Bruce McEver is recipient of the 2016 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award.

Divinity school is not the most likely place to find a venture capitalist, an investment banker or a published poet. Well, maybe a poet.

Yet H. Bruce McEver is all of those things, and more. The man who founded Berkshire Capital Securities LLC, a global merger and acquisitions investment firm, in 1983 went on to complete a master’s in theology at Harvard Divinity School in 2011.

At Harvard, McEver noticed a lack of religion and culture courses for students at its prominent business school. With his friend Ron Thiemann, a theologian at Harvard, McEver founded a program called Business Across Religious Traditions — BART, for short — that brought the foundational ethics of the world’s religious traditions to the business school classroom.

“Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, these were religious entrepreneurs,” McEver said recently from his New York City office. “Almost all of our ethics spring from the religious traditions these entrepreneurs founded. If you understand the religious background of these ethics it makes them much more full-fleshed, more powerful for businesspeople.”

McEver and Thiemann went on to start the Foundation for Religious Literacy, which oversees the BART program and several others. The foundation’s Faith, Ethics and Leadership seminars bring together business leaders with religious thinkers, and its Religious Liberty Roundtable promotes tolerance and religious understanding as global good business practices.

The foundation also funds a free online Harvard course dedicated to promoting religious literacy, and it recently launched a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, expected to reach 50,000 people globally. The foundation sponsors a curatorship at the Smithsonian dedicated to religious literacy and fosters a relationship between Georgia Tech University — McEver’s alma mater — and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology with its Leadership and Multifaith Program. The program, known by its acronym LAMP, offers a series of religious literacy courses now reaching thousands of students.

“Business leaders don’t exist in a vacuum,” said Ben Marcus, a Harvard Divinity master’s candidate and an adviser to the foundation. “They need to understand why we create wealth and to what end. They need to know how religion motivates their employees and clients. Religion affects their business calculus on any number of issues, so to be literate in it is smart.”

McEver was raised in the United Methodist Church and is now a member of a Congregationalist church. He had a kind of spiritual awakening after the death of his wife, something he describes in his poem “Many Paths,” published in 2012 by The Cortland Review. Its final lines might be a foundational statement about the Foundation for Religious Literacy:

I look up into a blinding, cold sun and feel a release — an energy courses the length of my body, and says again, then again: There are many paths. Nothing has ever been so clear.

Charles Haynes, founding director of the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum Institute, knows McEver through a program the Foundation for Religious Literacy is funding at the Newseum for journalists.

“Bruce has worked hard to put religious literacy on the national agenda because he recognizes that ignorance is a root cause of division, hate and intolerance,” Haynes said. “By investing in religious literacy education at Harvard Divinity School and elsewhere, Bruce is helping to ensure that educators, thought leaders and others have access to resources that are academically and constitutionally sound. This will be his legacy.”

Today, McEver is turning his energy toward ensuring the Foundation for Religious Literacy survives its founders.

“I am always asking how do we have a broader reach,” he said. “I am still searching. But I think, given our political climate, there has never been a bigger need than now for people to have an understanding of other people’s religious traditions.”

Business leaders often underestimate the positive influence of faith in the workplace and society in general, especially in the way that religious freedom promotes peace and stability. H. Bruce McEver, Chairman and Founder of Berkshire Capital Securities LLC, created with the late Prof. Ron Thiemann of Harvard Divinity School, The Foundation for Religious Literacy (TFRL). The foundation promotes religious understanding by bringing together business professionals along with outstanding academics and practitioners. The Foundation cultivates inter-religious understanding and practical skills through collaboration with partners such as the regional Harvard Business School Clubs via its Business Across Religious Traditions seminars. Through its Faith Ethics and Leadership seminars, leaders in business and other professions, TFRL also advocates values and ethics derived from religious and secular traditions, fostering a healthy pluralist democracy through respect for differences.

by Rich Tafel

Allowing employees to share their deepest, faith-based purpose at work creates a work environment that allows them to come to work as their whole self.

This benefits the workplace by allowing for great diversity and removes fear.

As an ordained minister who also has provided coaching to hundreds of business entrepreneurs, I’ve discovered that American business has created a nice big closet for people of faith. I know something about closets as I’ve also been a leader in the battle for equality for gay Americans in the 1990s.

The workplace has made huge strides for LGBT employees but is increasingly making people of faith believe they need to go into a closet when it comes to sharing their faith

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I understand why businesses get nervous allowing faith-based language into the workplace. As numerous business leaders have shared with me, “I’m afraid when you open up the whole religion thing my employees will start evangelizing people. Will they condemn people of other faiths or no faith?” They have mostly concluded that the smartest thing to do was keep a wall of separation between work and faith be warning employees to leave their beliefs at home.

