By Bob Allen
Next year the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty will launch a new advocacy program for young professionals, the Washington-based church-state watchdog group announced Dec. 8.
The BJC Fellows Program is for people from diverse educational, professional and religious backgrounds who have been in their jobs less than six years. Ten applicants will receive an expense-paid four-day training seminar July 29-Aug. 2, 2015, at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
“Central to the Baptist Joint Committee’s mission is the critical need to develop the next generation of religious liberty advocates,” said BJC Executive Director Brent Walker. “While we continue to have great success connecting with groups through educational sessions in our Center for Religious Liberty and visiting campuses and churches across the country, we want to develop supporters who can educate others about these issues.”
BJC Fellows will serve as liaisons between the BJC and their communities, using their historical, theological and legal understanding of religious liberty in avenues such as teaching, writing op-ed articles and social media.
Walker predicted the first group of Fellows will leave Williamsburg with “the expertise and enthusiasm to be a religious liberty advocate in an increasingly post-denominational, religiously plural and politically polarized environment.”
Details of the application process are due out Jan. 5. The application deadline is Feb. 15.
More details are available on the BJC website.