by Lisa Burns (originally published in Jesuits in Britain)

Launching Leaders, an interfaith project that links religion and business, has become the latest exciting new initiative to make its home at Manchester Universities’ Catholic Chaplaincy.

The Launching Leaders Group – a 12-week programme which pairs participants up with mentors – had its official launch at the Chaplaincy at the beginning of this month. With the help of online modules, talks, workshops and strategic planning, the participants on the course (many of them university students) are encouraged to develop themselves personally and professionally, whilst putting God at the centre of their decision-making process.

The course sees participants from a range of religious and academic backgrounds meeting very Tuesday for workshops facilitated by Chaplaincy Communications Officer Lisa Burns and Catholic languages student Michael Tomlin. During each session, mentors and participants discuss long and short term life plans and goals in workshop settings. Participants are paired up with mentors from different faith traditions – Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, and from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).

While the Launching Leaders programme has been tried and tested internationally, it is now being piloted in its interfaith form at Manchester, at the invitation of Lead Chaplain Fr Tim Byron SJ.

A buzz of excitement

Launching Leaders is part of the Empowerment Plus programme, a fruit of years of research undertaken by Professor Brian J. Grim. Professor Grim, the founder and president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, has looked extensively at the link between religious freedom and economic growth. His findings have shown that there is a positive correlation between the two, and that countries and regions where religious freedom is stifled have experienced economic decline.  View his fascinating TEDx talk

The much-anticipated global pilot of the interfaith Launching Leaders sessions at the Chaplaincy instigated a buzz of excitement, as the significance of its potential became tangible.

After the first session had ended, Professor Grim shared his thoughts: “The launch of Empowerment Plus at Manchester Universities’ Catholic Chaplaincy reflected one of the true great contributions of Ignatian spirituality – we saw God working through people He created, as diverse as Catholics, Mormons and Muslims, all sharing the goal of seeing Him more clearly in the day-to-day.”

He went on: “I couldn’t have been more pleased with the launch – it was amazing to see young adults from multiple faiths come together to share so naturally about life, jobs, faith. Their enthusiasm indeed reflects hope from the Lord.”

Hinna Parvez, a member of the Chaplaincy staff team, and coordinator of the Launching Leaders programme in Manchester also runs the Chaplaincy’s weekly night shelters.  Inspired by the Empowerment Plus vision, she has devised a timely business proposal to convert disused presbyteries and church buildings into Empowerment Plus Communities.

As the Launching Leaders weekly sessions continue, it becomes ever more evident that it is worth keeping an eye on what God has in store for the Empowerment Plus team in Manchester!

Last week in historic Westminster Hall, UK Parliament, we presented medals to two Business & Interfaith Peace award-winners who couldn’t make it to the Rio ceremony: Baroness Emma Nicholson (pictured on right) and Dr. Fouad Makhzoumi (pictured on left) with RFBF President Brian Grim.

The Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards recognize business leaders – current or past CEOs – who have demonstrated leadership in championing interfaith understanding, religious freedom and peace. The Awards are a partnership initiative of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF), and the United Nations Global Compact Business for Peace (B4P) platform, with collaboration from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

The inaugural Awards were held in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, Sept. 6, a day before the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games. The next awards will be given in Seoul, Korea, ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics. The 2016 winners come from a variety of religious backgrounds and manage companies and enterprises in the U.S., Indonesia, Mozambique, Uganda, Brazil, Britain, Lebanon and Iraq. Today we are here to honor two of the seven 2016 medalists who were unable to join us in Rio: Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, and Dr. Fouad Mahzoumi.

The jury for this prestigious Award was comprised of a small group of high-level experts, including from the United Nations (H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations); the religious freedom community (Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, and a former head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom); and the business & peace community (Per L. Saxegaard, Business CEO, and Founder and Executive Chairman of the Business for Peace Foundation, Oslo, Norway).

H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and one of the judges of the event, noted at the Awards that “Today, we are launching the First Edition of the Global Business and Interfaith Peace Awards, with the conviction that the business sector, the religious community and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations are important actors in ‘promoting peaceful and inclusive societies’. The businessmen and women who will accept this award today are those who have demonstrated strong leadership and have integrated the Sustainable Development Goals and interfaith understanding and peace into their business. … This award recognizes those who have taken an initiative to use their business as a platform for promoting positive change and tolerance in our society.”

