From The New York Times
Washington University in St. Louis will open a new academic center in January that will focus on the intersection of religion and politics and will be named for a former Missouri senator, John C. Danforth.
The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics will eventually have five full-time faculty members, offer an undergraduate minor and sponsor conferences and lectures, Mr. Danforth, a former three-term Republican senator, said in an interview.
An ordained Episcopal priest and author of a book titled “Faith and Politics,” Mr. Danforth said the center would strive to be ideologically neutral and spark open-minded discussion on religion and politics. “I think all of us benefit from thinking about these issues more deeply, in a more scholarly way that is respectful to all points of view,” he said.
But Mr. Danforth, who also served as a special envoy to Sudan during former President George W. Bush’s administration, also acknowledged that the type of topics the center is likely to take up can be controversial and can spark back-and-forths that include what he called the “I’m right, you’re wrong, God’s on my side” point of view.
“My hope is to build into the D.N.A. of the center that this is going to be a place of coming together,” Mr. Danforth said, adding that “this is not going to be a place with a particular political ax to grind.”
The St. Louis-based Danforth Foundation — a charitable foundation started by William H. Danforth, the founder of Ralston Purina and the former senator’s grandfather — is kicking in a $30 million endowment gift to help the center get started.
More here-
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/new-center-on-religion-and-politics-to-be-named-for-former-mo-senator/
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