Spring Arbor University announced the naming of the new Wagner Faith & Freedom Center, housed on SAU’s campus in Spring Arbor, Michigan, during a dedication ceremony earlier this month. The Spring Arbor Foundation received funding to establish the center in 2021, in large part due to naming gifts from Lois Mol and Jim and Debra Mol, as well as additional gifts from other generous donors. The Wagner Faith & Freedom Center is led by Distinguished Chair Prof. William Wagner, whom the Mol family chose to name the center after in recognition of his many years dedicated to preserving the free exercise of religious conscience on behalf of Christian people.
As part of the SAU Foundation, the vision and goal of the Wagner Faith & Freedom Center is to address the significant societal challenges facing the nation and world today by preserving freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The center’s work focuses on the following:
Preserving the inviolable and sacred dignity and worth of all human beings
Cultivating civility, despite deep ideological and religious differences
Creating a global public square where the free exercise of religion engages the marketplace of ideas, free from coercive censorship
Ensuring peace, good governance, stability, prosperity, charity, truth, justice, and the freedom to educate
Preventing tyranny and standing in defiance against secular state totalitarianism and religious state authoritarianism
Equipping the next generation to engage the culture to preserve and protect freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
“Here, and around the world, the Wagner Faith & Freedom Center will leave a legacy of preserving freedom of thought, conscience, and religion – equipping the next generation to contend for truth, justice, and liberty with the heart of Jesus,” said Wagner.
Learn more and read the full press release from Spring Arbor University here.