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne

Driven by religious intolerance and radical fundamentalism, ISIS (Daesh) has decimated the economies of both the Syrian and Iraqi nations, displaced millions from their homes, and acted as the hateful catalyst behind the genocide of Yazidis and other religious minorities. Violence from ISIS has left many survivors in need of medical care, shelter, and other common necessities. Baroness Nicholson, head of the Iraq Britain Business Council and the AMAR Foundation, oversees trade, investment, training and the transfer of technology to Iraq. With the support of local governments, Baroness Nicholson has led the cause of helping displaced Iraqi women, regardless of faith or ethnicity, to cope with the horrendous atrocities of war, providing mental and physical health treatment and offering resources for recreation, education, and vocational training. For this work, which spans decades, the United Nations and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation are honored to award you this medal of the Inaugural Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards.

Dr. Fouad Makhzoumi

During a 15-year civil war, many youth in Lebanon forewent their education as they became increasingly involved with religious fundamentalism, leading to unemployment and economic stagnation. Fouad Makhzoumi, CEO of Future Pipes Industries Group Limited, witnessed how his late son’s youthful energy and cross-cultural savvy triggered exponential growth as his son provided a positive vision for productive and socially responsible business. Makhzoumi and his foundation have helped empower thousands by harnessing this same youthful enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and religious freedom. His microcredit training for Lebanese people of all faiths has helped over 10,000 individuals set up sustainable businesses, and hundreds of thousands more are receiving vocational training. For this work, which also spans decades, the United Nations and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation are honored to award you this medal of the Inaugural Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards.

On November 2, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation President Brian Grim will speak on “Religion’s Socio-Economic Values to the U.S.” (see below). His comments are part of a Symposium held on Capitol Hill honoring the life and service of retiring U.S. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana.

Other speakers highlighting faith’s positive impact at the “Faith, Giving, and Community Transformation” Symposium include U.S. Senator Dan Coats (Indiana), David Hoppe (Chief of Staff for US Speaker Paul Ryan), Michael Gerson (Washington Post columnist), Hunter Smith (Super Bowl champion), and those pictured above as well as others.

The first panel will discuss “Christian Faith in the Public Square: Past, Present, and Future,” and will include Dan Coats, Michael Gerson, Byron Johnson (Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences, Baylor University) and Brian Grim (President, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation). The second panel looks at “Christian Giving in America: Past, Present, and Future,” and includes Todd Harper (Founder, Generous Giving), and Forrest Reinhardt (President NCF-Portland, National Christian Foundation), concluding with “Faith-Based Entrepreneurship” with Dale Dawson (Founder, Chairman and CEO, Bridge 2 Rwanda), and Steve Cosler (Operating Partner, Water Street Healthcare Partners). The event is sponsored by Mission Increase Foundation.

Religion’s Socio-Economic Value to the U.S.

Religion annually contributes nearly $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the U.S. economy, according to a September 2016 study by Brian Grim and Melissa Grim in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.

• — That is equivalent to 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.

Religion does play a unique role in the socio-economic behaviors of Americans. For example, adults who are highly religious are significantly more likely than those who are less religious to report they did volunteer work and made donations to the poor in the past week, according to the Pew Research Center.

As I’ll explain, the contributions of religion to American society fall into three general categories:

• — $418 billion from religious congregations
• — $303 billion from other religious institutions
• — $437 billion from faith-based, faith-related or faith-inspired businesses

All these figures come from a careful analysis of survey and financial data from a wide range of national sources detailed in the research article in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, including:

• — National Congregations Study
• — Religious Congregations and Membership Study
• — Private School Universe Survey
• — Institution of Education Sciences
• — Becker’s Hospital Review
• — Revenue reports of faith-based health organizations, charities & businesses
• — Faith-related business data by Oxford University’s Said Business School Professor Theodore Roosevelt Malloch
• — Congregational “halo effect” analysis by University of Pennsylvania Professor Ram Cnaan
• — World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Faith

Congregations contribute $418 billion to the American economy each year.

• — This comes from more than 344,000 congregations representing hundreds of different denominations and religions.
• — By way of context, this number represents 26 congregations for every one Starbucks in the United States. So you’d have to pass 26 places of worship in order to find your first Starbucks brew.
• — Unlike a coffee that has one basic service, these congregations provide 1.5 million different types of social and community service programs.

Congregations have four main avenues of socio-economic impact:

• — The local spending and operations of congregations themselves
• — Primary and secondary schools attached to local congregations
• — The Magnet effect of attracting additional activity to the local community
• — And the value of the impact all these activities have on individuals

Each year congregations spend $84 billion on their operations ranging from paying hundreds of thousands of personnel, to paying for goods and service as diverse as flowers, sounds systems, maintenance, and utilities. Almost all being spent right in the local community.

