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How to bridge our political divide? A pastor's answer: Do unto others
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Over the last few years and through this year's contentious campaign season, which was rooted in America's deep divisions, there has been a coarsening in the way people talk to each other. We wanted to explore how some are trying to bridge divides. We asked our reporters across the NPR Network to look for examples of people working through their differences. We're sharing those stories in our series Seeking Common Ground.
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — Campaign lawn signs rarely bring people together from opposite sides of the political fence. But in the lead-up to Election Day, some purple-colored ones in this Pittsburgh suburb did just that.
The signs are an attempt to transcend America's bitter divisions. Instead of touting a candidate, the signs promoted a value: the Bible's Golden Rule.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the signs read.
Christ United Methodist Church here in Bethel Park distributed the lawn signs free in advance of Election Day as part of what Pastor Chris Morgan calls a movement for kindness, which included a handful of sermons and hundreds of purple "Do Unto Others" T-shirts. He says he got the idea from Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist church in the country, located in the Kansas City, Mo., area.
Morgan — parishioners call him Pastor Chris — says his congregation is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. He drafted a sermon series to give his flock some spiritual tools to help them navigate the country's divisions, November's election results and beyond.
"We wanted to remind our people that no matter what happened, whether Trump won or Harris won, our job as followers of Christ is to remember that God's bigger than all of this," says Pastor Chris, who is 49. "Our call as followers of Christ is to show people kindness and respect and love and humility and compassion, no matter what."
Christ Church offers four services each weekend, drawing about 1,000 people in person and online. Sunday's contemporary services — where people dress casually and sing modern music — feature a crack rock band in which Pastor Chris occasionally plays keyboards.
In July, after planning for the sermon series was well underway, political violence hit close to home. Then-candidate Donald Trump was nearly killed by a rooftop shooter during a campaign event in Butler, about 40 miles north of here.
"It had a pretty big impact on the congregation because the person that made the attempt lived two and a half blocks from here," Pastor Chris recalls.
Parishioners at Christ Church say the "Do Unto Others" lawn signs have sparked conversations that might not otherwise have occurred. Tommy Longenecker, an avid Trump supporter, was blowing leaves last month when he spotted one of the signs in the yard of his next-door neighbor, Bob Lewis, a Harris supporter and member of Christ Church. Longenecker walked over and read the Bible passage.
"I really like your sign," said Longenecker, who is 56 and a nonpracticing Catholic.
Longenecker said the Do Unto Others message resonated because people had repeatedly torn down his Trump signs — including one that measured 8 feet by 4 feet.
The two men have been neighbors for nearly eight years, but this was the first time they'd really talked about their faith.
"I like the fact that we can still get along and not be hateful and mean to each other," Lewis, 70, recalls Longenecker saying.
Some parishioners say the Do Unto Others message has helped them manage relationships with people who have different views.
"I'm engaging with my significant other much differently," says parishioner Patti Goyette.
Goyette recalled one sermon where Pastor Chris spoke about becoming stranded on a long bike ride because he hadn't had enough to eat or drink. The sermon was a turning point for Goyette, who questioned whether she was doing enough to nourish her relationship. She said she changed her approach.
"I haven't gone into a confrontation with a higher heart rate and clenched muscles," says Goyette, 50, who works for a local riverboat company. "I listen and I hear, and when you do that, people stop yelling and start talking and it makes a difference."
While some parishioners found the Do Unto Others program helpful, others had reservations. Tony Reda, who ushers at one of the church services, thinks the sermon series encouraged people to express their political opinions.
"I felt like going to church was an hour of peace and quiet and trying to be closer to Christ," says Reda, 61. "I felt like that sermon series was bringing politics into the church."
Reda, who works as an insurance broker, says some in the congregation openly criticized Trump, which he found especially disturbing following Trump's near assassination.
"There's people that are flat-out saying, 'I can't believe they missed,'" Reda recalled.
If Reda thought the sermon series went too far, Stephanie White, a mother of two, thought it didn't go far enough. She's a big fan of Pastor Chris but wishes the church had called out Trump for what she says is hateful rhetoric. Failing to do so, White says, creates a false equivalence.
White has no illusions about the Democratic Party's shortcomings. "But can we also talk about the terrible things that Trump says?" she said during an after-service coffee hour. "The reaction you get [from some Republicans] is 'It's both sides. It's both sides.'"
White says she is concerned about what the next four years could mean for friends who are transgender or people of color.
"It's just a lot of emotions packed into a really small piece of time," she said as she cried. "And it's very scary what could happen."
Pastor Chris knows it's challenging to lead a big-tent church in such fraught times. He says the Do Unto Others program isn't about calling out sides or making statements about anyone's morality.
"Outside of the pulpit, I personally will stand up for what I think is right and what I think is wrong, and I have done those things," Pastor Chris says. "My job as a pastor when I am preaching is to help people grow in their faith and become as much like Jesus as we can."
Pastor Chris says a key to the campaign for kindness is to recognize we can't control what others say or do, but we can control how we respond.
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