Former senator John C. Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest and onetime Bush administration ambassador to the United Nations, has a new book talking about the role of religion in politics. In it, he writes persuasively and thoughtfully on the relationship between Christianity and reconciliation:
"Christians who espouse the ministry of reconciliation should express themselves clearly and forcefully as the alternative to those who favor divisiveness. They should preach reconciliation from their pulpits, by pronouncements issued from their hierarchies and conventions, from their great cathedrals and places of worship, by frequent statements to the media, and by messages understood and expressed by people in the pews. Christians today are not conveying a clear message of reconciliation. It is time to do so."More from Danforth's book:
"Christians can be more than a countervoice to the dividers. They can embody the ministry of reconciliation by their own ecumenical and interfaith activities. They can take an interest in other religions and participate in religious observances that are not their own. And they can make it clear that the Eucharist is not the exclusive possession of one denomination or another. The altar is God’s table, and it should be open to all God’s people..."
"Whether religion is a reconciling or divisive force in America depends on the degrees of certainty or humility with which we claim its truths to be our own. If we are convinced that our opinions on social and political questions are the law of God, then people who oppose our opinions become opponents of God. If, in contrast, we recognize the limits of our own understanding of God’s truth, while acknowledging that our opponents are trying, as we are, to do God’s will, we are able to be ambassadors of reconciliation. In that case, our faithfulness in politics depends less on the content of our ideology than on how we view ourselves and treat each other. Faith in politics has more to do with the way faithful people approach politics than with the substance of our positions."