Schools attached to congregations employ 420,000 full time teachers and train 4.5 million students each year. By comparison this is the same number as the total population of Ireland or New Zealand.

Congregations are like magnets attracting economic activity ranging from weddings, as I’ve already mentioned and can give personal detail on, to lectures, congresses, and even tourism. For instance, 120,000 congregations report that people visit them to view their art and architecture. Here are just a few examples….

Finally, and most importantly, it’s what congregations do in their communities that makes the biggest socio-economic contribution. These programs impact individuals and families in a variety of important ways.

For example:

• — Congregations provide 130,000 alcohol recovery programs such as The Saddleback Church “Celebrate Recovery” program that has helped over 27,000 individuals over the past 25 years.
• — Congregations provide 120,000 programs to help the unemployed. For example, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has employment service centers in each of their stakes across the country (and across the world), for that matter.

Some of this work runs counter to stereotypes some may have about religious groups. For instance,

• — Nearly 26,000 congregations are engaged in some form of active ministry to help people living with HIV-AIDS. That makes one HIV-AIDS ministry for every 46 people who are HIV positive. Just this past weekend on 9/11, under the sponsorship of Walgreen’s and the “First Ladies” (pastors’ wives) of Chicago, nearly 50 Chicago churches hosted free screening for HIV and other diseases.
• — In fact, the data show that congregations overwhelmingly include a society-building, outward community focus, with over 320,000 congregations helping to recruit volunteers for programs outside their walls, to non-religious groups, ranging from Big Brothers and Big Sisters to the United Way and the American Red Cross.

I’d like to briefly tell you the story of how a congregational school impacts individuals who then impact the community for good. St. Benedict’s Prep readies 530 mostly poor, mostly minority boys for college and beyond. In an area where public schools are working hard just to keep young men from ending up in gangs, in jail or dead, St. Benedict’s sends 95% of its graduates to college, including a sizable number to Ivy League schools.

And graduates, such as Uriel Burwell, return to make an impact. Upon graduating from Drew University, Uriel returned to his childhood neighborhood to build 50 new affordable houses, rehabilitate more than 30 homes and attracted more than $3 million funding to build additional affordable homes and apartments in the area.

Religious Institutions: If we extend our view beyond what happens at local congregations and schools, we can find tens of thousands of other religiously-affiliated charities, health care facilities, and institutions of higher learning also doing these sorts of good works every day. These add another $303 billion of socio-economic impact to the US economy each year.

These includes:

• — Charities such as the Knights of Columbus whose 1.5 million members respond to disasters and other human needs
• — Health care services such as provided by the Adventist Health Systems which employ 78,000 people in 46 hospitals
• — Institutions of higher education such as Brandeis University which is one of thousands of religiously-based colleges throughout the country
• — I could go on for hours describing such as institutions as Islamic Relief USA, which responded to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, by hiring 20 local staff and distributing 135,000 gallons of water during the height of the water crisis.
• — Rather than continuing to give examples, I will now move to the third sector, business

Businesses: Religion related business add another $438 billion to the US economy each year. These include faith-based businesses, ranging from the Halal and Kosher food industries to religious media such as EWTN and the Christian Broadcast Network.

The largest group within this sector are not religious companies, per se, but are faith-inspired or religion-friendly companies. Tyson’s Foods, for example, employs a large force of chaplains for their multi-religious workforce.

Across the country there are associations of CEOs who seek to put the moral and ethical teachings of their faith to practice in their business. One such association is C12 with over 2,500 members, some of whom have business worth billions of dollars.

I’d like to end with a surprising example – an example showing how one American CEO, motivated by his faith, has started a company in Mozambique that not only stocks the shelves of America’s major food stores – from Giant and Wegmans to Whole Foods and H.E.B. – but empowers tens of thousands of people. His innovative business model is based on what he calls a “reverse tithe” – where 90% of profits go back into the local community. That means many American consumers are participating in a faith endeavor, perhaps unaware.

Don Larson from Religious Freedom & Business on Vimeo.

On Oct. 18, RFBF Brian Grim is speaking at the EU Parliament in Brussels, highlighting the amazing impact of the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards finalists.

In London, he’ll be highlighting these same champions at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and then in Parliament’s Westminster Hall. There, we’ll present medals to two award-winners who couldn’t make it to the Rio ceremony: Baroness Emma Nicholson (UK & Iraq) and Dr. Fouad Makhzoumi (Lebanon & UAE).

