How to bridge our political divide? A pastor’s answer: Do unto others
BETHEL PARK, Pa. — Campaign lawn signs rarely bring people together from opposite sides of the political fence. But in the lead up to Election Day, some purple-colored ones in this Pittsburgh suburb did just that.
The signs are an attempt to transcend the nation’s bitter divisions. Instead of touting a candidate, they promoted a value: the Bible’s Golden Rule.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” the signs read.
Christ United Methodist Church here in Bethel Park distributed the lawn signs as part of what Pastor Chris Morgan calls a movement for kindness, built around a handful of sermons as well as hundreds of purple “Do Unto Others” T-shirts. He says he got the idea from Kansas City’s Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist church in the country.
Morgan — parishioners call him Pastor Chris — says his congregation is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. He drafted a sermon series to give his flock some spiritual tools to help them navigate the country’s divisions, the November election results and beyond.
“We wanted to remind our people that no matter what happened, whether Trump won or Harris won, our job as followers of Christ is to remember that God’s bigger than all of this,” says Morgan, who is 49. “Our call as followers of Christ is to show people kindness and respect and love and humility and compassion, no matter what.”
Christ Church offers four services each weekend, drawing about 1,000 people in person and online. Sunday’s contemporary services feature a crack rock band in which Pastor Chris occasionally plays keyboards.
In July, after planning for the sermon series was well underway, political violence hit close to home. President-elect Donald Trump was nearly killed by a rooftop shooter during a campaign event in Butler, about 40 miles north of here.
“It had a pretty big impact on the congregation because the person that made the attempt lived two and a half blocks from here,” Pastor Chris recalls.
Parishioners at Christ Church say the Do Unto Others lawn signs have sparked conversations that might not otherwise have occurred. Tommy Longenecker, an avid Trump supporter, was blowing leaves last month when he spotted one of the signs in the yard of his next-door neighbor, Bob Lewis, a Harris supporter and member of Christ Church. Longenecker walked over and read the Bible passage.
“I really like your sign,'” said Longenecker, who is 56 and a nonpracticing Catholic.
Longenecker said the Do Unto Others message resonated because people had repeatedly torn down his Trump signs — including one that measured 8 feet by 4 feet.
The two men have been neighbors for nearly eight years, but this was the first time they’d really talked about their faith.
“I like the fact that we can still get along and not be hateful and mean to each other,” Lewis recalls Longenecker saying.
Some parishioners say the Do Unto Others message has helped them manage relationships with people who have different views.
“I’m engaging with my significant other much differently,” says parishioner Patti Goyette.
Goyette recalled one sermon where Pastor Chris spoke about becoming stranded on a long bike ride because he hadn’t had enough to eat or drink. The sermon was a turning point for Goyette, who questioned whether she was doing enough to nourish her relationship. She said she changed her approach.
“I haven’t gone into a confrontation with a higher heart rate and clenched muscles,” says Goyette, 50, who works for a local riverboat company. “I listen and I hear, and when you do that, people stop yelling and start talking and it makes a difference.”
While some parishioners found the Do Unto Other program helpful, others had reservations. Tony Reda, who ushers at one of the church services, thinks the sermon series encouraged people to express their political opinions.
“I felt like going to church was an hour of peace and quiet and trying to be closer to Christ,” says Reda, 61. “I felt like that sermon series was bringing politics into the church“
Reda, who works as an insurance broker, says some in the congregation openly criticized Trump, which he found especially disturbing following Trump’s near-assassination.
“There’s people that are flat-out saying, I can’t believe they missed,” Reda recalled.
If Reda thought the sermon series went too far, Stephanie White, a mother of two, thought it didn’t go far enough. She’s a big fan of Pastor Chris, but wishes the church had called out Trump for what she says is hateful rhetoric. Failing to do so, White says, creates a false equivalence.
White has no illusions about the Democratic Party’s shortcomings. “But can we also talk about the terrible things that Trump says?” she said during an after-service coffee hour. “The reaction you get [from some Republicans] is ‘It’s both sides. It’s both sides.’ “
White says she is concerned about what the next four years could mean for friends who are trans or people of color.
“It’s just a lot of emotions packed into a really small piece of time,” she said as she cried. “And it’s very scary what could happen.”
Pastor Chris knows it’s challenging to lead a big-tent church in such fraught times. He says the Do Unto Others program isn’t about calling out sides or making statements about anyone’s morality.
“Outside of the pulpit. I personally will stand up for what I think is right and what I think is wrong, and I have done those things,” Morgan says. “My job as a pastor when I am preaching is to help people grow in their faith and become as much like Jesus as we can.”
Morgan says a key to the campaign for kindness is to recognize we can’t control what others say or do, but we can control how we respond.
Transcript:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
How do Americans speak to each other in these bitterly divided times? Well, a pastor outside Pittsburgh has been answering that question by preaching the Bible’s golden rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He calls it a movement for civility, built around a handful of sermons and Do Unto Others T-shirts and lawn signs. The congregation has seen America’s divisions at its most violent. The young man who nearly assassinated President-elect Trump last summer lived just 2 1/2 blocks away. In the first of our series, Seeking Common Ground, NPR’s Frank Langfitt reports from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Tommy Longenecker (ph) is a huge fan of President-elect Trump. He’s got the flag and lawn signs to prove it.
TOMMY LONGENECKER: This is an 8-by-4 Trump-Vance sign. We put a dozen signs up in our neighborhood.
