A hate crime at church last summer led a congregation through anger and grief to a new echelon of compassion. Being upset at the condition of the world doesn’t mean writing off other people.

A contemporary backlash against civil rights progress keeps coursing through the land, yet Sojourner Truth’s reminder, “No, God is not dead,” still resounds.

The question is whether democracy can survive a culture of purposeless acceleration without the habits of religious faith as a counterweight—a sense of mortal self-restraint, transcendent imagination, and a quality of listening that make it possible to live nonviolently together.

The spiraling temptation to keep doomscrolling can be defused by a counter-commitment to heart-soothing daily routines and physical-world connections.

By starting from a place of common concern, congregationally oriented local activism discovers common-sense solutions that most of us want to see, even across partisan lines, and without compromising values.

If we’re going to salvage democracy, we have no choice but to get to know each other better. This will mean depleting the power of demonization and disinformation over our lives.

Nearly four centuries after his death, Roger Williams is enjoying a contemporary moment. The life of this early American prophet of religious liberty offers inspiration to spiritual seekers who dissent from politicized religion in post-denominational America.

With its beginnings in the 19^th century, the Black social gospel tradition became the moral epicenter of American religious thought and politics in the 20^th century, and it remains so in the 21^st. The future of America’s spiritual politics depends on it.

Without the ability to understand and manage our emotions, and to connect with others on that level, we’re setting ourselves up for deeper division, more bewilderment, and more panic. That’s where emotional intelligence comes in.