From London, he’ll head to Dubai to be with Gold Medalist, Y.W. Junardy (Indonesia) at the annual meeting of the United Nations Global Compact’s Business for Peace initiative, our partner for the awards.

Helping Grim with the presentations at Westminster Hall are Lisa Burns and Hinna Parves, who are helping lead our Manchester Empowerment+ interfaith social cohesion and enterprise initiative. Also helping is Melissa Grim, coauthor of the recent study on the economic contribution of faith to American society and project manager for the Awards.

by Brian J. Grim

It’s not often that an academic report changes the conversation about religion in America, but one just did. Georgetown [University’s] Brian Grim and Melissa Grim of the Newseum Institute have unveiled their groundbreaking Faith Counts study: “The Socio-economic Contributions of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis.

The links below take you to some of this new conversation about religion in America. Some stories, such as the one from UK’s The Guardian, have been shared 19,135 times (by comparison, the paper’s headline story announcing Trump’s election as U.S. president was shared 17,153 times). Other original reporting on the research has reached millions of listeners, such as WNYU’s The Takeaway). 

And, more than a month after the study’s release, it still is making news, being featured in a nationwide Fox Business News report:

Below is the video featured in What’s US religion worth? $1.2 trillion, says one demographer (Religion News Service | Lauren Markoe):

National & International Media

Study: Religion contributes more to the US economy than Facebook, Google and Apple combined (Washington Post: online & print editions | Julie Zauzmer)

Could Religion’s Decline Spell Damnation for the U.S. Economy? As America loses its faith, the domestic economy could pay the price (U.S. News & World Report | Andrew Soergel, Economy Reporter)

Religion in US ‘worth more than Google and Apple combined’ Faith economy worth $1.2tn a year – more than combined revenues of 10 biggest tech firms in America, study shows (The Guardian | Harriet Sherwood)

LISTEN: Report: Faith Economy Worth $1.2 Trillion Per Year (WNYC | John Hockenberry interviews Brian Grim)

The Takeaway, hosted by John Hockenberry, is a national morning radio show broadcast with Public Radio International and WNYC, with The New York Times and WGBH Boston, that reaches more than 2 million regular listeners across 280 stations across the US. The Takeaway interview occurred as President Obama and world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the annual General Assembly. Prior to the interview, Brian Grim was a featured attendee and led a discussion on business and peacemaking at the UN Private Sector Forum, keynoted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and actor Ewan McGregor.

Listen: Religion is worth $1.2 Trillion to the US Economy – Interview with Brian Grim @ 26:50 (BBC World Service | Newshour with Tim Franks)

New Study Values Faith In America Over One Trillion Dollars (Yahoo News | PRNewswire-USNewswire)

Faith-Based Groups and Companies Drive $1.2 Trillion in Impact, Says Study (The Chronicle of Philanthropy | Heather Joslyn)

Report Shows That Religion is Big Business (Small Business Trends | Annie Pilon)

Religion in the United States is worth more than Apple, Google and Amazon COMBINED – with a revenue of $1.2trillion a year (Daily Mail, UK | Clemence Michallon)

Religion contributes more to the US economy than many giant corporations (Business Day, Stuff New Zealand | Julie Zauzmer)

WATCH: New Academic Study Reveals Religion in the U.S. Is Worth $1.2 Trillion (Al Jazeera TV | World News)

Study: Religion Has $1.2 Trillion Impact on U.S. Economy Each Year (The Blaze | Kate Scanlon)

Economic impact of religion: New report says it’s worth more than Google, Apple and Amazon combined (Deseret News | Kelsey Dallas)

Faith-based groups contribute enormously to American society and the U.S. economy (National Review | Alexandra Desanctis)

Faith Economy: The 1.2 Trillion Economies Explained (FX News Business | Neha Gupta)

Religion a Major Driver of the National Economy (Non Profit Quarterly, NPQ | Jim Schaffer)

New study shows religion is an active force in the lives of many in the U.S. (Carib Press, Beverly Hills, CA | Staff Writer)

Religion Is Worth A LOT To The Economy (Newsy | Ryan Biek, including video)

Study: Religion contributes more to the economy than many giant corporations (Post article syndicated to newspapers and media nationwide, with additional reporting by Nathan Van Dyne of the Pulitzer Prize Winning Colorado Springs Gazette)

US religion is worth $1.2T/year, more than America’s 10 biggest tech companies, combined (Boing, Boing |Cory Doctorow)

