Last week, David Trimble, RFI’s Vice President for Public Policy and Education, presented at the International Association of Christian Educator’s (IACE) 4th Annual Conference. Held on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth, Texas), the nearly 200 attendees encountered insightful presentations and learned of new initiatives on religious liberty and freedom of speech, crisis management, legal updates, and the future of Christian education. On day 3 of the conference, Trimble joined a panel discussion titled, “Religious Liberty and Christian Education,” alongside Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; Shannon Royce, President of Christian Employers Alliance; and Greg Baylor, Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. 

Trimble focused his remarks on the growing disregard and lack of unanimity among American leaders over the last 30 years in defending religious freedom as a core component of a healthy democracy that serves the common good for all Americans. “For a generation, the immeasurable value that religious freedom brings to society has been willfully ignored in the academy at large,” asserted Trimble.

RFI’s National Center for Religious Freedom Education is partnering with schools across America and the world, many from IACE, to offer programs that teach tomorrow’s leaders that free exercise equality is essential to other basic freedoms and the flourishing of all societies.

Increasing collaboration with IACE and other academic associations, schools, and education-based institutions is a top RFI priority. Our programs and curricula provide platforms for students to learn basic principles about the role of religion and religious freedom in society. These principles were fundamental to the founding of American democracy and remain vital to its continued flourishing today. “It is a gross disservice to every student in this country to omit or marginalize teaching about the First Amendment and the importance of religion in public life for what it means to be truly free,” Trimble continued.