About Us

Who We Are
The mission of the Center for American Values in Public Life is to advance bold progressive ideas rooted in fundamental American moral and religious values.  The Center achieves this goal through rigorous research and analysis, innovative message testing, and movement-building collaboration. 

The Center brings to its work creative thinking and a deep understanding of American moral and religious traditions. As a nonpartisan educational and research project founded by the People for the American Way Foundation, the Center is a collaborative partner in building progressive intellectual infrastructure and advancing the progressive movement. 

What We’re About
Progressives provided unwavering moral leadership in the Civil Rights movement, but in recent years have been ineffective in articulating an inspiring vision and a convincing set of moral and religious values that can unite us.  At the same time, we have had to contend with the increasingly divisive use of religion by well-funded and organized extremists on the Christian Right. 

An African American minister in one of our focus groups explained that he thought progressives had decided to avoid all religious or even moral language in order to protect the separation of church and state.  He could not have been plainer about what he thought about that strategy; he said, “It is not going to work.”  We agree.  Rather than retreating from our deeply-held values, the Center is dedicated to developing and strengthening a message of a bold, inspiring new direction for America that is based on widely-shared values.

What We’re Doing
We realize that such a bold mission requires a long-term commitment and the broadest possible resources.  We have developed an innovative methodology that brings together human insight and cutting-edge research, movement building and analysis.  This process synthesizes a large set of survey data with rich qualitative data, including focus groups and in-depth interviews.  With a network of expert partners, we are developing and testing compelling progressive messages and innovative communications strategies.  We make these findings available to progressives at all levels who want to talk about religion and values in ways that unite rather than divide those they serve.

The Center’s work strengthens and extends the People for the American Way Foundation’s central mission.  The PFAW Foundation was founded over 25 years ago to challenge the divisive distortions of our rich religious and moral traditions and to promote the democratic values and constitutional principles that sustain a free, just, and diverse society.  With the increasing power of the extreme Religious Right and its political allies, this work is even more vital today than it was at the PFAW Foundation’s inception.