Georgetown Study: Religion Worth $1.2 Trillion in U.S. Economy, More Than Google and Apple Combined (CNS News | Lauretta Brown)

Study puts monetary value on good works done by U.S. religious organizations (Richmond Free Press | RNS)

American Religion: The 15th Largest Economy in the World (The Atheist Republic | Dean Lawrence)

Holy Rolling in It (The Humanist | Patrick Hudson)

Religion in US worth more than Google, Apple combined $1.2 trillion per year – the number that US religion makes per year, more than the 10 biggest tech companies combined (TweakTown | Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal News)

Faith by the Numbers: The Socio-economic Value of Religion in the U.S. (RealClearReligion | Latest Religion Videos)

US Religion Worth $1.2 Trillion (PBS | Religion & Ethics)

Religion in U.S. worth $1.2 trillion a year (NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | Kim Chatelain)

Study: Religion Has $1.2 Trillion Impact on U.S. Economy Each Year (Crazy Hot News | News Bundler)

Faith-based Media

How Religious Groups Make Economic Contributions to the U.S. (EWTN | Brian Patrick’s interview of Brian Grim).

Religion Boosts US Economy More Than Apple, Amazon, and Google Combined: Study offers best estimate yet of the ‘value of faith’ in America: $1.2 trillion (Christianity Today | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, also on Ave Maria Radio)

Study finds that religion contributes $1.2 trillion to US economy (Crux | Christopher White)

Don’t Underestimate Religion’s Economic Gifts (National Catholic Register | The Editors)

Religion is big business in the US; adds ‘$1.2 trillion’ to the economy (Ecumenical News | Peter Kenny)

Religion in US Worth $1.2 Trillion to Economy (Newsroom, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | Tracie Cayford Cudworth)

Religion’s economic impact (Patheos | Gene Veith)

Study puts dollar value of organized religion in the U.S. at $1.2 trillion (Catholic News Service, and in The Catholic Weekly | Rhina Guidos)

In our opinion: Religious stock on the rise (Deseret News | Editorial)

How much economic value does religion provide America? (Acton Institute | Joe Carter; also in the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Souther Baptist Convention)

Economic Value of Religion: Interview with Brian Grim (Matt Townsend Show, BYU Radio, SiriusXM radio) Nov. 2, 2016

Dr. Brian Grim is president president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and an Associate Scholar at Georgetown University. He is a leading expert on the socioeconomic impact of restrictions on religious freedom and international religious demography. Earlier this month, 17 faith leaders from around America sent a letter to President Obama rejecting the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ report on religious freedom.   The Commission’s chairman questioned the societal worth of religious freedom, calling it a hypocritical code for discrimination, intolerance and racism.  But, what is the monetary worth of US religion?  The estimated annual worth of US religion is at $1.2 trillion and could be considered the 15th largest economy in the world.  Brian Grim explains the Value of Religion in America.

Religion Contributes $1.2 Trillion to US Economy, More Than Top 10 Tech Companies Combined, Study Finds (Christian Post | Brandon Showalter)

New Study Shows Religion is Good for the Economy (Focus on the Family | Jim Daly)

Apple, Google & Facebook combined have less economic impact than religious charities, churches (ChristianExaminer | Gregory Tomlin)

Religion, the Great Economic Engine: MORE PROOF FAITH IS GOOD FOR AMERICA (BreakPoint | John Stonestreet, President, The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview)

President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, Dr. Brian Grim, joins Tony to discuss his recent study on the socio-economic value of religion to American society (Washington Watch | Tony Perkins)

Study Gives Charities a Faith Lift (FRC Action | Senior Writers)

Religion in the US is worth $1.2 trillion, new study shows (Christian Today | Mark Woods)

Religion’s Economic Contribution (Point of View | Penna Dexter)

Religion Supporting US Economy by Generating More Revenue Than Apple, Google, and Amazon Combined, Says Study (Christianity Daily | Staff Reporter)

Faith in America has $1.2 trillion impact (The Wesleyan Church | Brian Grim, Melissa Grim and Kerry Troup)

A study estimates the “economic value” of religion in USA Authors of the study stated that religion is worth $1.2 trillion to the US economy. “Religion provides purpose-driven institutional and economic contributions to society.” (Evangelical Focus | Staff Reporter)

Religion is Good for Society … We Think (Dead Reckoning Radio | Jay Friesen, Hadley Heath, and Dr. Brian G. Mattso)

That Faith Counts study: Religion is bigger than Facebook, Google and Apple combined (Get Religion | Julia Duin)

New Study Claims Religious Organizations in the U.S. Make More Money Than Apple and Microsoft Combined (Church Leaders | Megan Briggs)

Covering Religion as More Than the Radical Fringe (Context | Prof. John G. Stackhouse Jr.)

