BOCA RATON, Fla. (September 7, 2006) Paula Johnson will be keeping some pretty prestigious company when she arrives at the Montreal Convention Center on Monday to give a presentation on "Religion and the Media" at the Global Congress on World’s Religions After September 11th - an international event drawing more than 700 delegates from around the globe.
A noted religion writer and assistant to the Dean of the College of Business and Management at Lynn University, Johnson will be among an elite group of religious scholars presenting at the event, which lasts through Friday, September 15. The Congress is billed as a show of support and understanding among diverse religions that will culminate with the endorsement of a United Nations-style declaration on human and religious rights. The declaration is expected to be endorsed by a number of eminent scholars and public figures including four Nobel Laureates for Peace: His Holiness, The Dalai Lama; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Bishop Belo of Timor Leste; and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, who will be in attendance along with author Deepak Chopra.
"The point is to educate the world about the diversity of faiths," says Johnson of the Congress, which is being sponsored by The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religion’s and Montreal’s McGill University. "The idea that religion is an obstacle to world peace is really just an illusion."
For her part, the Lynn University alumna and current Master’s candidate in Mass Communication will be talking specifically about the media’s role in shaping the general public’s opinion about major world religions and marginalized belief systems. To her point, Johnson will focus her presentation (entitled "A Pagan By Any Other Name: The Rhetoric of Nature Religion in the Media") on the high profile case of deceased U.S. Army Sergeant Patrick Stewart, a practicing Wiccan who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2005.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) has refused to include Sgt. Stewart’s religious symbol of affiliation on an outdoor memorial in his home state of Nevada. Johnson has closely studied the case and followed the rhetoric used by both the V.A. and major news outlets (including CNN, MSNBC and the Washington Post).
For more information on the World Congress, visit www.mcgill.ca. To schedule an interview with Johnson regarding her research or the Congress itself, please schedule contact through the Marketing & Communication office at Lynn University.
Contact:
Jason Hughes
Director of Media Relations
Lynn University
3601 North Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431-5598
Tel: (561) 237-7761
Cell: (561) 212-2924
Fax: (561) 237-7796