Religion and innovation are seldom used in the same sentence. Typically we tend to think of religions as opposed to innovation, and research even suggests that the most religious countries are the least innovative on most measures. But are there conditions under which religion might actually be a catalyst for innovation? What role does religious freedom play in this regard? In this conversation, our speakers will address these questions and examine the role of religious freedom in fostering innovation.

Affiliations:
Dr. Andrew Abela, Dean, Busch School of Business, The Catholic University of America
Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan, Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology, The Catholic University of America
Dr. Marco Ventura, Professor, Department of Law, University of Siena
David DeWolf, CEO | Board Chair, Knownwell, an AI solutions company
Lee Carosi Dunn, J.D., Director, Cloud Policy for North America at Google Cloud

At Forbes HQ in NYC, the Forbes Impact Lab and the Coalition for Faith and Media hosted an inspiring evening with pioneering leaders and corporate changemakers who meaningfully leverage faith in order to create strong businesses, prosperity, and more good in the world.

Forbes’ Chief Impact Officer Seth Cohen did a great job making the case for religiously inclusive workplaces in conversation with Accenture’s Sumreen Ahmad and the Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie.

Representatives from the faith@work community also included Google’s Farah Siddiqi, Leslie Funk and Naomi Kraus, American Airlines Rev. Greg McBrayer, Princeton’s Dr. David W. Miller, the Aspen Institute’s Simran Jeet Singh, and Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s Dr. Brian Grim.

The Coalition for Faith and Media leaders Sheri Dew and Brooke Zaugg as well as Forbes’ Ali Jackson-Jolley all helped guide the event. Stay tuned for more to come!

Your Faith

ServiceNow will lead this roundtable discussion at Dare to Overcome, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, from 11:00-11:45 am. Location: Busch School of Business, Room 207.

A roundtable for people to share stories of Interfaith within their companies or personal journey that deepen relationships & help all learn what works!

Register for monthly networking meetings, 1:00-1:30pm BST, 2nd Thursday each month.

Join us on 6th June at 1:00 pm BST (8:00 am US ET) to hear from the UK’s top faith-friendly companies, Baringa and Rolls-Royce, as they share an overview of their faith-friendly policies and programmes.

See more at FaithAtWork.uk.

DELL-sponsored “Feed the Hungry” Multi-Faith Prayer & Service Project

Join colleagues from DELL Technologies’ Interfaith employee resource group and others for this special service project at Dare to Overcome, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, from 7:30-8:45 am. Location: Heritage Hall at The Catholic University of America, Washington DC. To participate, must be registered for Dare to Overcome.

The vision of the Dare to Overcome conference is to overcome those things that prevent unity, justice, tranquility, security, general welfare, and the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. This year DELL Technologies’ Interfaith employee resource group will lead a pilot of a social impact activity that provides an example of a possible faith-led initiative that companies can take back with them to replicate in their own communities.

All attendees to participate in a “feed the hungry” community involvement event on May 22 to draw attention to the World Hunger Day (a separate annual event observed later in May) to raise awareness of the global hunger crisis encourages action towards ending global hunger. This will begin at 7:30 am with a multi-faith prayer gathering for those suffering from food insecurity and hunger followed by a hands-on one-hour community event packaging food onsite for the homeless in collaboration with The Nation’s Mosque, Helping Hands (Latter-day Saints), and Catholic Charities in Washington DC. DELL Technologies, in consultation with the Busch School of Business, is taking the lead to organize the event. Colleagues from Merck and CVS Health are also supporting this initiative.

• Title: Executive Seminar on Championing Dignity in the Workplace
• Date/Time: Monday, May 20 Noon – 5pm
• Place: Maloney Pavilion, the Busch School of Business at CUA
• Cost: $75 per participant
• Description:  

This half-day seminar is an opportunity for HR professionals to discuss faith in the workplace and to learn more about the Busch School’s Dignity of the Worker framework for addressing contemporary shifts in the HR landscape, all while earning SHRM continuing education credit.  The seminar will be conducted in two sessions:

Randy Reardon, VP of HR at Labcorp – “How Bringing your Faith to Work, in the Way of St Francis, Encourages Dignity in the Workplace.”

Discussion on how the Way of St. Francis can be practiced within the organization, allowing dignity to flourish by allowing all to bring faith to work.