‘There’s a growing belief that religion is not a positive for American society’ – How the Church impacts the US: A new report revealed exactly how faith and religion impact the United States – and you won’t believe what researchers found (Catholic Online | Kenya Sinclair)

Other National & International Media

Как “деньги веры” создают экономику США [How “Faith Money” is generated by the USA Economy] (LIFE | Екатерина Коростиченко)

Best Business: Organized religion rakes in more money than Apple and Google combined (Macedonian International News Agency)

Religion in US ‘Worth more than Google, Apple combined (The Herald, Zimbabwe)

New Study Values Faith In America Over One Trillion Dollars (Newsroom America | Staff Reporter)

Faith economy in US worth $1.2 trillion a year (The News International – Pakistan | Top Story)

Religion Contributes $1.2 Trillion Each Year to US Economy (Pakistan Christian Post | Nick Pitts)

Religion makes more money in the US than Apple, Facebook, Google combined (CIOL, India |TECH BUZZ Staff Writers)

La religión aporta más a la economía de EE.UU. que Facebook, Google y Apple juntos Investigación señala que la fe aporta un total de 1,1 billones de euros al año. (RPP, Lima, Peru)

Religieuze instellingen dragen meer bij aan economie dan Google, Apple en Facebook (CVANDAAG, Netherlands)

Religie is big business in Amerika (Nederlands Dagblad | Gerard ter Horst)

Aux Etats-Unis, la religion stimule l’économie plus que Google, Apple et Amazon réunis (Saphir News, France – Muslim News | Ben Hanan Rhouma and Samba Doucoure)

Etats-Unis: Les religions génèrent mille milliards de dollars pour l’économie (Evangeliques Point Infor, France)

Religion bleibt Milliarden-Geschäft in den USA Gesundheitsindustrie, Schulen und Kongregationen leisten Beitrag (Pressetext, Austria | Marie-Thérèse Fleischer)

Nghiên cứu mới: Tôn giáo góp phần vào kinh tế Hoa Kỳ nhiều hơn Facebook, Google và Apple cộng lại (VietCatholic News, Vietnam | Vũ Văn An)

–First-ever national research highlighting the impact of religion on U.S. economy–

National Press Club, Washington, D.C. — In a panel today, Dr. Brian Grim and Melissa Grim, J.D., unveiled their groundbreaking new study: “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis.” The first-of-its-kind study analyzed the economic impact of 344,000 religious congregations around the country, in addition to quantifying the economic impact of religious institutions and religion-related businesses. Through this study, Dr. Grim found the total economic contribution of religion in America to be nearly $1.2 trillion, equal to the world’s 15th largest economy.

Dr. Grim presented his research at a panel event at the National Press Club. The panel included Dr. William Galston, Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, and Dr. Ram Cnaan, Professor and Program Director of the Program for Religion and Social Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania.

“For the first time, we have been able to quantify what religious institutions, faith-based charities, and even businesses inspired by faith contribute to our country,” said Dr. Grim. He continued: “In an age where there’s a growing belief that religion is not a positive for American society, adding up the numbers is a tangible reminder of the impact of religion. Every single day individuals and organizations of faith quietly serve their communities as part of religious congregations, faith-based charities, and businesses inspired by religion.”

Despite prolonged economic hardship in many communities, the amount of money spent annually by religious congregations on social programs has tripled in the past 15 years. Some examples of the social issues addressed by these congregations and religiously-oriented charity groups include:

• Alcohol and drug abuse recovery—130,000 programs
• Veteran and veterans’ families support—94,000 programs
• Prevention or support for people with HIV/AIDS—26,000 programs
• Support or skills training for unemployed adults—121,000 programs

Operating alongside these charity groups and religious institutions sit faith-based and inspired businesses, which employ people in every field and industry. This fills the marketplace with goods and services used by people of all faiths, plus those with no faith at all.  At the same time, religious schools educate millions of students from pre-K to the post-graduate level.

The study is sponsored in part by Faith Counts, a multi-faith campaign aimed at promoting the value of faith.  Kerry Troup, spokeswoman for Faith Counts, states, “From our work with diverse faith communities across the U.S., we know that despite differences among individual religions, there are many more things that bring us together. This study shows that faith is still a cornerstone of our economy and society, and we’re actively working together to celebrate and promote its value.”

