Wheatley Institute and BYU Political Science Department were pleased to host Mónica Guzmán as the keynote speaker for the first annual Initiative for Peacemaking Peace Conference.

Paul Lambert, director of Wheatley Institute's Religion Initiative, was recently appointed to the board of directors for the One America Movement, a national organization dedicated to fighting toxic polarization in American politics.

Wheatley Fellow Shima Baughman spoke in the Baskerville Institute's 2025 Diplomacy of the Heart Conference. The event focused on fostering understanding through empathy, dignity, and respect, learning how to be peacemakers in today's complex political climate, particularly in areas with rich multicultural heritage.

Tyson Reeder, an Affiliated Scholar for Wheatley Institute's Constitution Initiative, was awarded the prestegious George Washington Prize for his book Serpent in Eden. The book is an exploration of foreign meddling in early American politics, analyzing both the ways in which foreign powers swayed American democracy and the ways the new republic attempted to respond. The work was praised as "a blend of wonderful storytelling and intriguing characters along with perceptive historical analysis. . . . This important contribution stands out as an incredibly timely and relevant book for how we can use the past to understand the present."

I am not legally bound to honor the holy spaces of others, to make room for their beliefs and practices, or to respond to their religious speech with peace, tolerance and respect. But the norm of religious freedom creates a powerful social force encouraging me to do so.

Differences of opinion are part of life and differences of conviction are part of life too. I think we need to have the expectation that we're not always going to agree, even on the most important, even on the most personal, down-to-the-heart type of things. And that is okay. The way that we disagree is what's important.