Advocacy: Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom (CPRF)
Defending the Freedoms of Faith-Based Organizations Serving in the Public Square
The Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom (CPRF) is a multi-faith alliance of social-service, education, and religious liberty organizations dedicated to protecting the integrity and religious character of faith-based organizations in their interactions with government. It is based at the Center for Public Justice. Key concerns include preserving and extending the freedom of faith-based organizations to staff on a religious basis, and ensuring that federal laws and regulations respect both the religious character of faith-based organizations and the religious freedom of the people they serve.
CPRF Activities and Initiatives
CPRF works with Congress, the administration, legal groups, and the press to advance institutional religious liberty through advocacy and public education.
The Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom:
• works with a network of staffers on Capitol Hill to promote good legislation and stop harmful proposals;
• alerts faith-based organizations to support or oppose action in Congress;
• writes letters to congressional leaders and committees to support CPRF positions;
• tracks pertinent regulations and other administrative actions;
• uses its contacts to advocate for vigorous executive branch initiatives to ensure a level playing field for faith-based providers and to protect religious staffing;
• coordinates with legal associations to ensure a robust strategy to defend faith-based organizations and their constitutional freedoms;
• publishes an occasional electronic newsletter with news and views on the faith-based initiative.
The faith-based initiative, which began during the Clinton administration and has been a major emphasis of the Bush administration, has done much to expand government collaboration with faith-based organizations and to clarify the freedoms of those organizations when they are touched by government rules. But opposition is strong and much remains to be done. Legal action is vital to defend faith-based organizations and lobbying can be essential to ensure that bills and rules accommodate specific needs of faith-based social services.
But more is needed than aggressive legal defense and adroit lobbying. Adequately protecting institutional religious liberty also requires positive initiatives that:
• articulate the vital principle of institutional religious freedom;
• clarify what is at stake when the government overly restricts faith-based services; and
• celebrate the vital community-serving work done daily by religious organizations.
CPRF takes such initiatives to help shape the environment within which lawmaking and regulation takes place and to expand the toolkit of ideas and alternatives available to public policy makers.
Monthly Meetings
CPRF meets monthly in Washington, DC. If you are interested in its work and are committed to its vision, please contact Stanley Carlson-Thies to inquire about attendance: 410-571-6300 x15 or stanley@cpjustice.org.
Subscription Information
If you'd like to receive the CPRF E-News and CPRF Legislative Alerts (free of charge), please send an email to stanley@cpjustice.org. In the body of your email, please include the following:
-Your name
-Organization
-Your position in the organization
-Mailing address
-Work phone number
-E-mail address to be used for CPRF communications
-A request to receive CPRF E-News (short news updates) or CPRF Legislative Alerts or both
Publications
Dowload a copy of the CPRF brochure and distribute it to your colleagues (PDF below).
Download the CPRF’s “Ten Reasons for Religious Staffing” (PDF below).