Diversity training programs have followed this path as well. If a person wants to come out as gay or speak about their ethnic heritage that should be embraced, however, employees are often told that if they want to hang a cross or star of David or the crescent moon in their office because it could offend other employees traumatized by their interaction with religion.

This isn’t easy work but true diversity work means creating spaces for people with different worldviews who still respect others. It doesn’t mean favoring one diverse viewpoint over others.

I work at a firm where I lead practice in social impact investing. A few years back, Tom Raffa, the CEO of Raffa Marcum of the firm was asked if the firm would host a discussion where employees spoke about their faith and the role it played in their work life.  Tom Raffa, who isn’t traditionally religious, also made it his mission to have the most diverse firm possible. And, he and his wife, were successful in creating the largest accounting firm in America that is majority women owned with over forty languages spoken among his employees. An early champion on welcoming gays in the workplace, he was also proud to do the accounting for prominent Catholic, Jewish, and other diverse faith organizations.

Rather than play it safe and react to fear, he asked how he could make it happen. Knowing that I was a minister, he asked me to help in the planning. Once it was clear to all involved that this was not an event to proselytize, we planned a luncheon.

The turnout was much larger than expected and HR leader facilitated the lunch by asking people to share their own faith path and how it impacted their work. What happened next was one of the most beautiful couple of hours I’ve experienced in the business. Employees shared how their faith was the driving force behind their life, family, and work. They noted that this luncheon gave them permission to bring all of themselves to work.  The diversity of the group represented the firm’s beautiful diversity. A Latter-day Saint member shared as did a Hindu employee. We soon learned that  most attendees were “non-denominational.” This title meant different things to different employees.

The common theme was that people of different faiths chose this particular firm to work at because it did social good.

Another theme mentioned over lunch in follow up discussions was how many times people of faith feel they need to remain in the spiritual “closet” at work. They cannot share that which drives their life. This luncheon, sanctioned by the firm, provided a space to be themselves.

The conversation was so lively at lunch that I never got a word in edgewise, which, for a preacher says a lot.  The high point of that discussion came from a woman in the firm that shared a beautiful story. She announced that each day when she started work she picked ten photographs on the website of employees to pray for. She also prayed for safety and success for the firm. I’m still touched today by her words. When I shared this story with Tom Raffa, he was meaningfully touched.

Creating a more inclusive work environment for people of faith isn’t just good for creating happy employees. We discovered it actually helps with sales.

Our team discovered that when potential clients learn that I’m a minister, the energy in the room changes.. Very often the client explains in deeply personal detail their own deeply spiritual catalyst for starting their business or nonprofit. They too can come out. Meeting someone who can understand that motivation and not mock or laugh at it can build a far deeper connection with clients.

Our rising secular workplace culture is making it difficult for people of faith to come to work as their whole self. By providing a space that respects all diversity, including diversity of faith, businesses can tap into a deep reservoir of goodwill that benefits everyone.

Rev. Rich Tafel is Pastor of Church of the Holy City in Washington DC and Director at Marcum Raffa Social Impact Advisors.

Analysis by Brian J. Grim, Ph.D.

Preface to the Study

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is a non-partisan NGO and does not take a position on current political debates. But we do conduct research that can inform policymakers and the public, including on issues that are hotly debated.

Unfortunately, “religious freedom” in the U.S. has become a divisive issue in recent years, mostly centered on issues related to sexuality and marriage. One side sees religious freedom as a protection against having to accommodate things they cannot conscientiously support, e.g., same-sex marriage. The other side sees that argument as discriminatory and a violation of civil rights law especially now that same-sex marriage is legal throughout the US.

As a social scientist studying the economic value of religious freedom worldwide (see my latest study), I took note of a recent study on the economic value of protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association, including in purchasing housing. That raised a question: If both are positively correlated with global economic growth, what is their relationship to each other?

You will likely find the following results of the first study of its kind to be surprising. Given that extremely strong views exist on these issues, empirical data from a global perspective may point toward some common ground. Time will tell.

Brian Grim, Ph.D., RFBF President

Do Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights Have Common Ground?

Religious freedom – enshrined in the US Constitution’s first amendment – is central to our national identity. It is often called our first freedom because it constitutes the first two clauses of the US Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Simple yet profound.

Given our nation’s history, including the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act that passed the Senate unanimously during a time of extreme partisanship (President Clinton’s impeachment inquiry), some may be surprised to learn that the US does not rank highly on global measures of religious freedom.

According to the latest Pew Research Center data, there are 117 countries that place fewer restrictions on religion than the US.

In the US, restrictions on religion include laws and government policies such as prohibitions on proselytizing and controls on preaching (see Pew data). An earlier Pew report outlined other US government restrictions on religion, including such things as individuals being prevented from wearing certain religious attire or symbols; difficulties in obtaining zoning permits to build or expand houses of worship, religious schools or other religious institutions; and limits on conversion.

