Religious Freedom in the Crosshairs (with Ken Starr and Thomas Farr)

In this episode, Sean and Scott talk with Judge Ken Starr and Dr. Thomas Farr about the state of religious liberty today in America and beyond. How concerned should Christians be? What big issues are on the horizon? And how can Christians respond? Starr and Farr bring remarkable perspective and wisdom for thoughtful Christians today. 

Thomas Farr is President of the Religious Freedom Institute and Director of the Religious Freedom Research Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center. He is associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and World Affairs at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.  

A senior fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, and at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., Farr received a B.A. from Mercer University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.  

Dr. Farr served for 28 years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Foreign Service. In 1999 he became the first director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom. He subsequently directed the Witherspoon Institute's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Task Force, was a member of the Chicago World Affairs Council’s Task Force on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy, and served on the Secretary of State’s IRF working group. 


Ken Starr has had a distinguished career in academia, the law and public service. For six years, he served as the 14th president of Baylor University. He served as both President and Chancellor for three of those years. He currently is practicing law, writing articles of interest and serving as a guest commentator for various news programs.  

Ken has argued 36 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including 25 cases during his service as Solicitor General of the United States from 1989-93. He served as United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989, as law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger from 1975 to 1977, and as law clerk to Fifth Circuit Judge David W. Dyer from 1973 to 1974. He was appointed to serve as Independent Counsel for five investigations, including Whitewater, from 1994 to 1999.  

Judge Starr previously taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law and was a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University School of Law and Chapman Law School. After graduating from San Antonio's Sam Houston High School, he earned his B.A. from George Washington University in 1968, his M.A. from Brown University in 1969 and his J.D. degree from Duke University Law School in 1973. He is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, Virginia and the United States Supreme Court.   

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Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture is a podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, which offers degrees both online and on campus in Southern California.

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