Grove City College center wins Templeton award

Staff report

grove city, pa.

The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College has won a 2010 Templeton Freedom Award for Excellence in Promoting Liberty, in the category of “Special Achievement by a University-based Center.”

Instituted in the fall of 2003, and named after the late philanthropist and pioneering investor Sir John Marks Templeton, the Templeton Freedom Awards were the result of a partnership between the John Templeton Foundation and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which administers the prize.

“We’re humbled that two organizations we respect so much, Templeton and Atlas, would honor The Center for Vision & Values with this award,” said Paul Kengor, center executive director.

“They represent the very nexus of our work: combining freedom and faith. Both freedom and faith are reinforcing, and at the crux of humanity’s efforts to better this world. To borrow from Tocqueville, despotism can govern without faith and freedom, but democracies cannot. That’s what we believe at The Center for Vision & Values. We are pleased that Templeton and Atlas respect our work. We hope to continue to merit their appreciation.”

As the largest international prize program of its kind, during the past seven years the Templeton Freedom Awards have distributed more than $1.5 million in grants and prizes to think tanks that contribute to the advancement and understanding of freedom.

A panel of independent and distinguished judges selected this year’s winners from a field of 132 institutions from 48 countries. Of those candidates, two winners were chosen in each of eight categories.

“Like the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, we believe religious, political and economic freedom are essential to improving the human condition,” said Lee Wishing, the administrative director of the center.

“We’re thankful and humbled that Atlas, a longtime partner in our work, has recognized the center with a Templeton Freedom Award for its work — work that we feel reflects the historic mission of Grove City College and the vision of the center, which is to become an education resource for the United States of America and the world beyond regarding the transforming power of individual freedom grounded in Christian faith.”

Cory Shreckengost, the center’s media relations manager, agreed.

“A champion of faith, freedom, humility and open-minded inquiry, Sir John Marks Templeton has always been a personal hero of mine,” Shreckengost said.

“I can honestly say that very few people have had such a profound impact on forging my world view as Sir John. For the center to have won this award from Atlas, under the mantle of Templeton’s philanthropic vision, is a genuine honor. It’s apt that our directors have expressed not just gratitude — but also humility — in accepting this prize as the center strives to emulate the ‘humble approach’ made famous by Sir John through his motto: ‘How little we know, how eager to learn.’”

The Atlas Foundation’s news release on the 2010 winners cites the center as having “won for producing and distributing 179 opinion editorials during 2009-2010 and generating 1,550 known media placements, including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and the National Review Online.”

The announcement also highlights the center’s events and activities: “The center conducts annual two-day conferences as well as a monthly evening dessert lecture called Freedom Readers.