If we flip Pew’s data around, we can use lower restrictions on religion as a measure of religious freedom. It is not a perfect proxy because, for instance, the US prohibition of religious groups proselytizing while carrying out government-funded social service programs is widely accepted, and arguably protects religious freedom vis-à-vis preventing the establishment of a state favored religion. With this important caveat in mind, using low restrictions on religion as an indicator of religious freedom means that the US would rank 118th of 198 countries and territories in terms of religious freedom, as shown in the chart (see data used for this analysis here).

This illustrates that the state of religious freedom in the US is rightly a matter of national and international concern, and not just a concern for one political party or constituency. Unfortunately, “religious freedom” has domestically become a divisive issue in recent years, mostly centered on issues related to sexuality and marriage. One side sees religious freedom as a protection against having to accommodate things they cannot conscientiously support, e.g., same-sex marriage. The other side sees that argument as discriminatory and a violation of civil rights law especially now that same-sex marriage is legal throughout the US.

This ongoing debate has created a narrative, or at least perception, that religious freedom is incompatible with the growing public acceptance of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people, lifestyles and rights, which the Pew Research Center has been tracking (see: 5 key findings about LGBT Americans and 5 facts about same-sex marriage).

Given that Pew studies show that religious freedom is deteriorating globally, it is important to understand the relationship religious freedom has with attitudes toward other emerging rights and issues.

Although domestically, proponents of LGBT rights and advocates for religious freedom have found themselves on opposite sides of debates, what does an analysis of global data on the intersection of religious freedom and LGBT rights reveal? If religious freedom and LGBT rights are in conflict globally, this would add another concern to an already concerning global situation.

DEFINITIONS UNDERLYING THE GLOBAL DATA

“Religious freedom” is defined as in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

“LGBT rights” are the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association.

“Social hostilities involving religion” are hostile acts by private individuals, organizations and social groups that restrict religious beliefs and practices. These include mob or sectarian violence, crimes motivated by religious bias, physical conflict over conversions, harassment over attire for religious reasons, and other religion-related intimidation and violence, including terrorism and war.

DIGGING INTO THE DATA

To examine the intersection of religious freedom and LGBT rights, we can use the religious freedom measure calculated from the Pew data and compare it with public opinion data on LGBT people and LGBT rights from around the world put together by The Williams Institute, a UCLA Law School think tank (see data used in this analysis here) .

The Williams Institute compiled major global surveys — such as Gallup and Pew Research Center polls — that contained questions to gauge public attitudes toward LGBT people and policies that guard them against discrimination. Using this information, they created the LGBT Global Acceptance Index (GAI), which provides scores for how much the publics in 141 countries of the world are supportive of LGBT people and of policies that protect their basic human rights.

Two initial notes: First, the United States ranks much better on the LGBT GAI index — 23rd — than it does on the religious freedom index (see chart). And second, about 6 in 10 LGBT people in the US are religiously affiliated, with the majority of the affiliated identifying with Christianity (see data).

5 QUESTIONS DATA CAN ANSWER 

Now we can turn to 5 questions that data can answer.

Q1: First, do countries with higher levels of religious freedom have higher or lower levels of LGBT rights? Or put another way, does religious freedom foster a positive or negative environment for LGBT people?

A: Among the 137 countries that have both religious freedom and LGBT data, the average level of support for LGBT rights is 38% higher in countries with higher religious freedom than in countries with low levels of religious freedom. In the third of countries scoring the highest on religious freedom, the level of support for LGBT rights was 4.1 compared with only 2.9 in the third of countries scoring at the bottom of the scale on religious freedom (see chart).

Q2: Second, is support for LGBT rights increasing or decreasing in countries with higher levels of religious freedom?

A: The level of support for LGBT rights is much more likely to be growing in religiously free countries than in religiously restricted countries, as seen in the chart below that looks at countries in groups of 25 (for demonstration purposes). Among the 25 countries with the highest levels of religious freedom, the LGBT GAI increased by 0.11 points between 2004-2013. By contrast, among the countries with the worst record on religious freedom (the lowest 12) the GAI decreased on average by 0.53 points, as shown in the chart. Also, if the lowest 25 are looked at, their average is -.047.

In fact, among the 12 countries with the lowest levels of religious freedom, only one showed any improvement in support for LGBT rights, Vietnam. The remaining 11 countries all declined in support for LGBT rights between 2004-2013, as shown in the chart.

Q3: Third, is religious freedom higher or lower in countries where there is higher support for LGBT rights?

