St. Anthony Messenger: Building Peace in a Nation Divided

I remember when I realized a new age of discourse was upon us. 

It was mid-November 2016. A contentious election had resulted in the unexpected. And now, as the holidays approached, there was much talk in the progressive circles in which I ran about how to navigate the clashing of political opinions at the Thanksgiving table. Many concluded that the most healthy response might be to simply not attend their family’s annual dinner to protect their own mental and emotional health. Of course, I didn’t know each person’s unique situation, but I was nonetheless stunned each time I heard about politics interfering with close relationships. 

I grew up west of Indianapolis with a cornfield in our backyard. I was surrounded by a loving extended family who were all from rural, conservative communities. I’d return home for the holidays and see our neighbor proudly flying his red and white “Make America Great Again” flag and smell the stench of nearby cattle, which I found strangely refreshing amid my city life in Charlotte, North Carolina. That same neighbor always brought us fruit and vegetables from his garden, and, in the years following the sudden passing of my mother, would check up constantly on my dad. But now I was supposed to look at him as morally inferior because of his political leanings? 

Ideas in my family were always treated as a playground, something for goofing around about at recess before getting back to class, which is to say learning to love more fully. Sometimes there’d be an occasional scuffle on the playground, but it was all in good fun, and then it was back to the classroom. What mattered was our hearts, not our minds; our commitment to each other, not our ideas; our experiences together, not our differing opinions. Ideas could not hurt us—they were for play, debate, sharpening each other....

Read the remainder of my cover story in the St. Anthony Messenger here.

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