Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

This week I am thinking a lot about perspective. A friend of mine recently started an online community where he is trying to bring together people who are politically conservative with people who are politically liberal (and everywhere in between) to have productive and friendly conversation. It's a big ask, in our current environment, and my friend doesn't expect the road to be easy. I accepted his invitation to have a look at what is happening in these online discussions, and was reminded again of how easy it is to only look at one perspective: the one I agree with. 

One of the things that emerged very quickly in this curated online community was that most people only got news and political information from sources that were already biased toward the views they have. We are learning, more and more, that our social media feeds are also echo chambers, feeding most of us content that the algorithms think we will click on (or, agree with). This means that there are very few places where we can come together with people who don't share our biases for conversation, much less community. (For a sobering look at just how dramatically different people's facebook feeds can be based on political preference or affiliation, check out Blue Feed, Red Feed by the Wall Street Journal.)

For me, this is where church community can come in. We are not in community together because we agree politically. We are in community together because we belong to God, and seek to follow Jesus. This means that for us as Christians, there is a higher calling than the urge to fall in line with a particular political tribe. It means that whenever we encounter other human beings our first job is to love them. Now, this doesn't mean we shouldn't have political opinions, or participate with enthusiasm as citizens of our nation - far from it! But it does mean that our perspective should be different, and always skew toward compassion, kindness, and love.

Last week several St. C's folks gathered to begin a conversation on Civil Discourse at our Sunday Adult Forum. The question this gathering hopes to resource is this: how does our Christian faith equip us to have civil conversations around issues upon which we disagree? This is a gathering open to anyone, and will continue over the next four weeks on Sunday mornings at 9am. 

It is always helpful to understand more than one perspective. Our Scriptures give us multiple perspectives on God, four different versions of the life and ministry of Jesus, and represents the voices of hundreds of God's people over the span of thousands of years. As we head into the next couple of years of political discourse and struggle in our nation, let's remember that we follow a faith that values multiple perspectives, and a God who created us to be diverse. And let's start figuring out how to live with and care for people with whom we disagree here, in this church and in this place, right now.

I am so grateful to be on this journey with you.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa