Happenings

Litigation Update: Legal Developments Surrounding Tithing and Religious Donations

The 2025 Wheatley Institute Seminar on Religion and Politics provided an excellent opportunity for political science and sociology graduate students from around the country to explore the role of religion in society. The seminar explored the history and current landscape of religious identity, influence, pluralism, and its impact on American politics and culture. Students also explored quantitative and qualitative methods and experiential wisdom in studying religion and politics from leading faculty in the field. Learning areas included how to explore data sources for research on religion, how to classify religious groups for more accurate measurements in surveys, how to measure religious behavior and belief, and how to study specific religious traditions.

Wheatley Institute partnered with the BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies to host the 2025 Religious Freedom Annual Review. This year's theme was Religion, Peace, and Human Flourishing: Understanding the Whys of Religious Freedom. The Annual Review brought a broad array of perspectives to this issue, with religious, media, academic, legal, and thought leaders. These exerts addressed several questions. What role does religion play in building peace and fostering human flourishing? How does religious freedom’s respect for both individual choice as well as the human dignity of all increasingly matter in a fractious world? Experts on religious freedom and peacemaking explored the interconnections.

Wheatley Constitutional Government Fellow Hal R. Boyd gave a BYU Campus Devotional emphasizing the importance of a Christ-centered education and the dangers of drifting away from the faith-focused center of the BYU experience.

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.

Wheatley Institute and the National Marriage Project's Spring Conference focused on the nature and consequences of marriage and motherhood, featuring presentations by academic experts and a journalist panel discussion.

Dr. Timothy Shriver is a University of Utah Impact Scholar, the Chairman of Special Olympics International, and founder and current CEO of UNITE. He will offer his perspective on the role of dignity in civic virtue. This event is co-sponsored by the BYU Political Science Department, David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, University of Utah Gardner Institute, and the BYU Peacemaker Project.

Emily Reynolds, Assistant Director of Wheatley Institute, delivered a campus devotional at Ensign College about the importance of prioritizing faith and family in an increasingly self-centered world.