Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director J. Brent Walker met Monday with nine officials from the Saudi Ministry of Education as part of a U.S. State Department project to explore the nature of religious and public secondary education in the United States.
As part of its program, the delegation is examining religious and ethnic diversity in the United States, as well as the relationship between government authority and religious practices, including the nature of involvement by government in operations of religious educational institutions.
During its visit to the BJC's office on Capitol Hill, Walker presented background on the First Amendment's religion clauses that guarantee the free exercise of religion while prohibiting the government's establishment of religion. Walker also provided background on the diversity of religious views in the United States, including a discussion of the Baptist denomination and its historical belief in religious liberty and church-state separation.
While in Washington, D.C., the delegation is scheduled to visit government agencies and other private-sector organizations to gain a better understanding of American education and values behind it. The delegation will also visit Kansas City, Chicago and Raleigh, N.C.
For more photos of the visit, visit the BJC's Flickr Photostream.
