Yale University

In this panel discussion led by Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh, activists, academicians and former diplomats covered subjects that included the international community’s inability to intervene in Darfur, citizenship in the face of globalization, and to what extent religion informs U.S. foreign policy. Panelists included Jennifer Butler, Executive Director, Faith in Public Life; Heidi Hadsell, President, Hartford Seminary; James Joseph, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, 1996-99 and Professor of the Practice of Public Policy, Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University ; Paul Lakeland, Professor of Religious Studies at Fairfield University; James Laney, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, 1993-97; and Emilie Townes, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School.

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne delivers the keynote address at Yale Divinity School’s Faith and Citizenship conference on May 3, 2007. Dionne, a respected political observer and former reporter for The New York Times, spoke in favor of engaging the theologies of justice developed in the civil rights as well as the rich tradition of Catholic social though and aspects of the Protestant Social Gospel.

In this panel discussion led by Yale Law School Professor Harlon Dalton, academicians, journalists and activists examined the intersection between faith and politics in American life. Panelists included Randall Balmer, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American Religion, Barnard College; Serene Jones, Titus Street Professor of Theology, Yale Divinity School ; Michael Kieschnick, President and Co-founder, Working Assets; Peter Laarman, Executive Director, Progressive Christians Uniting; David Price, Democratic U.S. Representative, North Carolina; and Amy Sullivan, Contributing Editor, The Washington Monthly.

Over the course of a lively, freewheeling discussion, former Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart called on Americans to rededicate themselves to the country’s founding principles. Responding to pithy questions from Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Hart bemoaned the inability of moderate and progressive Christians to stand up to the Religious Right in the political arena.