Mission
ReligionAndPublicLife.org is a social learning community. Our clubs, courses, and events promote religious literacy and legal literacy across the professions, by producing civic education programs to promote the common good.
ReligionAndPublicLife.org is built on the premise that religiously literate and legally literate professionals are uniquely positioned to promote peaceful coexistence between people of all religions and none.
Civic Education for a Common Good
Civic Competencies
We use KSAM skills (pronounced Kah-Sam) to define religious literacy: Knowledge and cultural understanding of religion; Skills required to research religion and encounter differences; Attitudes needed to emphatically relate with the religious other; and Motivation to do no harm and to do good.
We define legal literacy as fluency in not only knowing the constitutional and human rights protections afforded to all people but the virtuous commitment to defend those rights for people other than ourselves.
Audiences
We serve three audiences: learners, educators, and leaders.
Learners: High school, college, and adult learners who complete a collection of courses earn a professional certificate that can be synced with and featured on their LinkedIn profiles. In addition, learners use the Job Board to search for employment and the Headlines feeds to stay informed.
Educators: Rather than assign a textbook, high school educators and college professors assign our app for students to access multimedia lessons to supplement their syllabi. As a result, their college students gain access to dynamic resources and a community of learners around the country.
Leaders: Professionals use the clubs and courses to sharpen their skills and broaden their social networks. Business leaders engage in training about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Journalists connect with scholars of religion to accurately report on religion. Campus leaders, school principals, and school board members learn about the legal and educational frameworks that inform academic communities.
Features
As an extension of our charitable mission, we designed ReligionAndPublicLife.org with three core features:
- It is a Social Network, similar to LinkedIn, that connects professionals through sharing profiles, joining clubs, and discussions using our companion app. This network creates regular opportunities to create courageous multi-faith conversations and collaborations.
- It is a Learning Management System that allows contributors to offer on-demand and live courses, as well as publish digital resources to serve as textbooks to supplement onsite teaching. These courses prepare educators and journalists to promote religious literacy in classrooms and in news media.
- The Bookstore at ReligionAndPublicLife.org is an E-Commerce Platform that allows partners to advertise services (e.g., speaking, consulting, training) and products (e.g., certificates, books, research reports, lesson plans). The Bookstore generates income to support our partners and ensures the sustainability of our operations. These three features expose members of the community to a diverse network of students and professionals. Our courses and certificate programs empower individuals with professional development opportunities and enrich education institutions.
Civic Education About Religion
Given our reach into public schools, we ensure that our courses are Constitutionally friendly. We apply Consensus Statements about Constitutional Approaches for Teaching about Religion that the U.S. Department of Education distributed to every public school in the country.
- Our approach to religion is academic, not devotional;
- We strive for awareness of religions, but do not press for acceptance of any religion;
- We sponsor the study about religion, not the practice of religion;
- We expose students to a diversity of religious views, but do not impose any particular view;
- We educate about all religions, we do not promote or denigrate any religion;
- We inform students about religious beliefs and practices, it does not seek to conform students
to any particular belief or practice.
Educating in Age of Disruption
The Social Context for Our Theory of Change
Dr. Nathan C. Walker, June 9, 2020, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Our world, our nation, is experiencing an unprecedented time of disruption and uncertainty. On May 28, 2020, the number of Americans who died from the coronavirus surpassed 100,000 with an additional 2 million known cases. Over 36.5 million Americans lost their jobs, sparking the largest rate of unemployment since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, education institutions in the United States and around the world helped prevent the spread of the coronavirus by moving all in-person courses online. Studies foresee that possibly one-quarter of colleges may permanently close because of the lack of resources to adapt to what will likely be a prolonged crisis. I reflect on these alarming statistics on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, the night that George Floyd’s body was laid to rest, which marked the fourteenth day of nation-wide protests over police brutality.
A pandemic. A depression. Civil unrest. These are not new to the American experiment, but has a generation experienced all of these disruptions at once? These challenges are heightened by three recent developments in American democracy that motivate us to take action.
- In 2012, Protestant Christians—for the first time in U.S. history—became a minority. These demographic shifts partially explain the political resurgence of white Christian nationalism that lie at the heart of the current debates over race and religion.
- Americans demonstrate vast illiteracy about religion and the law. Stereotypes and misperceptions about the religious “other” fuel fear and mistrust and contempt for the suspect minorities of the day.
- The last five years, alone, America has seen alarming increases in religious-based social hostilities and violence. We have also seen the failure of the legal system to protect the most vulnerable among us.
A Nation of Religious Minorities
The United States is experiencing an unprecedented change in demographics. In 2012, Protestants, for the first time in U.S. history, became a minority, representing forty-eight percent of the population, Pew Research Center reports. The United States is experiencing an unprecedented religious diversity. In 2012, the United States became the first democracy in human history to become a nation of religious minorities––where no one religious group represented more than half of the population. It is imperative that we prepare the next generation to do what no previous generation has done––to self-govern a nation of religious minorities
Illiteracy about Law and Religion
Even in our most stable of times, many schools and colleges are not equipped to promote the civic competencies of religious literacy and legal literacy. Often students receive little or no civic education about religion. Teachers are often ill-equipped to promote the academic study of religion. And school districts have few constitutionally-friendly resources about the academic study of religion. Consequently, generations of citizens have misperceptions and stereotypes about religion and non-religion, which can breed social hostilities, religious-based bullying, and even violence. Unfortunately, postsecondary schools provide teachers and school administrators with little or no training about the legal frameworks that guarantee religious freedom as a constitutional and human right. As a result, many educators, and in turn, their students, are confused about the civic promises and legal parameters for governing the academic study of religion in public schools and afterschool programs.