LANGFITT: This big?
TOMMY LONGENECKER: Yeah. And let me tell you, Democrats don’t like this sign up. They’ve been destroying my signs all over the neighborhood.
LANGFITT: Longenecker’s next door neighbor, Bob Lewis (ph), didn’t tear down his signs. But he wasn’t a fan, either.
BOB LEWIS: They’re a little big, a little garish, a little bright.
LANGFITT: A week before Election Day, Longenecker – you know, the guy with that huge Trump sign – was out blowing leaves when he noticed something in Lewis’ yard.
TOMMY LONGENECKER: I saw a sign about a Christian theme, and it was purple. And I walked over to Bob. I said, I really like your sign.
LANGFITT: It read, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. And it spoke to Longenecker because people had torn down his signs and sometimes given him the finger when they drove past his house. After he saw the Do Unto Others sign, Longenecker told Lewis it seemed on point. Lewis described their exchange following church services one Sunday.
LEWIS: And he said, yeah, it’s obviously relevant in this times. And clearly, not everyone agrees with everyone else’s politics, and you maybe don’t agree with mine. And I said, well, that’s probably a correct assumption. And at that point, he said, but I like the message that it gives. And I like the fact that we can still get along and not be hateful and mean to each other.
LANGFITT: The two men have been neighbors for nearly eight years. It was the first time they’d really talked about their faith. Longenecker is a nonpracticing Catholic. Lewis attends nearby Christ United Methodist Church.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LANGFITT: Christ Church has nearly 2,000 members, four services per weekend, including traditional services, which occasionally feature a handbell choir…
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, the way.
LANGFITT: …And contemporary services, which feature a rock band.
CHRIS MORGAN: How are you?
LANGFITT: I’m fine, Pastor Chris. Nice to meet you (laughter).
LANGFITT: Nice to meet you, as well.
MORGAN: So I’m Chris Morgan, and I’m the senior pastor here at Christ United Methodist Church. I’m in my 15th year.
LANGFITT: Morgan – everybody calls him Pastor Chris – says his congregation is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. And the previous two presidential elections took a toll.
MORGAN: So I had people just coming into my office thinking that the world was going to end. It was both sides, depending on the year.
LANGFITT: So Morgan drafted a sermon series to give his flock some spiritual tools to help them navigate the country’s divisions in the November election.
MORGAN: We wanted to remind our people that no matter what happened, whether Trump won or Harris won, our job as followers of Christ is to remember that God’s bigger than all of this. And our call as followers of Christ are to show people kindness and respect and love and humility and compassion, no matter what.
LANGFITT: Parishioner Patti Goyette (ph) said the sermon series helped her deal with personal and political divisions at home.
PATTI GOYETTE: I can tell you, in my personal life, I’m engaging with my significant other much differently. You know, I don’t want to go into too many details because it’s personal. But, you know, we’ve had a lot of struggles. And I think the messaging I’m getting from church helped me change my perspective entirely into, how do I fix this?
LANGFITT: Goyette recalled one sermon where Pastor Chris spoke about becoming stranded on a long bike ride because he hadn’t had enough to eat or drink.
GOYETTE: That hit me because realistically, was I feeding and watering my relationship? Was I nourishing that? So that was a turning-point sermon for me.
LANGFITT: How have you nourished your relationship?
GOYETTE: I haven’t gone into a confrontation with a higher heart rate and clenched muscles, you know? I listen, and I hear. When you do that, people stop yelling and start talking. And it makes a difference.
LANGFITT: The Do Unto Others program helped Goyette, but other parishioners had problems with it. Tony Reda (ph) ushers at one of the church services. He thinks the sermon series encouraged people to express their political opinions.
TONY REDA: I felt, and I’ve told Chris this – I felt like going to church was an hour of peace and quiet and trying to be closer to Christ. And I felt like that sermon series was bringing politics into the church.
LANGFITT: Reda says some in the congregation openly criticize Trump, which he found especially disturbing after Trump was nearly killed north of here in Butler, Pennsylvania.
REDA: There’s people that are flat out saying, I can’t believe they missed, after the assassination attempt.
LANGFITT: People at church have said that?
REDA: Yes, they have.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Vocalizing).
LANGFITT: I returned to Christ Church last weekend after the election and met parishioner Stephanie White (ph) at coffee hour. She’s a big supporter of Pastor Chris but thought the Do Unto Others program didn’t go far enough. White says Trump speaks hatefully about others and wishes the church had called that out.
STEPHANIE WHITE: The piece that I think is missing was the willingness to openly identify the rhetoric being used in the campaign.
LANGFITT: White says failing to do so creates a false equivalence.
WHITE: I understand the valid criticisms of the Democratic Party. I would never argue that the Democratic Party is any kind of saviors. They’re not. But can we also talk about the terrible things that Trump says? And the response again is, well, it’s both sides, it’s both sides.
LANGFITT: But Pastor Chris Morgan says Do Unto Others isn’t about calling out sides.
MORGAN: This series was not about making a statement about anyone’s morality. Outside of the pulpit, I personally will stand up for what I think is right and what I think is wrong, and I have done those things. My job as a pastor when I am preaching is to help people grow in their faith and become as much like Jesus as we can.
LANGFITT: The Do Unto Others series helps some people see a shared humanity across the divide, keep family ties intact, which, in such fraught times, that’s not bad.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
(SOUNDBITE OF BREMER/MCCOY’S “FORENET”)
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