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Although I have a graduate degree in religion, I’m far from an expert on it. Instead, I’m an expert at remembering how much I don’t know.

My schooling made me aware that my faith-related instincts are rarely correct. I learned that members of the same religious group often behave in incredibly different ways and believe incredibly different things. I learned that labels like “Muslim” or “evangelical” or “devout” can only get you so far.

Apparently, American foreign service officers could use some lessons like these. Too often, they’re sent out into the world with overly simplistic ideas about religious organizations and individual people of faith, said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former diplomat, during a conference on religion and foreign policy last week.

“Any diplomat who ventures out and doesn’t have some understanding (of religion) is under-equipped for the task,” he said.

Similarly, any government that fails to ask lots of faith-related questions can get itself in trouble fast. For example, religious illiteracy contributed to the United States’ past struggles in Vietnam and Iraq, said Haass, who considered becoming a rabbi before embracing foreign policy work.

Our mistakes stemmed from a failure to understand local realities, including religious culture, he said, adding that, “You’ve got to know local (and) think local.”

What Haass is calling for is for government officials to be a little more humble. As they debate foreign policy problems, they should regularly remind themselves of everything they don’t know, just as I do while working on story assignments.

By being more responsive to religious diversity, governments can improve the work they do in the world, Haass said.

Religion “touches almost all aspects of foreign policy,” he said.


Fresh off the press

As states across the country legalize medical and recreational marijuana use, the share of Americans who say smoking pot is moral is growing. Protestant pastors, however, remain highly concerned about marijuana use. A new LifeWay Research survey found that only around 1 in 5 pastors believe pot use should be legal for any purpose. In my latest article, I explore religious leaders’ concerns about marijuana use and why they rarely speak about them from the pulpit.


Term of the week: Holy See

Last week’s religion and foreign policy conference reminded me of an article I wrote in 2017 about the importance of America’s diplomatic relationship with the Holy See, the term for the sovereign government overseeing Vatican City, the headquarters of the Catholic Church. Many people use Holy See and Vatican interchangeably, even though the Vatican refers to the place, not the people in charge of it.


What I’m reading ...

My colleague, Mya Jaradat, lived in and reported from Israel and Palestine from 2007 to 2014. Amid this month’s clash between the Israeli government and Hamas, she’s written several stories exploring what Americans misunderstand about the region. I especially appreciated her piece on Palestinian Christians, who are rarely talked about in coverage of violence in Israel and Palestine.

Speaking of great work by Mya, she also recently wrote about the future of Jewish life in America. I thought of her story as I read a Religion News Service article on the rise of Jewish summer camps for adults. Campers, like many young Jews, identify with the Jewish community but rarely take part in formal religious practices, the article noted. Instead, they express their Jewishness in more casual ways.

Over the weekend, I started reading religious liberty expert Asma Uddin’s latest book, “The Politics of Vulnerability.” It focuses on the increasingly tense relationship between American Muslims and evangelical Christians, describing the threat this tension poses to religious liberty protections. I’m really enjoying the book so far, and I hope to interview Uddin for a future edition of this newsletter.


Odds and ends

I did a radio interview last week tied to the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a significant new case on abortion rights. A recording of the conversation is available online.

If you’re interested in learning more about religious views on drug use, you can listen to a 2019 conference panel I led on faith leaders’ drug-related activism, which included a speaker from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.