Updated Oct. 1, 2013:Shaun Casey, head of the U.S. Department of State's new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, has postponed a public talk originally scheduled later this week at Emory University, due to the federal government shutdown.
Casey's talk, which was to be given at 2 p.m. Friday Oct. 4 and titled "Exploring Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Launching the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives," will be rescheduled at a later date.
Casey's talk is sponsored by the Graduate Division of Religion, with the Laney Graduate School, Candler School of Theology and the Department of Religion.___________________
Original story:
State Department's faith-based advisor to speak at Emory
Shaun Casey, head of the U.S. Department of State's new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, will give a public talk at 2 p.m. Friday Oct. 4 at Emory University titled "Exploring Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Launching the State Department's Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives."
Casey's talk will be held in Room 290, Psychology Building, 36 Eagle Row. Parking is available at the Peavine South Parking Lot, 27 Eagle Row.
Appointed in August by Secretary of State John Kerry, Casey is overseeing State Department engagement with faith-based communities and is working in conjunction with bureaus and posts to reach out to those communities to advance the department's diplomacy and development objectives, which includes raising awareness on the disabilities treaty (www.state.gov/disabilitiestreaty).
The new office is charged with working closely with faith communities to ensure that their voices are heard in the foreign policy process, including through continued collaboration with the department's religion and foreign policy working group. It also is collaborating with other government officials and offices focused on religious issues, including the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and the department's Office of International Religious Freedom.
Casey is currently on leave of absence from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, where he is professor of Christian ethics and director of the National Capital Semester for Seminarians. He has written on the ethics of the war in Iraq as well as the role of religion in American presidential politics, and is the author of the 2009 book, "The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960."
Casey's talk is sponsored by the Graduate Division of Religion, with the Laney Graduate School, Candler School of Theology and the Department of Religion.