Politics of the heart

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Parker Palmer reflected recently: “When all our talk about politics is either technical or strategic, to say nothing of partisan and polarizing, we loosen or sever the human connections on which empathy, accountability, and democracy itself depend. If we cannot talk about politics in the language of the heart – if we cannot be heartbroken, for example, that the wealthiest nation on earth is unable to summon the political will to end childhood hunger at home – how can we create a politics worthy of the human spirit, one that has a chance to serve the common good?”

A question that I have asked myself and my colleagues often in recent months is: What can our faith communities do to aid healthy conversation about issues that affect us as a nation? By healthy I mean respectful issue-based conversations that can unite our efforts to seek the common good and not further polarize us as a nation. 

I have no illusions that this is a tremendous assignment and I am not suggesting that our faith communities have all the answers or expertise to solve complicated and persistent world problems.  

But can our faith traditions and communities be places, as Parker Palmer implies, where we reconnect to our heart wisdom and spiritual maturity? Can Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Native spirituality, and other world religions still help us to be human enough to have respectful honest conversations and make us humane enough to create a politics worthy of the human spirit? 

Far too often fear and hate have been disguised in religious language. To my knowledge no major religion suggests we are to hate or fear others simply because they are different from us.  

No world religion, to my knowledge, suggests violence or greed should be guiding principles. But there are some in our nation who, with religious fervor, promote hate, fear, violence, and greed as solutions to the world’s problems.

We can do better. I still believe Jesus meant it when he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” I pray our faith traditions and communities can be part of the solution and help our world create a politics worthy of the human spirit.