Templeton Religion Trust
What if citizens, governments, and faith communities advocated for global religious freedom in new ways?
What if a better appreciation of our collective past can prompt respect for differing beliefs today?
What if the best of faith can overcome the worst of religion in today’s divided world?
Terrorism in the Middle East. Government-sponsored genocides in China and Burma. Cultural extremism in Pakistan. Tyrannical democracy in Nepal and India. Assaults, destruction, arrests, displacements, and killings in countries throughout the world.
The reality is startling. Every day, millions of people around the globe suffer because of their beliefs. Human rights abuses, social instability, and extremism are all on the rise. Even when conflicts begin as political, religion often becomes implicated, turning friends into foes and dividing neighbors into factions.
Unfortunately, too often religion plays a negative role instead of a positive force in combating these troubling trends. Fear of the “other” results in religious people narrowly befriending on only those whose beliefs sync with their own. Their actions can encourage discrimination, disapproval, or outright contempt for those who hold differing beliefs.
“Global persecution victimizes every religious community somewhere. Millions face constant discrimination, repression, and even violence for the mere peaceful practice of their faith,” says Knox Thames. Now a senior fellow at Pepperdine University, he served as the U.S. State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities during both the Obama and Trump administrations. During his 20 years of government work, he held key positions advocating for freedom of religion or belief, including at the State Department and two foreign policy commissions.
The author of a new book titled “Ending Persecution,” Thames points out that, while persecution is rampant in our increasingly diverse world, we can work together to defeat violence on account of beliefs. People are more interconnected than ever before, with cultures and faiths intermixing in unprecedented ways. New opportunities exist to push back against persecution with more expansive and effective advocacy and activism.
He’s convinced that one of the most compelling questions facing the world community today is: What actions can people of goodwill take to promote the benefits of pluralism, respect for diversity, and defend the right of individuals to hold different beliefs?
Sadly, traditional attempts to combat religious persecution are falling short. Government advocacy, while essential, isn’t enough. It tends to be top-down, narrow in focus, under-resourced and poorly coordinated with NGOs. While the challenges are immense, walking away would leave millions to suffer, which would foster instability, mass migration, and human rights abuses on a massive scale.
“A hurting world needs innovative solutions to expand support for the values of pluralism and freedom of conscience — not more of the same, but a comprehensive and reinvigorated new endeavor,” Thames asserts. Toward that goal and funded by Templeton Religion Trust, he’s launched a groundbreaking project to develop new strategies to end religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief for all.
Thames’ project is grounded on covenantal pluralism, a robust concept for coexistence that goes far beyond mere tolerance. Instead, it emphasizes the human responsibility to engage, respect, and protect each other without regard to differing beliefs.
Two conditions are fundamental to covenantal pluralism: religious freedom and religious literacy. Within those guidelines, Thames has designed a three-pronged approach:
Particularly innovative is his work researching the power of sacred sites to promote pluralism and respect for others’ beliefs and holy places, exploring how to elevate them into places of inclusion and not exclusion.
“Traditional human rights approaches, while important, are often viewed by conservative societies, such as the Middle East, as alien creations imposed on them by outsiders,” he explains. “Yet, across the Middle East heritage sites carry deep spiritual meaning, sometimes to multiple religious communities. As such, they can serve as a natural and indigenous inflection point to remind societies about the benefits of pluralism and encourage individuals to respect the beliefs of others today.”
For example, he points to the tomb of the prophet Nahum which he visited during a trip to Iraq. Venerated by Iraqi Jews, it’s been cared for by a Christian family and protected from ISIS by Sunni Muslim Kurds.
“Durable change will not come through selective advocacy or selective amnesia. It will come by empathizing with others and courageously advocating for the rights of all. From my travels over two decades of diplomatic work, I have seen how the rights of religious minorities are best protected when majority communities create and defend space for diversity of beliefs. By creating new programs around religious freedom and religious literacy, this project will help chart new pathways and strengthen existing efforts, all in a coordinated effort to expand space for diversity of beliefs and mutual engagement.”
Spanning a myriad of diverse tactics, Thames’ project is designed to inspire action, reinvigorate advocacy for religious freedom, promote coordination among governments and society, and initiate new religious literacy efforts in the U.S. and abroad. Strength comes in numbers, he maintains, and U.S. Christians can and should take on more active roles as advocates for global religious freedom.
But this work is not being pursued just at an academic level. One unconventional tactic is through a graphic novel telling the story of a hero for pluralism in Pakistan. Shahbaz Bhatti was a Christian religious freedom advocate and government minister who brought together Christians of all denominations and members of other faiths to jointly protest Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law. He was tragically murdered by the Taliban in 2011, but his courage continues to inspire others.
“Speaking as a member of the majority faith in America, there is a responsibility to defend the conscience rights of others, even though we may disagree on ultimate questions. These same is true in every society. If Christians became vocal advocates for their own rights and the rights of everyone everywhere, it could bring new energy and momentum to the cause.
