Days of Difficult Conversations

Contributed By: Stephen Wickman, St. Thomas Episcopal

Earlier this summer, I was blessed to attend a reunion on the Eastern Shore.  Unfortunately, while there, I got into two heated conversations about politics—one with the husband of a friend of 60 years and the other with a total stranger in a bar. While I was away, I missed the wise words of our Deacon in training from the pulpit.  You can read the full text of her message HERE. And, upon returning, I received in my inbox a wonderful podcast interview with Krista Tibbit that was hosted by Sarah Jones and offers a hopeful way to approach these difficult conversations.  (It’s entitled: “Are You There God with Krista Tippet.”  A link to the recording and transcript can be found HERE.)

Our Deacon, Mary Cushing, offers practical advice. We should “recognize that every single person we encounter is a beloved child of God, even the person who most raises our political hackles. That doesn’t mean we can’t disagree. It doesn’t mean that we need to be silent. What it does mean is that the way we engage needs to be the way of Jesus: the way of love….extending others some grace. In non-church-y words, that means giving them the benefit of the doubt. People in ‘the other’ political camp probably aren’t loony or brainwashed. For the most part, they arrived at their positions the same way ‘we’ did, by a thoughtful process.”

Krista observes: “[I]f we can overcome our very unreasonable desire that people be simple, and we can just decide their one thing or the other and dismiss them or call them our friend, then we could say, okay, you believe this one thing that really feels, can even feel harmful to my identity and harmful to our world. And yet here’s this thing that we are both passionate about, that is good for our world. Can we at least be in conversation or even some kind of partnership around that?”

We at Tysons Interfaith are working with Dr. Al Fuertes of George Mason University on a webinar to be held October 6, right in the middle of a heated election season, to talk about how our spiritual side or our religious traditions can help bridge these emotional divisions. Please put this date on your calendar and join us in conversation.

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.