Tracy Phillips, Professor at the Busch School – Dignity of the Worker Workshop

An interactive workshop on how you and your team can implement concepts in The Dignity of the Worker Framework to instill human dignity-centered best practices in human resource management.

A full agenda will be sent out after registration.  Lunch and cocktail reception are included in the cost.

BYU: MBA Faith@Work Case Competition

BYU’s Marriott School of Business and Wheatley Institute will lead this roundtable discussion at Dare to Overcome, with students from Columbia Business School & Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. The panel will address the relevance of this topic in MBA programs today and ways universities and companies can work together to improve unity, justice and peace for society.

Wednesday, May 22, 2024, from 10:00-10:45 am. Location: Busch School of Business, Room 207.

American Airlines & AZZ: Innovations in workplace chaplaincy

American Airlines and AZZ will lead this roundtable discussion at Dare to Overcome, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, from 1:45-2:30 pm. Location: Busch School of Business, Main Auditorium.

A Mental Wellness Event For Youth, Young Adults, Parents And Guardians

Friday, May 10, 2024 – 7 PM ET

• Register (free)

On May 10, 2024, 7PM ET, Atlanta based youth outreach ministry, Reach Worldwide, will present A Night of Education: Mental Health in the Digital Age. The event takes place live at Excel Church (Atlanta, GA) and streamed live to churches and audiences across the nation. The event is supported by Saint Paul’s Church (Richmond, VA), Oak Street AME (Detroit), Mt Pleasant Church and Ministries (Baltimore) and others.

CVS Health®, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and Excel Church are proud supporters of the live-streamed and in-person event.

Many young adults experience positive mental health, but, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, young adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of any mental illness (33.7%) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (28.1%) and aged 50 and older (15.0%). Further, an estimated 49.5 percent of adolescents has had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.

The good news is that promoting positive mental health can prevent some problems. For young people who do have mental health disorders, early intervention and treatment can help lessen the impact on their lives.

“During a meeting with the CVS Health Faith-based Advisory Council, we learned about the event and are excited to participate,” said Dr. Brian Grim, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s president. “My daughter, Melissa Grim, J.D., and I look forward to speaking drawing on our research showing how faith is indispensable in preventing and recovering from substance abuse. We are so pleased to see one of America’s biggest and best companies support this event to help young people engage on this topic.”

The event will provide teens, young adults, parents and guardians with resources to leave informed, encouraged and empowered! It is hosted by Faith Shamley, Founder, Reach Worldwide.

• – Faith and mental Well-being in the Digital World
• – Finding Purpose in a Digitalized Society
• – The Power of Digital Detox

How building religious freedom through business relates to the US Constitution

This May 21-22 marks the 5th time the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation will convene the “Dare to Overcome” National Faith@Work ERG Conference. The mission is to build freedom of religion (and/or belief) for all people everywhere by encouraging workplaces to adopt and practice robust religiously inclusive policies and programs. These include (but are not limited to) such things as providing substantial support for faith-and-belief Employee Business Resource Groups (EBRGs) and formalizing workplace spiritual health programs carried out by multifaith workplace chaplains and/or other EAP programs.

Conference’s Guiding Philosophy: Covenantal Pluralism

The beginning point for religious freedom is human dignity. Human dignity is something that separates people not only from others in the animal kingdom but also from human-like capabilities that AI is creating. This can be understood from a religious “created in the image of God” viewpoint or a humanist viewpoint that emphasizes that each person has the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives.

Recognizing each other’s human dignity in the area of religion and belief is a foundation for peace, especially when we are committed to defending each other’s right to believe and behave in accordance with those beliefs without necessarily lending equal validity to all beliefs. This commitment is in essence putting to practice the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – by also constructively, curiously, and humbly engaging with one another, and respecting the same right and responsibility for those around them.

The Templeton Religion Trust – set up by the late mutual fund pioneer Sir John Templeton – refers to putting this commitment to practice as “covenantal pluralism.” This is the guiding philosophy of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. We believe covenantal pluralism is a useful framework that guides efforts to build religious freedom for everyone, including those who have no religious affiliation or beliefs.

Relation to U.S. Constitution’s Purpose

Indeed, we believe that this philosophy is in the spirit of the US Constitution which was “ordained” and “established” “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Each of the sessions, awards and activities of the conference will reinforce these concepts and aspirations.

Join us!