Berkley Center

At a moment of frayed national unity and eroding trust in institutions, the question of religion's role in public life has gained renewed urgency. At Georgetown University the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and Georgetown Journalism Program hosted a recent series of events—moderated by veteran NPR reporter Tom Gjelten, the inaugural Sakka Family Religion and International Journalism Fellow—that brought together faith leaders, scholars, and journalists to explore how religious values might help restore civic responsibility.

 "We were delighted to host Tom Gjelten at Georgetown this semester as our distinguished inaugural fellow,” said Berkley Center Executive Director Michael Kessler. “Tom's career represents the paradigm of a prominent journalist who thoughtfully examines religion and its influence around the globe in a sophisticated way. The series of events Tom hosted brought lively, in-depth dialogue about vital issues to campus at a crucial moment."

Across four sessions, themes of refugee resettlement, evangelical identity, free speech, and the role of faith in democratic governance emerged to explain present dysfunction while charting paths towards a more redemptive political future. Gjelten embraced the opportunity to facilitate thoughtful dialogue on challenging issues:

At a time of nearly unprecedented polarization and rising mistrust, I saw it as an honor and a responsibility to host a series of conversations around the theme of identifying common ground and highlighting the civic virtues essential to democracy. I am grateful to Georgetown and the Berkley Center for this opportunity.

The End of Refugee Assistance? Aid Groups and the Trump Administration

The first forum, "The End of Refugee Assistance? Aid Groups and the Trump Administration," took place on March 13, focusing on the collapse of long-standing U.S. refugee resettlement programs, tracing the consequences of administrative rollbacks and rising xenophobia. It traversed both the policy and moral dimensions, raising questions about whether, in an era of nationalist retrenchment, faith communities can stand as bulwarks of compassion and truth.

Michelle Boorstein, religion correspondent for The Washington Post, reflected on the complexity of immigration and refugee issues, particularly at the intersection of faith, policy, and public perception. She noted that people may lack a deep understanding of these issues, and that confusion, fueled by fragmented media ecosystems, has further eroded public empathy. The advocacy of faith groups is frequently misunderstood, especially when it is mischaracterized as opposition to border security. As such, the Trump administration’s freeze and subsequent termination of refugee contracts, coupled with global aid reductions, has disrupted a bipartisan tradition rooted in humanitarian values and soft power imperatives. 

Alan Cross, pastor at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church in Petaluma, California, explored how these dynamics play out within evangelical Christian communities. He delved into how evangelicals reconcile their theological commitments with national debates over immigration. Cross’ research reveals that, although polling data can be misleading, evangelicals at the local level broadly affirm a biblical duty to welcome and care for newcomers. However, when conversations shift to national policy, border enforcement, or refugee caps, responses become far more divided.

Cross identifies three factors, including order and security, compassion, and integration, as essential for evangelicals to feel confident engaging in refugee ministry. When these are in place, local churches lead efforts to welcome refugees through practical, compassionate action such as teaching them English and sharing employment opportunities. But when any of these pillars is missing, particularly in moments of perceived border chaos or policy confusion, negative reactions grow more common.

The Future of Facts and Free Speech

This event on refugee assistance provided a seamless transition into “The Future of Facts and Free Speech,” a March 25 event which highlighted how concepts of truth, trust, and the institution of “fact-checking” operations by media outlets are increasingly contested in an era of political polarization. 

“In a post-truth world, democracy doesn’t work… if you decide to go after the fact set and create your own epistemological universe, your own set of facts, that makes debate, discourse, persuasion much, much more difficult, if not impossible,” said Peter Wehner, contributing writer for The New York Times and senior fellow at the Trinity Forum.

However, the panel acknowledged a growing tension in the fact-checking enterprise: while intended to combat misinformation, it can sometimes be perceived as overreaching, challenging not just factual errors but also legitimate disagreement. Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), emphasized that truth-seeking relies on the ability to express differing views openly, paired with a spirit of “epistemic humility” and clear, transparent reasoning that demonstrates how conclusions are reached. He argued that when people feel truth is being imposed rather than discussed, it fuels resistance, warning that overly centralized approaches risk deepening distrust. 

