A year after laying off 90% of its staff, Faith in Public Life has announced it is closing shop.
“It is with sadness that we announce Faith in Public Life will cease programming on Oct. 31,” the advocacy group announced on social media. “FPL ended the fiscal year on June 30 with funding committed for future years. While we targeted our resources strategically, the environment for fundraising remains uncertain. Ultimately our board voted this summer to wind down the organization.”
The nonprofit founded in 2006 by Jennnifer Butler, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, is a left-leaning faith-based organization whose stated mission is “to advance the moral imperative for a just, inclusive and equitable country that allows each of us to live into our full humanity. We do this by building power and cultures of belonging among diverse influential faith leaders and resourcing them to expand the narrative on the vision for our democracy.”
With roots in the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy think tank originally led by John Podesta, Faith in Public Life was envisioned as “a sort of organizational anchor for the Religious Left, a strategy hub that would coordinate disparate groups and develop overarching media strategies for campaigns.”
Among a variety of rallies and calls-to-action, Butler famously joined others in bringing a golden calf to the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City in October 2011 and then to McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., in December 2011.
Jennifer Butler in 2021
However, Butler left Faith in Public Life in 2022 to focus on the fight against Christian nationalism. Today, she is a consultant, writer and speaker on religion, public policy and democracy. Last year, she founded Faith in Democracy, an interreligious and nonpartisan NGO that fights Christian nationalism.
Although others have led the group the past four years, Butler wrote on Facebook about her sadness because of the closing and her gratitude for all the good done.
“Nearly two decades ago, a remarkable group of people came together around a conviction: Faith should be a powerful public voice for justice and the common good. With the support of visionary board members, funders, faith leaders, organizers and staff, we built Faith in Public Life. And we changed things,” she said.
“We helped faith leaders find their public voice and become more sophisticated about organizing and communications. We built coalitions across theological and political differences. We helped religious leaders enter some of the most consequential debates of our time — from health care and immigration to economic inequality and the misuse of religious freedom.
Hope remains, she said. “Organizations end. Relationships, leadership, and ideas can endure. Across the country today, I see faith leaders standing with immigrants, challenging abuses of power and speaking with greater confidence about the moral values at stake in our public life. Much of the infrastructure beneath those efforts was built over many years by FPL and by the larger movement of which we were a part.”