Preaching to both sides of religious aisle in Age of Trump

image from

Yong Kim, philly.com

Excerpt:

Earlier this year, the Interfaith Center’s Religious Leaders Council hosted a seminar for clergy at United Lutheran Seminary in Mount Airy (formerly Lutheran Theological Seminary) to discuss the challenge of ministering to such a divided nation. About 180 religious leaders attended[.] ...

Some said they had discovered that their congregations were more divided than they had thought, with Trump and Clinton supporters popping up in unlikely places. Some realized an uncomfortable fact: Their personal views varied substantially from those of most of the people in their congregation.

The Rev. Keith Anderson of Upper Dublin Lutheran Church found pain in the political divides in his congregation. Since the campaign, some families had been so torn apart by the intensity of their differences that members confided to their pastor that they felt cut off from those they love.

So Anderson took on the role of healer-in chief. He organized a series of seminars and brought in a facilitator trained at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] to teach conversation skills that would help people communicate and understand the complexity of “why they believe what they believe,” he said. He also brought in the social action group POWER to discuss the role of faith in public life. ...