A: The average level of religious freedom is 36% higher in the countries with higher levels of support for LGBT rights than in countries with low levels of support for LGBT rights. In the one-third of countries scoring the highest on support for LGBT rights, the level of religious freedom was 7.5 compared with only 5.5 in the one-third of countries scoring at the bottom of the scale on support for LGBT rights (see chart).

The top five countries in support for LGBT rights all have religious freedom scores of 6.0 or higher: Iceland 6.3; Netherlands 7.4; Sweden 7.7; Denmark 6.0; and Andorra 7.6. The average level of religious freedom in these countries is 7.0, as shown in the chart.

It is important to point out that these associations are not a one-to-one correlation, but represent the general connections between religious freedom and support for LGBT rights. For example, as shown in the next chart, while the average level of religious freedom in the bottom five countries in LGBT acceptance is 3.8, or about half that of those with high support for LGBT rights, there is considerable variation in the scores of the bottom five countries: Egypt 2.0; Bangladesh 5.2; Saudi Arabia 2.2; Georgia 6.5; and Azerbaijan 3.2.

It is useful to note that support for LGBT rights in Georgia may be better than indicated by the LGBT Global Acceptance Index (GAI), which measures social attitudes rather than legal norms. According to the beta version of the Equaldex index on LGBT rights, Georgia scores much better than Russia, even though Russia (2.91) has a better score on the GAI than does Georgia (1.08).

Q4: Fourth, do countries with low levels of social hostilities involving religion have higher or lower support for LGBT rights?

A: On average, support for LGBT rights is 41% higher in countries with low levels of social hostilities involving religion. In the one-third of countries having the lowest levels of religious hostilities,  the level of support for LGBT rights was 3.9 compared with only 2.8 in the one-third of countries scoring at the bottom of the religious hostilities scale (see chart; for more details on the concept of social hostilities involving religion, see Pew Research Center description of the SHI index).

This is of concern because for a number of years Pew Research data has placed the US in the “high” category of social hostilities involving religion (see data used for this analysis here).

Indeed, it is clear that social hostilities involving religion not only harm religious freedom but are a threat to all people. The recent spat of religiously biased violence in the US, including the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and the August 2019 alleged religiously and racially biased massacre in El Paso, Texas, are a shared threat to all.

Q5: And fifth, is religious freedom associated with higher or lower levels of social hostilities involving religion?

A: One of the clearest social science findings on religious freedom is its link to peace, non-violence and non-discrimination/non-persecution.

Together with coauthor Roger Finke, we detail the theory and science of religious freedom’s peace dividend in The Price of Freedom Denied (Cambridge Univ. Press). We show that, contrary to popular opinion, ensuring religious freedom for all reduces violent religious persecution and conflict. Others have suggested that restrictions on religion are necessary to maintain order or preserve a peaceful religious homogeneity. We show that restricting religious freedoms is associated with higher levels of violent persecution. Relying on data for nearly 200 countries and case studies of six countries, the book offers a global profile of religious freedom and religious persecution. While we report that persecution is evident in all regions and is standard fare for many, we also find that religious freedoms are routinely denied and that government and the society at large serve to restrict these freedoms. We conclude that the price of freedom denied is high indeed.

And to conclude on a hopeful note, while there are ongoing culture war debates over the extent and limits to religious freedom and LGBT rights in the US, various initiatives are seeking to set the battles to rest given that, as this report shows, the rights seem to rise and fall together. For example, see: Respectfully Sharing the Public Square: Protecting LGBT Rights and Religious Liberty.

For more information: contact@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org

By Brian J. Grim (葛百彦教授)

In addition to the trade war with the U.S., China’s ongoing crackdown on religion adds another weight dragging down what has been remarkable economic growth spurred on by the religious openness following the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s-1970s.

RFBF President Brian Grim will discuss the past and current situation of religion, politics, economics and culture in the People’s Republic of China at the Rimini Meeting, Italy.

Read (in Italian) a news report on Grim’s talk:

Grim’s discussion will be held in the “Paths Arena” at the annual Rimini Meeting and introduced by Luca Fiore, journalist for Traces Magazine. Join us on Tuesday, August 20th at 17:00.

The Rimini Meeting is a joyous annual gathering attracting nearly one million people including top political personalities, business leaders, representatives of different religions and cultures, intellectuals and artists, entertainers, athletes, and movers and shakers from across the globe. The theme of Rimini 2019 (Aug. 18-24) is Your name was born from what you gazed upon. See all of Grim’s events at Rimini through the years.

Chinese Secret to Sustainable Economic Growth: Under Threat?

Freedom of religion can contribute to a rich pluralism that is itself associated with economic growth. For instance, the world’s 12 most religiously diverse countries each outpaced the world’s economic growth between 2008 and 2012. Indeed, the active participation of religious minorities in society often boosts economic innovation, as the history of the Industrial Revolution has shown.

