How the State Department Is Getting Religion

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/state-department-faith_b_4267914.html

Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
Senior Religion Editor, The Huffington Post

Posted: 11/18/2013 6:59 am

When Secretary John Kerry took over the State Department from Secretary Clinton, he found that the legal and conceptual framework for an Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives had already been laid. Deciding to go ahead with the new office, Kerry called a professor of theology at Wesley Theological Seminary named Shaun Casey, who happens to be one of the most religiously knowledgeable and connected people in Washington.

Responding to the opportunity, Prof. Casey took a leave from his position at the seminary and, since the middle of the summer, Casey has been busy launching the new initiative in the hopes that awareness about religion and religious actors will someday be included the training and day to day execution of America's foreign policy.

I recently spoke to Prof. Casey, who now has the title of 'Special Advisor' on the phone about the exciting work he is doing, what he hopes to be the future of religion at State, and why his wife tells him to wipe that dopey grin off his face when he comes home from work.

Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: Ok, so why are you having so much fun at your new job at State?

Special Advisor Shaun Casey: Well there was never an office like this and there is universal affirmation that the State Department needs a capacity to understand the political and social implications of lived religion across the globe in order to advance our foreign policy. As Secretary Kerry said a the roll-out for the office, 'We ignore the role of religion at our peril.'

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