E19: Stanley’s adventures in institutional religious freedom

My friend Stanley Carlson-Thies, Ph.D. joins me to talk about religious freedom for institutions, the exciting world of government regulations, and how religious institutions are navigating–or failing to navigate–new challenges to freedoms we once took for granted.

* Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance

* Stanley Carlson-Thies – Biography

* Book: Free to Serve by authors  Stanley Carlson-Thies and Steven Monsma

* “This book speaks precisely to the most pressing crisis in American domestic politics.  The gay marriage controversy has put religious liberty on a collision course with the sensibilities of the modern social orthodoxy in a way that presents immediate dangers to Christian institutions. Monsma and Carlson-Thies employ their expertise and their convening power to address the problem in a way that is well-calibrated. Religious liberty needs to be defended on many levels, but one of the most important is as a public policy matter. This book makes a substantial contribution to our public thinking about religious freedom.” —Hunter Baker, university fellow at Union University, author of The End of Secularism, and Research Fellow on the ERLC’s Research Institute

* Christianity Today 2016 book awards

* CT Interview: How Christian Institutions Can Stay Christian Amid Secular Pressure

Stanley W. Carlson-Thies (PhD, University of Toronto) is director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, a division of the Center for Public Justice (CPJ), in Washington, DC. He is a senior fellow at CPJ and at the Canadian think tank Cardus. He convenes the Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom, a multi-faith alliance that advocates for the religious freedom of faith-based organizations to Congress and the federal government. Carlson-Thies served with George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and served on a task force of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Christianity Today. He has coauthored several books including The Freedom of Faith-Based Organizations to Staff on a Religious Basis.