“There is a sense among skeptics or dissidents that [top-down fact-checking] is an attempt to dictate to them what is true and what is false,” said Cohn. 

Jimmy Carter and the Demise of Progressive Evangelicalism

The next event, “Jimmy Carter and the Demise of Progressive Evangelicalism,” held on April 10, shifted gears to provide historical depth, using Carter’s presidency to examine a nearly forgotten evangelical tradition rooted in justice, humility, and reform. “Carter's commitment to social justice, to racial justice, to the global common good, all fired by his Southern Baptist faith, represented a current in American political life that has long been eclipsed,” said Thomas Banchoff, director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University. He added that Carter’s legacy “also represents a resource as we try to think and act our way out of the current crisis, a crisis marked by so many deep divisions.”

Randall Balmer, John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth College and author of Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter (2014/2024), rejected the commonly held belief that abortion was the primary catalyst for evangelical political mobilization in the 1970s. He instead pointed to the religious right’s rise during the backlash against federal efforts to revoke the tax-exempt status of racially segregated private schools following the 1971 Green v. Connally decision. These enforcement actions, aimed at institutions practicing racial discrimination, were seen by conservative evangelical leaders as an intrusion on their religious and educational autonomy. 

Yet even as this backlash grew, a very different evangelical ethos emerged in the 1973 Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern. Balmer described how this document reaffirmed evangelicals’ historic engagement with progressive causes. 

It was trying to reclaim the nineteenth-century vision for evangelicalism and social reform. Evangelicals were very much involved in… prison reform; they advocated for women's equality, including voting rights, which was considered a radical idea in the nineteenth century. They were involved in the formation of what they called at the time 'common schools,' public education, because they realized that was the way for those in the lower rungs of society to become upwardly mobile.

Can Christianity Save Democracy—and Itself?

However, this legacy has been obscured by a form of evangelicalism increasingly aligned with nationalism, militarism, and capitalist market orthodoxy. This sets the stage for the fourth and final event, “Can Christianity Save Democracy—and Itself?” on April 24, which recasts faith in a more restorative light, exploring how it can serve as a “load-bearing” foundation for essential values in American civic life.

Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution, drew a connection between three core Christian virtues and the moral underpinnings of a functioning liberal democracy. Far from seeing religion and democratic governance as incompatible, he argued that the vitality of the American republic has always depended on a citizenry shaped by a kind of moral instruction rooted in Christian teachings.

The virtues “Do not be afraid,” “Imitate Jesus,” and “Forgive each other” reflect a faith-driven ethic that closely aligns with democratic ideals. They call for calm and thoughtful civic engagement, in contrast to fear-based, reactionary politics, and emphasize egalitarianism and concern for the marginalized, principles that mirror liberal democracy’s commitment to individual dignity and equal rights. Finally, these virtues promote a posture of pluralism and tolerance, offering a vision of faith that supports a more inclusive and civic-minded public life.

“These liberal values come over from Christianity into the world of the Constitution and our secular democracy. And if Christianity is disaligned with those values—if it’s undermining them instead of instilling them—everything else about running this pluralistic, difficult, divided society gets much harder,” said Rauch. 

Together, these four events examined the intersections of religion and public life across different historical and political contexts. From reevaluating the roots of evangelical political mobilization to exploring the civic implications of religious ethics within a fragmented media landscape, the series highlighted the varied ways religious ideas and institutions interact with democratic norms and challenges. Rather than offering a single conclusion, the discussions invited continued reflection on how faith traditions inform, complicate, or contribute to democratic life in the United States.

"Our student journalists getting ready to launch their professional careers—and the many others in the university community and beyond looking to understand how journalism works—could not have asked for a better guide this year than Tom Gjelten,” reflected Rebecca Sinderbrand, director of the Georgetown Journalism Program. 

He went deep on the details with aspiring reporters eager to follow in his footsteps, and zoomed out–with the perspective only decades of experience can provide–to help identify the special challenges of the current moment. We are profoundly grateful for his presence.