The Spirit is moving in amazing ways in America these days. Watching the Democratic National Convention last week was like attending a summer revival and a national retreat on why living from faith, hope and love lead to joy! I have been away at the beach and was planning to take this week off and share a post a friend wrote that seems so relevant to our national discourse and election. Instead, I was so moved by my experience of the convention that I want to try to express my notions on what follows this amazing show of unity and love.

We were repeatedly exhorted, by experienced and not-so-experienced American leaders at the convention, to take action to ensure our shared values and this rare moment of unity and clarity endure and lead to lasting change. We were asked, invited and strongly encouraged to speak up for our values, to stand actively and clearly against the voices of darkness, hate, and fear. 

For some, this is simple and their next actions are quite clear. For me, and I suspect many others, we would welcome some guidance on how to proceed. In my recent blog entries, I have been writing about one outreach effort important to me: engaging Catholics and Christian Evangelicals who may have consciously or unconsciously become part of an organized Christian Nationalist movement that is neither Christian nor a movement that advances the values of Jesus or liberty and justice for all. 

 Watching the convention reminded me there is a “both/and” invitation: Reach out to Catholics and other Christians I know and talk about values and concerns about what direction our country chooses at this turning point, and reach out more broadly to everyone we know and encourage them to vote and make their voice and values known through working for candidates who advance the values they care about.

While I and others have found videos and articles that give clues on how to proceed with a ‘values outreach campaign”, and future posts will continue to highlight these resources, we are reminded eloquently and often to keep it simple. As VP candidate Walz stated so simply and clearly, we all know what it means to be a good neighbor and love all our neighbors, regardless of class, race, home of birth,  who they love and their ideas on family. 

I suspect you, like me, have friends and family members with whom the divides between us in perceptions about what is good and loving seem so huge. There is a mutual agreement, spoken or not, to avoid divisive issues related to politics and elections. So perhaps these folks may not be the place we start having conversations about values and the 2024 election.

I’ve decided to focus my calls and conversations initially in a couple of directions. First, I am talking with relatives and friends I am fairly sure share my values and politics. My discussions with them are about why I think having these values-based conversations is important. And then to ask if they’ve engaged others in these conversations and, if so, what they’re learning from them.  

I have a second set of calls and visits intended to learn more about how to reduce the influence of white Christian Nationalists in how we live and love together as one community, one world. Given my experience attending a Catholic seminary, I know a few Catholic priests and friends active in Catholic communities. I am reaching out to them to both listen and learn from their perspectives and to express my concern that Christian values not be distorted in our 2024 elections. 

For those who missed the Democratic convention, I’d encourage you to listen to the remarks by Michele Obama, Oprah Winfrey, poet Amanda Gorman and VP candidate Governor Tim Walz, among the many great speakers. 

Oprah Winfrey said it perhaps most directly. It is time to mature our views and accept that the challenges America faces are complex. There are not simple answers. Michele Obama reminded us of the vestiges of structural racism that remain and how indeed this election is a choice to support racial equality or to advance white supremacy. (My interpretation, not her words.) She did point out that she and Kamala Harris and many others “…will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth,”  meaning the accumulation of white wealth based on structural racism and inequitable opportunities is in fact a type of affirmative action for white people. 

Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman inspired and touched our souls as she made real the possibilities and the challenges ahead. And coach Walz reminded us to love and respect all our neighbors and mind our own business. 

I look forward to sharing in future posts what I learn and to hear from you what you are learning. Drop me a note at [email protected] and consider joining Racial Justice Conversations on this topic next Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 5 p.m. Eastern on Zoom. Email me for Zoom link and details. Together we are invited to make more evident the values we hold in our lives as citizens and stewards of our democracy.