Religion Communicators Council
The Religion Communicators Council is a U.S. nonprofit organization representing marketing, communications and public relations officers from 60 different faith-based institutions. Founded in 1929 as the Religious Publicity Council, it became the Religion Communicators Council in 1998. It was originally focused on communications needs for Christian organizations, but in 1970 it expanded its membership to all religious faiths.The organization is headquartered in the Interchurch Center in New York City. It hosts an annual conference to discuss media strategies and issues. It also presents the Wilbur Awards, an annual tribute to mainstream media’s coverage of faith-based issues.
Randomly chosen program from the Religion Communicators Council:
| Navigating Multi-religious Activism |
Speaker(s): B. Heckman, L. Goodstein, J. Dubensky, K. Henderson, K. Marshall, L. Sarsour |
Description: This was a plenary session at the 2016 convention of Religion Communicators Council; introduction by Bud Heckman. This panel focused on focused on how religious communities can come together to make headway on key issues of social justice.
Laurie Goodstein is national religion correspondent for the New York Times. Katherine Marshall is senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Joyce Dubensky is the CEO of Tanenbaum, a secular, non-sectarian nonprofit working to dismantle religious violence and hatred. Linda Sarsour is the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. And The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson is president of Auburn Seminary.
Panelists agreed that the lack of civility and increase in hate speech prevalent in the current presidential campaign polarizes and divides different religious communities, which makes their work more difficult. Sarsour said that it is important for people of faith stand up to protect other religions - to make sacrifices, when necessary. Marshall stated that most problems, including domestic violence, human trafficking, maternal mortality, clean water, health care - are all big problems that require partnerships to solve. | Length: 1:23:10 | Recording Date: March 31, 2016 | Recorded at: Interchurch Center, New York City |
