LYNC develops robust and validated long-term methods and models to promote Religious Freedom and Social Cohesion.
Until now, there have only been two instruments for measuring Religious Freedom: incidences of social hostility and non-compliance with international standards. LYNC is developing a third approach by constructing a new multi-year, multi-performance strategy to advance Religious Freedom globally.
In 2021, LYNC co-organized two events — a certificate course Religion and Rule of Law (RROL) funded by Templeton Religion Trust, and a conference “Prospects for a New Central Asia: Religion’s Role in Forming a Stable and Democratic Society,” funded by Brigham Young University Center for Law and Religion Studies (BYU) as well as participated at the VII Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions organized and funded by the Kazakhstani government. All these LYNC activities aim to advance religious freedom and social cohesion by integrating Covenantal Pluralism[1] into the social fabric.
[1] “Covenantal pluralism” as enabling cooperative, respectful, and constructive engagement across differences. More specifically, covenantal pluralism is the commitment to engage, respect and protect the other, without necessarily conceding equal veracity or moral equivalency to the beliefs and behaviors of others.
In 2022, LYNC, together with its regional and international partners, convened a first-of-its-kind Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy Training Program in Shymkent for the Kazakhstani government and law enforcement officials despite the pandemic, internal instability, and geopolitical challenges. The training, funded by Templeton Religion Trust, offered timely strategic support to the civil society and government of Kazakhstan, who has pledged its ongoing commitment to building religious freedom. Fifty-seven participants ranging from prosecutors, law enforcement officers, religious affairs officials, Muslim imams, Orthodox priests, and evangelical pastors acquired knowledge based on applicable case studies of American, England, Indonesian, and Vietnamese reforms and implementation best practices.
Since 2019, LYNC has consistently implemented the three core elements- multi-faith relationship building, religious literacy, and all-inclusive dialogue- of what TRT calls “covenantal pluralism”1. The success of this recent certificate program is neither a beginning nor an end but is a critical, positive milestone in collaboration. LYNC’s three-year program aims to create a bottom-up request for religious law reforms in Kazakhstan and this milestone marks the mid-point of the strategy. The achieved progress in building religious freedom is fragile and requires the recognition and support from the international community and the United States government to continue its momentum.
Multi-Faith Relationship Building
Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy
Religion in the Public Square
The U.S. State Departments’ 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Kazakhstan, highlights the cooperation between LYNC and Kazakhstan’s Committee of Religious Affairs (CRA).
Over the years, LYNC has actively engaged CRA delegates from the six Kazakh regions with invitations to training and one-on-one meetings. Slowly, LYNC demonstrated relationship-building and the advantages of building bridges, the tenets of Covenantal Pluralism in everyday language, and examples in local context.
Through incremental exposure, these delegates returned to their regions, spread the word, and created conversation at the higher central government level, including the Security Council. This report marked the first time LYNC’s efforts were named, and highlighted CRA’s successful engagement.
As a result of this work, on social media, the embassy engaged in outreach to urge respect for religious freedom, the report says.
Since the first military invasion in 2014, LYNC has mobilized resources and its network to provide critical aid to those who need it the most. In early 2022, LYNC assisted in evacuating over 4,000 Ukrainians and is now working in-country to care for refugees, women, children, and the elderly affected by war. Our latest partnerships in Ukraine focuses on providing humanitarian aid, housing, and trauma-healing therapy to internally displaced Ukrainians affected by the ongoing attacks.