In China, during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, religion was outlawed and many people were persecuted for their beliefs. In the 1980s – 2000s there was an openness that resulted in the spread of religion, such that China is now home to the world’s second-largest religious population after India, according to demographic estimates.

A recent study in the China Economic Review finds a link between Christianity, adhered to by some 5% of China’s population, and the nation’s economic growth.

Arguably, ensuring freedom for religious groups in China and elsewhere is a way to stimulate and sustain growth in the decades ahead. It’s something every country can benefit from.

The Economic Strength of China

The story of China’s economic growth is not primarily one of competition with the U.S. The story is more complex. Peston (2014) argues that “the most important number in the world, for the past 30 years and next five years, is China’s growth rate.” Following 30 years of rapid growth at 10 percent annually, China’s growth slowed to 7 percent as the global economy went through the 2008 downturn and is now slowing even more. China’s slowdown has adverse implications for all. Living standards in the West have been shored up because China made the things people buy cheaper and cheaper. According to Peston, “We should be under no illusion that the really big thing in the world which will have an impact on our living standards is what happens in China. Nothing else really matters in comparison.”

What’s beneath China’s remarkable economic growth, which has not only given fuel to global growth but also lifted more than 500 million people out of abject poverty?

In part it is due to Deng Xiaoping opening China to market mechanisms, modern technology, and management from the West. And certainly, Chinese government policies moving the country from international isolation to integration have played a significant role. But according to Zhao (2013, 2014), an expert in Chinese business and strategic development at Siemens Corporation, these explanations are insufficient given the potential drags on the economy from government inefficiency and corruption, which President Xi Jinping is struggling to contain (Li and McElveen 2014).

China’s Religion Factor

Zhao argues that Western learning and pro-growth government policies have set loose the real creators of China’s economic success—its people and the largely Confucian culture that makes them “ambitious, hardworking, thrifty, caring for their families, and relentlessly pursuing good education and success” (2014).

Moreover, it is important to get past the notion that China is an unreligious country (see table). On the one hand, it has more religiously unaffiliated people than any other country, and it is led by a party officially committed to atheism. But on the other hand, China is now home to the world’s second largest religious population after India, according to the latest demographic estimates (Pew Research Center 2012).

Specifically, China is home to the world’s largest Buddhist population, largest folk religionist population, largest Taoist population, 7th largest Christian population, and 17th largest Muslim population (ranking between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in size) making China one of the world’s most religiously diverse nations—something which is also associated with economic growth (Grim 2014a). But the projected growth of Christianity is of particular note. A study by Purdue University’s Yang, cited recently in the Economist (2014), finds that China’s Christian population may become the world’s largest by 2030.

The growth of Christianity and the growth of China’s economy may be related, according to a new study in the China Economic Review (Wang and Lin 2014). In the study, Qunyong Wang from the Institute of Statistics and Econometrics, Nankai University, Tianjin, and Xinyu Lin from Renmin University of China, Beijing, find that Christianity boosts China’s economic growth. Specifically, they find that robust growth occurs in areas of China where Christian congregations and institutions are prevalent.

Using provincial data from 2001 to 2011 in China, Wang and Lin investigated the effect of religious beliefs on economic growth. Among the different religions analyzed, they found that Christianity has the most significant effect on economic growth.

The first among several reasons Wang and Lin site for this effect is that government-recognized Christian congregations and institutions account for 16.75 percent of all religious institutions, and such institutions are tied to economic benefit (see next paragraph). The share of Chinese institutions that are Christian is far higher than the share of the Chinese population made up of Christians affiliated with government-approved churches, which is only about 3 percent. In addition, tens of millions of Chinese belong to unregistered Protestant and Catholic Churches, and many of these also have congregational properties, clinics, and even educational institutions.

Such institutions tend to stimulate economic growth for individuals and communities. Consider, for example, a study (Cohen and Jaeger 2011) in Philadelphia led in part by Prof. Cnann (2014) of the University of Pennsylvania. They found that the 12 congregations examined contributed $52 million in annual economic value to the city of Philadelphia, for an average of $4.3 million per congregation. These benefits not only include direct spending for goods, services, and salaries, but also the safety net and networks provided to individuals, the magnet effect of attracting everything from lectures to weddings, and valuable public spaces that provide communities with centers of cultural, ethical, spiritual, and even recreational value.

Further, Grim and Grim (2016) found that religion contributes nearly $1.2 trillion to the U.S. national economy each year (see Chinese translation of this research). Such benefits likely occur in China as well, as congregational behavior is broadly similar.

Furthermore, Wang and Lin argue that Chinese Christianity’s social doctrines may also have economic impact. They suggest that Christian ethics emphasize the overall development of human beings, not just economic development. For instance, they observe that the Christian obligation to be accountable to God and their fellow believers tends to result in legal and rational investment behavior rather than illicit or wild speculation.

