Happy Independence Day! Twenty-five years ago this month, Interfaith Alliance launched to protect Constitution-based concepts of faith and freedom for all. As we continue celebrating our anniversary, we’re also looking back at how religious freedom has been used – and misused – since the signers of the Declaration of Independence proclaimed a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, we will have in-depth conversations about what it means to care about religious freedom in 2019 and how those original ideals of the Founding Fathers can be interpreted today.
Few individuals have had a stronger impact on the work of Interfaith Alliance than Greg Lebel, who is an assistant professor emeritus at George Washington University. In our earliest years, Greg served as interim executive director and has remained a close friend of the organization since. He is an expert on ethics, religion, campaign and politics. This week, we’ll hear a special conversation between Greg and Rabbi Jack Moline, president of Interfaith Alliance about the on-going fight to protect the integrity of both religion and democracy in America today.
When State of Belief host Rev. Welton Gaddy was in Washington, D.C., in May, he had the opportunity to sit down with Sally Quinn, author, long-time writer for the Washington Post and the founding editor of the website OnFaith. Sally is also a keen observer and chronicler of the Washington scene. This week, we’ll hear some of the highlights of their conversation about the ways Washington has changed in the past few years.
We’ll also hear a Word from Welton about the recent news that the infamous head of the hate group and culture war propaganda machine, Family Research Council, will be leading the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Tony Perkins is most known for spreading fundamentalist, extreme right-wing, and Christians-first rhetoric about our country, harming the most vulnerable among us in the process. Yet, he’s been selected to lead a commission tasked with protecting some of the very people he has harmed over the years.
