Executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., J. Brent Walker, will speak on religious freedom and the separation of church and state, as part of the Shurden Lectures at Stetson University. These lectures, sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and Stetson University, are open to the public, free of charge. All lectures will be held in the Stetson Room, second floor of the Carlton Union Building, 131 E. Minnesota Ave., on the DeLand campus.

“First Principles: God-given, but government protected” is the topic for Walker’s lecture, 5 p.m., Tuesday, April 9. “First Freedoms: Accommodate religion, but don’t advance it” is the title of the second lecture, 3 p.m., Wednesday, April 10. “Religion and Politics: How did we do in 2012?” is the topic for the third lecture, 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 10.

Walker, a 1976 honors graduate of the Stetson University College of Law, is an ordained minister and member of the Supreme Court Bar and the Bar of the District of Columbia. He was recognized by the Stetson Lawyers Association as a distinguished alumnus in 2009. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Florida.

Walker was a partner in the Tampa law office of Carlton Fields, but left the practice in 1986 to earn a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has served the cause of religious liberty as an advocate for the separation of church and state in our nation’s capital since 1989. He has been published widely, and he regularly provides commentary in the national media. Walker has been quoted by numerous national publications and has appeared on CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and National Public Radio. His latest book, Church-State Matters: Fighting for Religious Liberty in the Nation’s Capital, is available from Mercer University Press or from popular online book retailers.

The Shurden Lectures, named after Drs. Walter and Kay Shurden, are designed to educate students regarding separation of church and state, and to enhance the programs of the Baptist Joint Committee. The lectures are held at Mercer University every three years and at another seminary, college or university the other years. This year the lectures will be held at Stetson University.

For further information about these lectures, please contact Stetson professor of religious studies Gregory Sapp at (386) 822-8930, or [email protected]. As Stetson’s Hal S. Marchman Chair of Civic and Social Responsibility, Sapp is director of Stetson’s Shurden Lectures.