WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 23, 2020—Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has been announced as the recipient of The Religious Freedom Institute’s 2020 Defender of Religious Freedom Award for his work to defend religious liberty for all people of faith.
The nonprofit, non-partisan organization gives the award each year to a person who “defends religious freedom for everyone, everywhere from within his or her faith tradition” and is presented on the occasion of the RFI Annual Dinner.
“Dr. Moore is a brilliant, winsome and tireless advocate for religious liberty. Whether making his case from the pulpit, or in the pages of The New York Times, Dr. Moore finds a way to speak so others can listen,” said Thomas Farr, president of RFI.
“Baptists played a major role in the Founders’ determination to guarantee the free exercise of religion for every American and every American religious community,” said Farr. “Russell Moore represents the best of that tradition. Reaching deep into the treasury of Scripture, he demands ‘soul freedom’ for each of us, so that we might seek the truth in freedom, unhindered by government or any human agent. Russell Moore is a Christian American whose life’s work benefits all Americans. We are privileged to recognize in this public way his momentous contributions to our nation through his courageous defense of America’s First Freedom.”
This year’s award will be given during a virtual ceremony Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. EST. Robert P. George, McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University and former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, will present the award to Moore.
