The 2025 Keston Center Fall Conversation Features H. Knox Thames and Joanne Cummings on Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom
On Thursday, October 23, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. in the Schumacher Flex Commons of Moody Memorial Library, the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society welcomes International Human Rights Lawyer and author H. Knox Thames to discuss topics from his recent publication, Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, in conversation with Baylor Adjunct Professor of Political Science and Retired State Department Officer, Joanne Cummings. This conversation is free and open to the public. A time for audience Q&A, availability of lunch snacks, and a book signing will be included in the conversation.
“Almost daily, news reports detail incidents of religious persecution, and millions cannot freely worship. Some encounter discrimination while others face punishing force, including death. Is there a path forward to end the crisis?” said Kathy Hillman, Associate Professor and Director of the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society. “In the Keston Center’s Fall Conversation, Knox Thames and Joanne Cummings each bring decades of experience to the topic in what promises to be a sobering dialogue of challenge and hope.”
Thames’ research exposes the harsh reality of religious repression in some of the world’s most oppressive countries in the Middle East and Asia (i.e. China, Burma, Pakistan, Nepal, India, etc.) by arguing that the United States must revitalize its approach and recommit to ending oppression by supporting coalition building and interfaith tolerance to help the persecuted in the twenty-first century.
“A pandemic of religious persecution impacts every faith community somewhere, as Christians face persecution on account of their faith, along with millions of others holding different beliefs. I wrote Ending Persecution to define the problem and chart a path forward for policymakers and citizens, drawing on my 20 years of U.S. government service. I hope readers will recognize that ending religious persecution is both a moral imperative and a strategic necessity,” said Thames.
Thames earned his juris doctorate from American University’s Washington College of Law and his master's in International Affairs from the American University’s School of International Service. His undergraduate degree is from Georgetown College, and his wife Shelley Smith Thames is a 1996 Baylor University graduate. Alongside his work as an International Human Rights Lawyer, he serves as a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University. Thames served as the State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Middle East and South/Central Asia for over twenty years, spanning the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. He has previously published articles in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, ForeignPolicy.com, and the Small Wars Journal.
As the daughter of a diplomat, Cummings was raised in Lebanon, lived in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, finished high school in Tehran, Iran, and graduated from university in Beirut, Lebanon before gaining her masters from the University of Texas at Austin. She was recently the Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) to CJTF-OIR, based in Baghdad, serving extensively in the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa. In the Department of State and in the private sector, she has worked in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Jerusalem, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Ethiopia, and Micronesia as well as nine years working regionally from Morocco through Pakistan. Cummings was previously Deputy Chief of Mission in the Federated States of Micronesia. Among her earlier Foreign Service positions are Pol/Econ Section Chief, Refugee Coordinator, Economic Section Chief, POLAD (JSOC and MND-S), Political Officer, and Consular Officer.
The 2025 Keston Center Fall Conversation is proudly presented by the Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society and sponsored by the Baylor Libraries, the Department of Political Science, and Baylor Missions, Service, and Public Life.
The Keston Center for Religion, Politics, and Society seeks to be a voice of the voiceless by promoting research, teaching, and understanding of religion and religious persecution as the Center preserves, expands, and makes available the Keston Archives and Library, the world’s most comprehensive artificially assembled collection of materials on religious persecution under communist and other totalitarian regimes.
For more information about the 2025 Keston Center Fall Conversation, contact Kathy Hillman by email at kathy_hillman@baylor.edu, or by phone at (254) 710-6684, or visit https://library.web.baylor.edu/kestonevents.