(The Pew Charitable Trusts) — America’s 250th anniversary is a time to commemorate the country’s formation and the democratic ideals on which it was founded.

This milestone also serves as an important time to reflect on who we are as a country, including the values we uphold and how we engage with one another. Our nation’s founders pioneered a government system that has, with varying degrees of success, enabled people of diverse faith traditions to live out their convictions and freely express their beliefs. 

Religious pluralism is the understanding of and appreciation for diverse religious beliefs — including none at all — and the willingness to engage respectfully and productively with people who have different convictions and worldviews. This concept is a natural extension of the founders’ commitment to protect religious diversity. Religious pluralism also serves as the basis for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ religion work to support programs that promote pluralism while building an evidence base for approaches that achieve it.

Read the original article at The Pew Charitable Trusts that features Interfaith America’s programs and research including: 

• Interfaith America’s aim to foster healthy engagement across religious differences through the Team Up Project, a collaboration with Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International, and YMCA of the USA. 
• Interfaith, Spiritual, Religious, and Secular (INSPIRES) Index, designed to measure efforts to accommodate diverse worldviews in higher education.