For more information, including the full study and a video summary of the research, please visit www.FaithCounts.com/Report.

About Faith Counts

Faith Counts is a nonprofit, nondenominational organization comprised of many religious communities who represent nearly 80 million Americans.  The mission of Faith Counts is simple:  to promote the value of faith.  The centerpiece of Faith Counts is a social media campaign that tells powerful stories about how faith counts—how it inspires, empowers, motivates, and comforts billions of people.

Faith Counts Partners include a diverse faith community including: Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Hillel International, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 1^st Amendment Partnership, and Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Orthodox Union.  All faith groups are welcome.

Data from: “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis”, a 2016 study by Brian J. Grim (Georgetown University’s Religious Freedom Project) and Melissa E. Grim (Newseum Institute’s Religious Freedom Center), published in the peer-reviewed journal, Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Volume 12, Article 3.

For Immediate Release
September 14, 2016
Noon EDT

Media Contact:
Kerry Troup
202-679-2702 (m)
202-715-3489 (o)
ktroup@faithcounts.com

RIO DE JANEIRO — Seven business men and women from around the world were honored Tuesday for their work in interfaith relations, including three Americans. All of the leaders were recognized for using their businesses to bridge cultural and religious divides.

Winners of the first-ever Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards were awarded with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in a ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 6, a day before the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games here.

The awards were presented by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit, in collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact’s Business for Peace Initiative and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. The foundation helps educate the global business community about how religious freedom is good for business and how they can promote respect for freedom of religion or belief.

“These business leaders show the value of religious freedom – it sets people of faith free to do good motivated by their deepest and most innovative ideals,” said Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation.

Winners come from a variety of religious backgrounds and manage companies and enterprises in the U.S., Indonesia, Mozambique, Uganda, Brazil, Lebanon and Iraq.

“The religious, geographic and business-type diversity of these business leaders shows that the values of interfaith understanding, religious freedom and peace have universal appeal,” Grim went on to say.

H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and one of the judges of the event, noted that “this award recognizes those who have taken an initiative to use their business as a platform for promoting positive change and tolerance in our society. I would like to take a moment to thank Brian Grim, the President of Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF), who pioneered this award initiative. By implementing SDG 17, Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, RFBF is collaborating with Global Compact and the UNAOC in acknowledging these distinct business leaders at the international level (Read the High Representative’s full comments).

The sole Gold Medal went to Indonesian businessman Y.W. Junardy, President Commissioner, PT Rajawali Corpora, for his facilitation of thousands of marriages for poor Indonesians of all faiths, providing their families with the legal status necessary to advance in Indonesian society.

A Silver Medal was awarded to Don Larson, founder and CEO of Sunshine Nut Company in Mozambique, who works across faith and cultural lines to revive the country’s cashew business.

Brittany Underwood, founder and president of AKOLA in Texas, U.S., and Uganda, tied for a Silver Medal. Underwood promotes gender equality and religious freedom by employing Ugandan women to create fashion jewelry. Underwood also created a Dallas-based organization that employs women who have survived human trafficking.

Four Bronze Medals were awarded. One went to Jonathan Berezovsky, CEO of Migraflix in Brazil, who helps immigrants and refugees integrate into Brazil through facilitating cultural exchanges between them and the local community.

Fouad Makhzoumi, the CEO of Future Pipe Industries Group Ltd., in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, promotes religious freedom through microcredit and vocational training to help over 10,000 Lebanese of all faiths set up sustainable businesses.

H. Bruce McEver, co-founder and chairman of Berkshire Capital Securities LLC in New York London, has a foundation which works to cultivate inter-religious understanding through the promotion of religious literacy.

Emma Nicholson, Baroness of Winterbourne, executive chairman of the Iraq Britain Business council and founder and chairman of AMAR Foundation in the U.K. and Iraq, works to build business, technology, trade and investment in Iraq, with a special focus on women of religious minorities, such as Yazidis.

Grim said the finalists, who include Christians, Jews, Muslims and the religiously unaffiliated, exemplify the mission of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation – to show that religious freedom is vital to a fertile business climate.

