LOTZ RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AWARD
Denton Lotz, former general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), received the International Award for Religious Liberty on
Thursday, June 18, in Washington, DC, in the United States.
Lotz, who was named General Secretary Emeritus upon his retirement from the BWA in 2007, was awarded for making “religious
freedom a major focus of his ministry as church leader and church statesman,” at the 7th Annual Religious Liberty Dinner, which was
sponsored by Liberty magazine, the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
In his response, Lotz, who is president of the IRLA, stated that the award was recognition of the role that Baptists have played in the
defense of religious liberty since the founding of the Baptist movement 400 years ago, in 1609. Baptists, he said, were often persecuted
because of their anti-establishment stance and their defense of the liberty of conscience. “Baptists were a persecuted group,” he told
the roughly 300 guests gathered in the ballroom of the Capital Hilton hotel in Washington. “We believe that where religious freedom is
denied, all other freedoms are denied,” he explained.
Keynote speaker for the dinner was Emanuel Cleaver, II, United States Congressman from Kansas City in the state of Missouri, and
co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Caucus in the US Congress. “Religious freedom is a God-given gift, a sacred right,” said
Cleaver, an ordained United Methodist Church minister and the first African American elected as mayor of Kansas City. “Everyone has
the right to freedom of thought, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, yet persecutions and atrocities are still taking place,”
Cleaver stated.
David Saperstein, Jewish rabbi and Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, received the National Award for
Religious Liberty. Saperstein was elected the first chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in 1999, which was
created by an act of Congress in 1998. He was recently named to the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood
Partnerships.
Alan Reinach, Director of the Church State Council and President of the North American Religious Liberty Association-West, re-
ceived the A.T. Jones Medal for representing employees who have suffered religious discrimination.
PHOTO: Denton Lotz receives the International Award for Religious Liberty from John Graz, Secretary-General of the International
Religious Liberty Association
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Assistant Editor: Lauren Weaver, E-mail: lauren@bwanet.org
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BWA OFFICERS
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BWA EXECUTIVE STAFF
Patsy Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Women
Emmett Dunn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Youth and Congress
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Paul Montacute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BWAid
Ellen Teague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finance/Administration
Kathe Traynham . . . . . . . . . . . Promotion and Development
Fausto Vasconcelos . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evangelism/Research
BWA REGIONAL SECRETARIES
Harrison Olan’g (Interim) . . . . . All Africa Baptist Fellowship
Tony Peck . . . . . . . . . . . . . European Baptist Federation
Peter Pinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Caribbean Baptist Fellowship
Alberto Prokopchuk . . . . Union of Baptists in Latin America
P. Bonny Resu . . . . . . . . . . Asian Pacific Baptist Federation
Vacant . . . . . . . . . . . North American Baptist Fellowship
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