It may be that the impact of Christianity identified by Wang and Lin is similar to the impact of Confucianism identified by Zhao. In a public dialogue at Peking University (Beijing Forum 2010), world-renowned Confucian scholar, Prof. Tu Weimin of Harvard, and Christian theologian Jürgen Moltmann of the University of Tübingen, found commonalities between Confucianism and Christianity. For instance, Confucius’s famous quote, “Do not do to others what you don’t want to be done to you,” is almost a perfect mirror image of Jesus’s golden rule, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”

Wang and Lin found some positive, though inconsistent economic effects from China’s other major faiths, including folk religion, Buddhism, Islam, and Taoism. (Confucianism was not included in their study, and is not counted as an official religion by the government.) They conclude that the implication is not for the country to favor one faith above another, but to “build a better-informed economics, and in the long run, better policy” (Wang and Lin 2014, 286).

As China continues to impose extreme restrictions on religion and religious groups, the prospects for its continued economic decline grow.

• — The Inclusive Midwest Initiative: Respectfully Sharing the Public Square
• — THURSDAY AUGUST 22, 2019 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS | 8:30AM-3:30PM
• — Media Inquiries: Robin Fretwell Wilson

“We all have an interest in a public square that is big enough for everyone; that respects all people.” – Prof. Robin Fretwell Wilson

On August 22, 2019, corporate officers and lawmakers of the 13 Midwestern states will come together to explore the need for laws that allow all people to achieve to their full potential.

Today, only four of the thirteen states making up the Midwest region (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois) protect LGBT persons from discrimination in housing, hiring, and public accommodations in the laws of their states. The other nine Midwest states do not afford such needed protections against discrimination in statewide law, although two states extend coverage by interpretation of prior law. One stumbling block for achieving state-wide protections is the perception that protecting LGBT persons must somehow come at the expense of religious communities and individual believers.

All across the Midwest, members of both the LGBT community and the faith community desire to be fully who they are, both in public and in private. However, laws can be constructed to show respect for all persons. These sorely needed protections build human capital and serve as a generator of economic development: they allow all people to achieve to their full potential. The lack of such protections represents a barrier, not only to economic development in the Midwest, but to human flourishing. In a space dominated too frequently by “warring” communities, this conference hopes to bridge this divide and open dialogue about the need for mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.

Rev. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon was the General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church. She was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Religion.

Together with Brian Grim, she looked at the role of religious freedom in gender empowerment. Religion is often seen as a barrier to gender parity. Stories abound of gender-based violence done in the name of religion. As a result, in many cases, the issues of religion and gender parity are often dismissed as too complicated to address. There appears to be no way to unwind this rather complex multi-institution. However, a critical factor overlooked in this conversation is religious freedom. Unless there is religious freedom, minority groups, including women, will not be at the table and their vital, productive and creative voices will not be heard.

Corporations and economies will suffer if they miss out on the contribution of women. The denial of religious freedom contributes to gender inequality throughout the world. Extremist ideologies such as ISIS represent the complete loss of religious freedom, and when respect for a diversity of religious beliefs and practices disappears, gender equality suffers.

Dr. Lyon has served on the board of directors at many organizations she believes in representing The Wesleyan Church including the National Association of Evangelicals Executive Committee, Christian Community Development Association, National Religious Partnership for the Environment, Asbury Theological Seminary Board, Global Agenda Council on the Role of Faith of the World Economic Forum, and serves as an Ex – Officio member for all Wesleyan Institutions of Higher Education.

Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of Sweden, together with Prof. Linda Woodhead (UK) and Brian Grim (US) – and input from the Global Agenda Council on the Role of Religion – looks at how faith interacts with each of the 10 key global challenges identified by the World Economic Forum ranging from climate change to gender parity.

Also, together with Linda Woodhead, Archbishop Jackelén argues for four reasons for the inclusion of religious traditions in addressing climate change. First, historic religious traditions have a tried and tested cultural integrity, spiritual depth and moral force which can greatly enhance secular approaches. Second, climate change is fundamentally a question of global justice. Third, religious traditions play a role in leadership. Fourth, the dimensions of the challenge can invoke anxiety as well as paralysis.

As Archbishop of Uppsala, Antje Jackelén is the first female head of the Church of Sweden.

In 2015 she made news by becoming the first woman archbishop to be welcomed to the Vatican for an official papal audience. In her address to Pope Francis she spoke of progress made in the dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans, including the joint document ‘From Conflict to Communion’ in preparation for a shared commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation.

Kathy Ireland, 2016 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award Finalist*

Not a lot of businesspeople make the covers of both Forbes and Sports Illustrated magazines. But Kathy Ireland, supermodel and founder of kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW) did.

