About Us
Our Mission
Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy seeks to narrate a new story of how evangelicals can live faithfully and neighborly in a world they don’t control, nurture the next generation of evangelicals as they wrestle with how to live out their faith in a polarized and contentious climate, and nourish Christian communities through relationships, resources, and collaborative efforts towards the common good.
Claude Alexander
David French
Justin Giboney
Kristen Deede Johnson
Karen Swallow Prior
Matthew Kaemingk
Nona Jones
Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Russell Moore
Shirley Hoogstra
Tom Lin
Tish Harrison Warren
Our Story
Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy launched in May 2022 and convened a small group of evangelical and evangelical-adjacent leaders to help articulate a compelling narrative for why and how Christians should engage religious diversity. The driving question has been, “How can Christians live faithfully and neighborly in a world they don’t control?”
Unlikely Friends
In 2020, Tim Keller and John Inazu’s book Uncommon Ground reflected on the question of how Christians can live faithfully in a world of difference. More recently, John has put the question this way: How do Christians live faithfully and act neighborly in a world we don’t control?
This subtle but important reframing prompt to John’s work came, in part, from his nine-year friendship with Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith America.
Interfaith America builds on the religious diversity in this country to find common ground without ignoring or downplaying the significance of religious differences. As John observes, “Interfaith America is not the soupy multiculturalism that pretends that all roads lead to heaven or that our differences don’t matter.”
Four years ago, at the height of the pandemic and growing tension in our national politics, Eboo called John and asked him how Interfaith America could help Christians be better Christians. As Eboo noted, when Christians in this country act like Christians—when they love God, love their neighbors, and demonstrate the fruits of the spirit—things go better for everyone else, too.
Four years ago, at the height of the pandemic and growing tension in our national politics, Eboo called John and asked him how Interfaith America could help Christians be better Christians.
Something New
What does interfaith work have to do with my efforts to reframe Christian engagement today? Almost everything.
For Christians, the question of how to live faithfully and neighborly in a world we don’t control is the interfaith question. It asks how we can be fellow citizens, friends, and co-laborers with people of other faiths and no faith who do not share our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This question has become increasingly important in a cultural context where Christians are too often seen as self-interested and unconcerned for their neighbors in their politics and in their lives.
Over the past two years, Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy convened twelve evangelical and evangelical-adjacent leaders to cultivate friendship and trust among a group of people who did not all know one another but whose individual voices and influences collectively offer a counternarrative to both the Christian Right and Left: Christians can be friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens with those who don’t share our faith, and we can do so with the fullness of our Christian identity.
The participants in Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy believe that the reality of an interfaith America provides an opportunity for Christians to engage with confidence and compassion in a world of difference. This opportunity is captured in the verse that is the epigraph for Uncommon Ground. In Ephesians 4: 1-2, the Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to: “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.” (NASB).
Our Conveners
John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. His latest book is Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect (Zondervan, 2024). He is also the author of Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012) and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020).
Inazu is the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and a Senior Fellow at Interfaith America and the Trinity Forum. He holds a B.S.E. and J.D. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Eboo Patel is a civic leader who believes that religious diversity is an essential and inspiring dimension of American democracy. Named “one of America’s best leaders” by U.S. News and World Report, Eboo is Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.
Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books, including We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy. He is an Ashoka Fellow and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and their two sons.
Our Staff
Megan Hughes Johnson is Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Interfaith America (IA), where she supports senior leaders across sectors to engage religious diversity in positive and productive ways. At IA since 2006, Megan built the organization’s higher ed consulting model and led many of its premier leadership programs. Megan’s undergraduate work in culture and politics at Georgetown University and her graduate work in religion and conflict at the University of Chicago Divinity School sparked her passion for bridge-building. Prior to joining IA, she worked for Seeds of Peace where she developed leadership programs for young people from conflict zones around the world. Megan is motivated by her Christian faith to welcome the stranger and love her (religiously diverse) neighbor. She lives in Cincinnati where she enjoys exploring new playgrounds and pop-up markets with her family.
Amar D. Peterman is Assistant Director of Civic Networks at Interfaith America. He is also an author and theologian working at the intersection of faith and public life. His work has been featured in publications ranging from Christianity Today to Georgetown University’s Berkley Forum. He holds an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and B.A. in Theology from Moody Bible Institute. Before coming to Interfaith America, Amar served as Assistant Director of Neighborly Faith and Director of the Center for Empathy in Christian and Public Life.
At Interfaith America, Amar works closely with emerging field builders in helping them flourish through their various projects and initiatives. Informed by his evangelical Christian faith, Amar sees the vision of confident pluralism as a radical expression of neighbor love and a tangible striving towards a common good. His first book, which focuses on the common good, faith formation, and love of neighbor, is forthcoming with Eerdmans Publishing Company.