Advancing the Cause of Religious Freedom
Religious Freedom Partnerships
According to the 2018 annual report of the United States Commission on Religious Freedom, the number of countries facing significant deterioration of religious freedom and increases in religious persecution remain disturbingly high. While here in the United States, we are witnessing unprecedented levels of anti-religious sentiment, accompanied by instances of legislative over-reach that prevent Christian businesses owners, charities, schools, and universities from contributing to human flourishing in a distinctly Christian way.
As part of Baylor in Washington's ongoing collaboration with organizations like the Religious Freedom Institute, we host regular events in Washington, D.C. and produce high-level research on issues of religious freedom in the U.S., Europe, China, Africa, India, and the Middle East.
Working closely with Frank Wolf and members of the Religious Freedom Institute, Baylor was also instrumental in the passage of H.Con.Res. 75, identifying the atrocities committed by ISIL as "genocide," and in the passage and content of H.R. 1150: The Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
Additionally, Baylor supported the passage of H.R. 390: The Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act of 2017. The bill, signed into law on December 11, 2018, provides for emergency relief to victims of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Iraq and Syria, and for accountability for perpetrators of these crimes.
Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom
Thanks to the generosity of Jerry and Susie Wilson, Baylor now has an endowed chair in religious liberty. The inaugural holder of the chair was former Congressman Frank Wolf, formerly the leading voice on international religious liberty issues in the U.S. Congress. The current occupant is the distinguished scholar Dr. Paul Marshall. Dr. Marshall previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. and is the author and editor of more than 20 books on religion and politics. In addition to teaching a course on international religious freedom in Baylor's undergraduate semester program in D.C., Dr. Marshall frequently speaks to a wide variety of audiences across Washington on issues of religion, diplomacy, and governance.
More about Dr. Paul Marshall
Appointed in 2017, internationally acclaimed scholar Paul Marshall, Ph.D., has joined the faculty of Baylor University as holder of the Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom at the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR). Marshall also will serve as a research professor within Baylor’s department of political science.
Marshall was formerly a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books on religion and politics, particularly religious freedom, including Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians (2013, with Lela Gilbert and Nina Shea), Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (2011, with Nina Shea), Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion (2009), Religious Freedom in the World (2007), Radical Islam’s Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia Law (2005), The Rise of Hindu Extremism (2003), Islam at the Crossroads (2002), God and the Constitution (2002), The Talibanization of Nigeria (2002), Massacre at the Millennium (2001), Religious Freedom in the World (2000), Egypt’s Endangered Christians (1999), Just Politics (1998), Heaven Is Not My Home (1998), A Kind of Life Imposed on Man (1996) and the best-selling, award-winning survey of religious persecution worldwide Their Blood Cries Out (1997).
Marshall's current research is focused primarily on understanding how Muslims and Christians are able to live and work together peacefully in Indonesia - the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. Marshall also is a Senior Fellow at the Leimena Institute, a Christian public policy think tank in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University (UIN), also in Jakarta.
Marshall is in frequent demand for lectures and media appearances and has been featured on ABC Nightly News; CNN; PBS; FOX; the British, Australian, Canadian, South African and Japanese Broadcasting Corporations; and Al Jazeera. His work has been published in, or is the subject of, articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, First Things, New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Reader’s Digest and many other newspapers and magazines.