For Immediate Release: January 5, 2005

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROGRAM TO BE HELD AT UMW, JANUARY 13

Fredericksburg, Va. – A religious freedom program will be held at the University of Mary Washington on Thursday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Hall Ballroom. The event is open to the public without charge.

Speakers will be Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Joseph Loconte, William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation. David Cain, distinguished professor of religion at UMW, will moderate the panel discussion, which will focus on the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the First Amendment.

Barry W. Lynn, a long-time activist in the civil liberties field, has held his position with Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992. Before that he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lynn has appeared frequently to debate and discuss First Amendment issues on such television broadcasts as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Today Show, Nightline, CNN's Crossfire, the Phil Donahue Show, Good Morning America and national nightly news programs with NBC, ABC and CBS. He is the author of The Right to Religious Liberty and writes frequently on First Amendment issues.

A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He is an ordained minister with a theology degree from Boston University.

As the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation, Joseph Loconte examines the role of religious belief in strengthening democracy and reforming civil society. He is especially interested in new models for church-state partnerships, efforts to protect religious liberty, and the relationship of Islam to democracy. Loconte previously served as deputy editor of Policy Review.

Since 1996 Loconte has served as a regular commentator on religion and culture for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He also has appeared on CBS Morning News, Fox News, and PBS' Flashpoints. In 1997 he wrote Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services, and in 2004 he edited The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm.

Loconte earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana and has a master's degree in Christian history and theology from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.

The panel discussion is sponsored by UMW's Campus Academic Resources Committee, UMW's Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion, and the Fredericksburg Council for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

For additional information, contact William M. Beck at 540-371-1766.

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News release prepared by: Margaret L. Mock