Increases in Social Hostilities and Violence
What effect does a religiously illiterate society have on the most vulnerable among us? What effect does a legally illiterate society have on how people treat one another in private and public life?
The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding reported that bullying has recently become a significant problem for Muslim children. More than two in five (42%) Muslims with children in K–12 school report bullying of their children because of their religion, compared with 23% of Jews, 20% of Protestants, and 6% of Catholics. A teacher or other school official instigated one in four bullying incidents involving these Muslim children.
Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims and have been targets of hate crimes. In March 2018, the Sikh Coalition reported an average of “one hate crime per week since the start of 2018.” A year later, the nation saw a “200 percent increase in anti-Sikh hate crimes,” according to FBI reports.
In 2017, Jews experienced an all-time high in religion-based violence against them. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that “the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. rose 57 percent in 2017.” This was “the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking such data in 1979.” Echoing the rise of anti-Muslim hate crimes in public schools, the ADL attributed the sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents to “a significant increase in incidents in schools and on college campuses, which nearly doubled for the second year in a row.” By 2019, the ADL reported over 2,100 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, an alarming 12 percent increase from the year before.
In 2020, “supporters of domestic and international extremist groups have encouraged followers to conduct attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security. In seeking to build a “racially pure nation,” these groups have “encouraged followers to conduct attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic to incite panic, target minorities and immigrants, and celebrate the deaths of their enemies.” This has put religious and racial minorities at greater risk, reports the Anti-Defamation League. State officials, like in New York, are not only having to manage the heathcare crisis but also create a new hotline for minorities to report Coronavirus-related hate crimes.
These alarming trends suggest that people of all ages have been exposed to chronic and escalating acts of intolerance and violence. At the same time, Americans have an increased sensitivity to religious discrimination against Muslims and Jews. Historically, many Christians in America––Catholic, Baptist, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so on––also faced social hostilities and violence. These acts of bullying and discrimination often occur when the general public is illiterate about religion and the law.
This widespread illiteracy leads to the breakdown of social systems and legal systems that would otherwise restore health to a diseased democracy.
Theory of Change
Peaceful Coexistence
I founded 1791 Delegates—a delegation of First Amendment and human rights educators—on the premise that religiously literate and legally literate leaders are uniquely positioned to promote peaceful coexistence between people of all religions and none. Our theory of change is simply:
Religious Literacy + Legal Literacy = Peaceful Coexistence.
We assume that religious literacy is more than knowing facts or trivia about religion—it is a fundamental civic competency. Religious literacy is a set of teachable skills and attitudes that equip citizens with knowledge of how religion, spirituality, and non-religion informs everyday life. Religious literacy is also achieved through relationship-centered learning environments where people can know one another as they seek to be known.
Pew Research Center reports “Americans who personally know someone in a religious group different from their own—or who have at least some knowledge about that group—generally are more likely to have positive feelings about members of that group than those who do not.” This further reinforces the fact that religious literacy is more than textbook knowledge but an expression of interpersonal intelligence.
Religious literacy, as acquired through academic and social settings, also requires knowledge about the civil, constitutional, and human rights afforded to all people. In these ways, religious literacy and legal literacy are interlocking civic competencies. They are teachable and measurable skills that are needed to create informed and engaged citizenry.
A religious literate leader as one who dispels stereotypes about religions, counters gross generalizations with nuanced observations, and meaningfully contributes to the civic discourse about the intersection of religion and public life.
Imagine if there were a heard of religious literate teachers in public schools who helped prevented their colleagues from bullying Muslim children. Imagine if civil servants, at every level of government, were doing the same—immediately putting an end to any attempt to fuel fear and misperceptions of the religious other.
Religious literate leaders serve as antibodies in unhealthy social systems. As influencers in their professional sector, they use their knowledge and empathic attitude to ground people in verifiable research. These leaders help create countercultures in their local communities and organizations. They help their constituents heal from systems where people are being threatened, diminished, or made invisible for their religious or non-religious identities. They not only take responsibility for defending the rights of people different from themselves, but they inspire others to do the same.
This is why the First Amendment and human rights educators at 1791 Delegates understand religious literacy and legal literacy to be interlocking civic competencies to promote peaceful coexistence.
In an age of demeaning rhetoric about others we need leaders to help us make meaning of our lives. Leaders do this by helping people make meaning about the complex ways individuals and groups form and manifest their identities. They help their communities make meaning about the diversity between and within religious and non-religious groups.
Religiously literate leaders not only respond to oppressive agendas but serve as agenda setters. They apply their knowledge of both religion and the law by serving as bridge builders in the communities in which they live and work. Doing so ensures that peaceful coexistence becomes not merely a slogan but a way of life.
