and experience the glow and warmth you truly deserve.

Sumreen Ahmad, Accenture’s Global Change Management Lead, revealed an Aha! Moment in her keynote at Dare to Overcome 2022.

Sumreen found herself one day in a feedback discussion where she was being promoted, when a colleague told her that he’d “never met anyone with so much tenacity, patience and perseverance”. This same colleague saw no reason why faith belonged in the workplace. Sumreen seized the opportunity – taking advantage of the ‘aha’ moment to explain just how much those values were engrained in her – not because of any corporate training she’d received, but because of how her faith drove her leadership style anchored in being accountable to something much bigger than herself.

You can see Sumreen’s full comments here, as well as other talks she has given.

Also, Sumreen will be on a panel on faith at work with Supriya Jha, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, SAP, and Millicent Rone, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Sr. Specialist, American Airlines, and me on Oct. 19, if you’d like to see how a growing number of top companies are recognizing the value of faith.

Brian Grim pictured with three of the Fellows from BYU Hawaii, (L-R) Soktheavy Phouk, Fahina Lauti, and Jane Sandberg

Washington DC, October 7

Dr. Brian Grim, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, addressed the 2022 J. Reuban Clark Law Society Religious Liberty Fellows on October 7. Now in its fourth year, the Fellowship was held in Washington, D.C. This year it was also cosponsored by the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

Grim drew attention to “building” religious liberty, an approach that expands religious freedom by increasing the space in society where deeply held faiths and beliefs are respected, celebrated and engaged. The example Grim focused on was the growing acceptance in some of the world’s biggest and best companies of religion and belief as a full-fledged part of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion, as measured by the Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index.

One example Grim shared of how this works is summarized in the following video introducing Google’s Inter Belief Network (IBN) Employee Resource Group (ERG).

Grim Also shared examples from numerous companies that participated earlier this year in the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s National Faith@Work ERG Conference, Dare to Overcome, including the testimony of American Airlines in the following video.

Grim also shared how, thanks to the senior counsel at PayPal, they were able to launch their interfaith ERG “Believe.”

In addition to hearing from Brian Grim, Fellows heard from federal judges, congressional staffers, nationally recognized religious liberty advocates and scholars, and interfaith representatives (see program). The Fellowship allows participants to build both their knowledge of the law, strengthen their networks, and formulate plans to promote religious liberty in their communities.

Related video:

Also see Brian Grim’s 2021 BYU Marriott School of Business NAC Presentation.

by Brian Grim

The YMCA of Greater Charlotte, in partnership with the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, launched a dialogue on Oct. 4 where people of different faiths, beliefs and convictions came together to discuss how faith is a dimension of diversity.

The “way” that this very diverse group of 80 business and community leaders came together was in support of each other’s right to hold their deeply held beliefs and live according to them without necessarily extending moral equivalency to the other’s beliefs. An approach we refer to as Covenantal Pluralism (see video).

The opening of this dialogue is certainly in line with the mission of the YMCA, which is “To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.”

So, how is it that such a dialogue fits in with the Christian principles of the YMCA? Two teachings of Jesus referenced during the dialogue give the answer:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

These words of Jesus from Matthew 7:12 are referred to as the Golden Rule and are reflected in many religious traditions. And, when asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replied,

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37-40).

In an age of polarization, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte is demonstrating “love of neighbor” as the way forward. As Nancy Fisher from the YMCA said, “I look forward to talking with attendees and hearing how they will spread what was learned in their businesses and organizations of influence.”

I look forward to this as well. If your organization would like to host a similar event, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte’s initiative is one to replicate in cities and towns across the country. Our next event will be November 11 in Lehi, Utah. Hope to see you there!

For leaders and members of faith-oriented ERGs in business, knowledge of the latest trends in religion is valuable. It helps companies better understand the religious contexts they operate within as well as ERGs discover better ways to engage.

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

On Monday, Oct. 3, 12-12:30pm ET, Brook Zaugg, vice president of the Faith & Media Initiative, and I hosted this briefing for businesses on the study’s findings and their relevance for corporate communications.

Google it? See how Google’s faith-friendly workplaces help make googling more enjoyable.

By Brian Grim

Google has taken steps to make their workplaces more faith-friendly through their Inter Belief Network (IBN) employee resource group (ERG). This allows them to better connect with their billions of users, the majority of whom are also people of faith.

Naomi Kraus, Google Senior Content Strategist & Global Chair of IBN, introduced the above video at our Dare to Overcome conference this past May, showing an example of how this faith-friendly approach impacts one of their products.

So, now, back to the question. Where do you go when you want to learn about something religious? For many people, the first thing they do is “google it.” With Yom Kippur coming up this coming week, click below to see what you find.

And, btw, as someone who has attended three different theological seminaries and has a doctorate in the sociology of religion, I admit, I googled it. 🙂

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.