Inclusive America Project

The Inclusive America Project, launched by the Aspen Institute in 2012, is a high-level project building and sustaining the field of religious pluralism.

The American idea is rooted in a vision that people from varied religious and ethnic backgrounds can unite to create a single nation: E Pluribus Unum. Consistent with that idea, the Inclusive America Project envisions a thriving American religious pluralism, where everyone has the rights, freedoms, and safety to worship, or not, according to their conscience.

What is Religious Pluralism and Why is it Important?

Religious pluralism is a vision of the world in which diverse religious communities and non-believers engage each other in beneficial ways, maintain their distinct identities, and thrive and defend each others’ right to thrive.

The first clause of the First Amendment encapsulates an ideal of American religious freedom amid a recognition of American religious diversity. Today, that ideal is challenged from many sides. Distrust between and about faith communities is increasing and exacerbating polarization. Hate crime rates are soaring, and targets include both minority and majority religious communities.

If diversity is merely the presence of difference, however, pluralism is the thriving engagement of it. With over 75% of Americans claiming a religious affiliation, one asset we know brings us together is the strength of our incredibly diverse faith communities. Religion can be a force for positive social change, enabling us to understand ourselves and our relationship to one another. This is not just a nice idea; it is critical to the health of our democracy. Understanding and engaging faith communities and building bridges across difference is absolutely necessary to maintaining a strong civil society and a strong democracy.

To make our vision of a thriving religious pluralism a reality, the Inclusive America Project is creating a national infrastructure of sustained networks and shared learnings across sectors.

We do this by:

  • Building intellectual frameworks and resources that articulate the concept of pluralism, and how various faith-based and secular organizations engage with pluralism;
  • Leveraging our convening power to create a national infrastructure to foster multi-stakeholder and cross-sector connections with thought leaders, funders, practitioners, and academics in order to build and sustain the field of engagement with religious pluralism; and
  • Serving as the backbone organization to the Religious Pluralism Funders Circle (RPFC), a funders roundtable and collaborative.

Inclusive America Project History

    Posts, Publications, & Events

      Initiatives

      • Religious Pluralism Funders Circle

        The Religious Pluralism Funders Circle (RPFC) has the high-level goals of connecting funders to one another, educating funders on current thinking and practice related to religious pluralism through engagement with academics and practitioners in the field, and encouraging funders to collaborate and co-invest in religious pluralism. We believe that if local and national funders have knowledge of religious literacy and pluralism and connections between themselves and people working in the field and academia, then they will have the knowledge and resources needed to scale impact in the field of religious pluralism.

      • The Politics of Vulnerability

        The Politics of Vulnerability and the Threat to Religion and Religious Freedom, led by IAP Fellow and religious freedom scholar Asma Uddin, is bringing Evangelical Christians and Muslims together to determine the parameters of co-existence using the legal framework of religious freedom.

      • Landscape Analysis

        The Landscape Analysis of Funding in and around Religious Pluralism, in partnership with Public Religion Research Institute and the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, is producing a study of philanthropic contributions in and around the various fields of religious pluralism. A first of its kind, this study will provide a benchmark for future growth in funding in religious pluralism.

      • Senior Fellows for Religious Pluralism

        The Senior Fellows for Religious Pluralism program is established jointly by The Inclusive America Project and Interfaith Youth Core. Fellows in the inaugural program include recently retired senior college administrators, foundation heads, and other sector leaders with track records of concrete commitment to religious pluralism in higher education. They will work over the next two years to implement strategic ideas that advance religious pluralism across multiple dimensions of higher education and beyond. IFYC and IAP will gather the Senior Fellows one or two times per year for substantive and programmatic discussions related to issues of identity and religious diversity in higher education and related spheres.

        Resources from the Field