Ireland, whose first business was selling painted rocks on the beach in her Southern California hometown, is known as both a supermodel and a supermogul. She appeared in 13 consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions and graced the covers of three, and her eponymous licensing company now encompasses 17,000 products that bring in $2 billion a year, according to Forbes.

Ireland learned at the hands of some of the biggest business moguls in the world. She once cold-called the actress Elizabeth Taylor, who made her own fortune licensing her name to fragrances and women’s accessories, and asked if the movie star would be willing to mentor her. The two were very close until Taylor’s death in 2011.

She was also mentored by Warren Buffett, who encouraged her to grow her business beyond its original focus on women’s clothing. Now kathy ireland Worldwide licenses everything from rugs and flooring to wedding dresses and baby furniture.

But Ireland keeps her focus not just on the bottom line. “Consider others as more important than yourself,” she said in an interview on NBC’s Today show earlier this year when asked to give advice for creating a successful business. “That can be counterintuitive in today’s world. It works. When you treat the people you work with the way you would want your family members to be treated, there is no limit to what you can accomplish together.”

Ireland and her company have long been involved in charitable work with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, the YWCA’s anti-racism initiative, 9-1-1 for Kids and the Nomi Network, which fights human trafficking. Ireland also supports the work of Hardwired, a woman-led peace initiative that trains business and community leaders and promotes religious pluralism and tolerance in war-torn areas such as the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Ireland has spoken out for Yazidi women, raised awareness about their plight at the hands of ISIS or Daesh and supported an appeal to Congress to act their behalf.

“My priorities are my faith, my family and then being of service to others through my work,” Ireland told Christianity Today.

At the Forbes Women’s Summit, Ireland explained why women and children are often the focus of her charitable work.

“I encourage women, please don’t let anyone or their opinion of you or your circumstances define or destroy you,” she said. “In my old job description as a model it was ‘shut up and pose.’ I reject that today. Allow people to refute you but please don’t ever allow anyone to dismiss you. We have got to let our voices be heard, and not only ours, but women’s everywhere. Proverbs 31 says, ‘Speak out for those who are voiceless and for the rights of all who are vulnerable,’ so I just think it is something that we’ve got to do.”

Religious discrimination and oppression are disintegrating opportunities for stability and freedom in the Middle East. This is made worse where community leaders and government officials fail to appreciate the socio-economic benefits of inter-faith understanding and religious freedom. Kathy Ireland, Founder and President of kathy ireland Worldwide, supports the extraordinary efforts of Hardwired**, a women-led initiative that empowers community and national leaders to advance freedom and dignity in the face of religious oppression. Beyond her support for Hardwired, Kathy engages personally. In one case, she hosted an event for Yazidi women escaping oppression, which included an appeal to Congress to take immediate action to stop ISIS atrocities against the Yazidi.

* This is part of a series highlighting finalists from previous Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. The Awards recognize business leaders – current or past CEOs – who have demonstrated leadership in championing interfaith understanding and peace.

** About Hardwired

“Every person deserves the right to live according to the dictates of their conscience – it’s how we are hardwired!”

Hardwired Global is a non-governmental organization that works to make it possible for every person to experience this freedom by training leaders who can help them attain it – in the schools, in the courts, in the media, in their place of worship, in the government, and throughout society.

Hardwired Global has no religious or political affiliation and works to defend the fundamental principle of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief as defined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for all people without distinction.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 15, 2019, Washington, DC: Two billion more people live in countries with high restrictions on religious freedom than did so just a decade ago, according to an analysis by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) of a report released today by the Pew Research Center.* The dramatic decline in religious freedom impacts not only peace and stability but also slows global economic growth, according to RFBF.

by Brian J. Grim PhD, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation contact@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org

Restrictions on religious freedom can come from two main sources: governments and groups in society (Grim and Finke, 2007).

The just-released Pew Research study finds that governments in 52 of the 198 countries and territories analyzed in 2017 had high or very high restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007. At the same time, an even larger number of countries  — 56 — had high or very high social hostilities involving religion coming from groups within societies, up from 39 in 2007.

RFBF’s analysis of Pew’s study finds that 83 countries today have high or very high levels of government restrictions and/or social hostilities, but because some of these countries are very populous, such as China and India, 6.5 billion people — or 85% of the world’s 2019 population of 7.7 billion — live today in countries with high restrictions on religious freedom. This is 2 million more people than in 2007, when 4.5 billion people lived in countries with this same level of restrictions. (Note: Population figures estimated by RFBF; Pew did not provide population figures).

This is a dramatic increase in both the number of countries and the share of the world’s population living in countries with high restrictions on religious freedom. In fact, the spread of religious restrictions and hostilities is outpacing population growth 2-to-1. Between 2007 and 2017, the world population increased by about a billion people, which is half the increase in the number of people living with high or very high religious restrictions.