Other finalists for the awards recognized during the ceremony were Jonathan Shen Jian, CEO, Shinework Media, China, whose films promote global cultural diversity and interfaith understanding in China’s media market of one billion people through his film work. Tayyibah Taylor, CEO and founder, Azizah Magazine and WOW Publishing, Inc., Georgia, U.S., who died in 2014, used her magazine to help Muslim women and people of other faiths better understand Islam. Her daughter Mariam accepted the award in her honor. And Joaquim Augusto Sanches Pereira, Regional Business Leader at Dresser-Rand, a Siemens Business, works with the Vaga Lume initiative, promoting peace and cultural diversity through literary programs for children, teenagers and adults in the multicultural and diverse Amazon region.

The jury for the award was comprised of a small group of high-level experts, including from the United Nations: H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations; from the religious freedom community: Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, and a former head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom; and from the business and peace community: Per L. Saxegaard, Business CEO, and Founder and Executive Chairman of the Business for Peace Foundation, Oslo, Norway.

For more information on each winner and their global mission, please visit http://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/global-awards.html. For videos about each winner, visit https://vimeo.com/rfbf/videos.

Contact: brian@religiousfreedomandbusiness.org

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 2016 (Aug. 19-25) was You are a good for me (Tu sei un bene per me). It was a theme that showed itself in many of the themes from the exhibits and encounters during the week.

A highlight of Rimini was a filled-to-capacity session with the president of Italian State TV Monica Maggioni, who dialogued with Religious Freedom & Business Foundation president Brian Grim on the challenges of religious freedom today. As part of their one-hour discussion, Grim aired comments specially prepared by Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the chief architect of the Marrakesh Declaration on the rights of religious minorities in predominantly Muslim-majority communities.

Below you can see the full video by Bin Bayyah (in English) as well as a short video of Brian Grim’s dialogue with Monica (in Italian) as well as the full event (also in Italian).

Marrakesh Declaration 

Rimini (short video, Italian)

Rimini (full dialogue, Italian)

Grim’s time in Rimini started with VIP meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella who spoke passionately about the importance of community. His week had a series of individual meetings with top business leaders including from Fiat and Nestlé, who shared about their commitment to tackle social problems as they focus on doing good business. He also met with religious leaders including Archbishop Silvano Tomasi and  Grand Mufti Aziz Hasanović of Croatia.

The beauty of Rimini is that more than 2,000 volunteers from the lay organization Communion and Liberation run everything from cooking and cleanup to production and transportation. They do so to encounter others with the shared simple aim to discover the beauty of reality. For this reason every year it attracts not only Italians and Catholics but also Jews, Buddhists, atheists, Orthodox, and Muslims and others from all over the world.

In times of challenge and tragedy, how uplifting!

Stay tuned for an update in a few days an update on another very encouraging initiative: Countdown to the inaugural Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards in Rio, host city of the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

On Monday, I’m flying to Beijing to speak about religion and the rule of law at a seminar for law professionals sponsored by the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences and Peking University Law School’s Center for Administrative and Constitutional Law. Pu Shi is an independent, non-governmental Chinese think tank studying issues related to religion and law, and has been holding these seminars, which I regularly participate in, for the better part of a decade.

From Beijing, I’ll continue to the UK, where our Manchester team is actively preparing to pilot our interfaith Empowerment+ social cohesion and enterprise initiative. The initiative sets people free to love and serve their neighbors as they help each other develop practical leadership, job and business skills that empower participants spiritually and temporally. An aim of the initiative is to include local business “incubation” that can be scaled up globally at low cost.

From Manchester, I’ll head to Rio for ongoing preparations with our Brazil team for the Sept. 6th Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards co-sponsored with the UN Global Compact B4P. Two of our finalists were just profiled in the media: (1) former super model-turned-business exec, Kathy Ireland, is covered in celebrity magazine Look to the Stars; and (2) former top Hershey exec-turned-entrepreneur in Mozambique, Don Larson, is profiled in Forbes.

And Italy is next on the horizon. On Aug. 20, at the Rimini Meeting, we will highlight the Marrakesh Declaration on the rights of religious minorities in Muslim lands, bringing special greetings from its chief author and noted scholar, Shaykh Bin Bayyah. Last year 800,000 attended the Rimini Meeting, which also featured one of the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award finalists, Fouad Makhzoumi.

Also of note, our Global Awards press release has over 36,000 “Likes” on Facebook, indicating great interest in how business can advance interfaith understanding, religious freedom & peace.

Finally, as you’ll see in the press release for our third annual Yearbook of International Religious Demography (Brill), the latest data indicate that dramatic religious and economic shifts will impact our planet in the decades ahead, emphasizing all the more the importance of interfaith understanding and the demonstrated contribution of religious freedom to peace (see The Price of Freedom Denied).

Brian Grim
RFBF President