Faith and Friendship

Faith and Friendship Across the Aisle: In Pursuit of Justice, Human Rights, and Global Religious Freedom

Former UN ambassador and US congressmember Tony Hall (D-OH) and former US congressmember Frank Wolf (R-VA) will discuss how they fostered bipartisan cooperation to tackle issues ranging from human trafficking, religious persecution, political imprisonment, and global hunger. They will further discuss how the Gospel has united them in friendship, though they are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, and will highlight the importance of Christians standing up for religious freedom and human rights around the world. Pete Peterson, dean of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy, will moderate.

Tony P. Hall is the executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger which engages diverse institutions in building the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad. He is a leading advocate for hunger-relief programs and improving human rights conditions in the world and a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Hall served as the US ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2002 to 2005, and prior to his diplomatic service, represented the Third District of Ohio in the US Congress for almost 24 years.

Frank Wolf is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a newly created religious freedom advocacy group, and the first Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom at Baylor University. Wolf served as a member of the US Congress from 1980 to 2014, and is the author of the International Religious Freedom Act, which created the International Religious Freedom Office at the US Department of State and established the bipartisan, independent US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Wolf is also the author of the legislation to create a special envoy at the State Department to advocate for religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.