Economic Impact

The global increase in restrictions on religious freedom between 2007-2017 has economic implications. In particular, since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, RFBF finds that GDP growth rates in populous countries where religious restrictions and hostilities decreased grew at about double the rate as in countries where religious restrictions and hostilities substantially increased, as shown in the table below.

These new findings echo those of a 2014 study by researchers at Georgetown University and Brigham Young University who found that religious freedom is one of only three factors significantly associated with global economic growth, controlling for two-dozen different financial, social, and regulatory influences.

“Economies of populous countries where religious restrictions and hostilities decreased grew at double the rate as economies where religious restrictions and hostilities substantially increased.”

For country comparability, RFBF’s new analysis looks only at the 57 economies of countries with populations greater than 20 million people, which accounts for most of the world’s GDP. We divide these 57 countries into thirds according to the amount of change in religious restrictions between 2007 and 2017, as reported in the new Pew study.

GDP growth in the 19 countries that reduced or had very low increases in their overall religious restrictions and hostilities averaged 5.1% per year between 2009-18. It is notable that several of the countries in this category had high religious restrictions and hostilities, but even modest decreases in these were associated with economic dividends.

Conversely, countries with significant increases in religious restrictions and/or hostilities averaged 2.6% annual GDP growth. The United States, the world’s largest economy, is among this group of countries, with a significant increase in social hostilities involving religion. Religious hostilities in the U.S. range from the 2017 deadly anti-Semitic and racist demonstrations in the Virginia city of Charlottesville, to workplace religious discrimination witnessed or experience by 36% of the American workforce, impacting some 50 million people across all faiths, beliefs and denominations — including religious majorities and minorities. Given that the history of religious freedom in the U.S. has created an economy where religion contributes nearly $1.2 trillion in goods and services annually to the U.S. economy, addressing religious freedom challenges in the U.S. is not just a cultural or political issue, but an economic imperative.

The People’s Republic of China, the world’s second largest economy, has seen a significant slowdown in its economic growth over the past decade coinciding with its multi-year national campaign to exercise strict control over religion. This includes not only a campaign to remove crosses from churches and control Christian expression, but authorities have put one million or more mostly Uyghur Muslims into re-education camps purportedly to stamp out the possibility of Islamic radicalization. Such moves threaten China’s economic success according to the 2015 study, The Modern Chinese Secret Sustainable Economic Growth: Religious Freedom & Diversity. Indeed, the active participation of religious minorities in society often boosts economic innovation, as shown by a study in the China Economic Review linking Christianity — adhered to by some 5% or more of China’s population — and the nation’s economic growth. In China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, religion was completely outlawed. But China is now home to the world’s second-largest religious population after India, according to demographic estimates. Indeed, as argued in a World Economic Forum blog, The Link Between Economic and Religious Freedoms, “ensuring freedom for religious groups in China and elsewhere is a way to stimulate and sustain growth in the decades ahead. It’s something every country can benefit from.”

Religious Freedom, Peace and Sustainable Development

RFBF has looked at various ways religious freedom contributes to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, including ending poverty (SDG 1), empowering women (SDG 5), and fostering peace (SDG 16). Indeed, a large portion of religious freedom’s instrumental contribution to sustainable development is its attachment to other bundled freedoms and rights as well as the peace dividend religious freedom provides (see The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century, Cambridge Univ., 2011).

*The Pew Research Center kindly granted Brian Grim advance access to their July 15, 2019, report, “A Closer Look at How Religious Restrictions Have Risen Over the Past Ten Years.” The advance access made this analysis possible. RFBF is deeply grateful to the Pew Research Center. Grim will join Pew Research staff and other experts on July 17th to discuss the report and its implication. Grim will also discuss the economic arguments for advancing religious freedom on July 17 at the Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Quantifying Religious Freedom: A 10-Year Global Analysis of Pew Research
Open to Public, RSVP Required
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Organization(s): Christianity Today & Institute for Global Engagement
Location: Second Stage, Marvin Center, George Washington University, Continental Ballroom (3rd Floor), 800 21st St. NW, Washington, DC 20052
Preview: A presentation and analysis of the latest Pew data on governmental and societal restrictions on religion worldwide (new 2019 rankings, plus first-ever 10-year trend analysis), followed by responses from a panel of experts. (RSVP by 10 a.m. Wed preferred, but we will accommodate last-minute arrivals.)
Participants: Brian Grim – Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, Thomas Farr – Religious Freedom Institute, Kristina Arriaga – USCIRF, Julia Bicknell – World Watch Monitor
Discussion Rule: On the Record
RSVP/INFO: ctglobal@christianitytoday.com