A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO SAVING AMERICA

A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO SAVING AMERICA

Ask yourself how much time you spend really talking with friends or acquaintances who disagree with you ideologically? If you’re like most Americans, the answer is “hardly ever.” And despite all panic about the failure of democracy, we don’t act to change that — even when there’s lots of evidence that suggests that if we’d just spend more time with each other as human beings it would actually make a difference.

You’ll meet pairs of friends on opposite sides of the political division who maintain close friendships that deepen and enrich their lives anyway. Keep reading about Patricia Nelson Limerick, where our inspired title “Let Friendship Redeem the Republic” came from. You’ll meet Berny + Geston (they disagree on almost everything, except that they both love their country), Marian + Derek (a lesbian pastor and conservative Latter-day Saint who work together on the thorny issues of religious liberty and equal rights), and you’ll meet Village Square Founder & CEO Liz Joyner’s friend Dr. Jacob Hess.

The Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen: Finding your place in America

The Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen: Finding your place in America

I’m a bridge-builder, someone who works to bring people together across political, social and faith divides. Usually my work centers around the LGBTQ and faith divide, or how religious liberty can bring us all together. Recently, however, people have been reaching out in deep distress asking for help, asking, “Is there a place for me in America? I just can’t stand (those people) and I feel like they have no respect for me, that they hate me for who I am.”

Responsible centrist senators must save Equality Act for LGBTQ+ rights

March 19, 2021
Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen & Derek Monson

Another year, another Congress, another attempt to enact LGBTQ+ equality legislation that has no hope of succeeding. If LGBTQ+ Americans are to gain federal protections for their sexual orientation and gender identity, it will only be because responsible centrist senators — such as Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, and Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney — strike a compromise to save the Equality Act from the failed strategy of its supporters.

The current version of the Equality Act, recently passed by the House of Representatives, is a partisan one. It would create federal anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity while explicitly reducing federal religious freedom protections. The former idea has bipartisan appeal, while the latter does not.

Unsurprisingly, the partisan version of the Equality Act passed along mostly partisan lines, just like it did in the last Congress, and has no hope of becoming law.

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Supreme Court Steps Up Where Congress Fails

Americans nationwide are consumed with concern over COVID-19, near-Depression-level economic hardship and protests-turned-riots over racism. In the meantime, federal policymakers in Congress are largely failing to address these issues – ever consumed by ramifications for the coming election.

But there, almost in the background, the Supreme Court in its most recent term has quietly achieved something better in the sticky realm of religious freedom and LGBTQ equality: bridging ideological divides and interpreting law with competence and courage.

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The Real Divide in America

The partisan police reform battle brewing on Capitol Hill over the new Senate Republican legislation and House Democrats’ proposal, with President Donald Trump’s new executive order lurking in the background, reveal a division in America. But the divide isn’t a partisan or ideological one. It is both more subtle and fundamental: those who build, and those who destroy. 

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We have a culture of contempt, and here’s the cost

We have a culture of contempt, and here’s the cost

SALT LAKE CITY — Flipping through a newspaper or watching CNN or Fox News might lead to the impression Americans can’t stand each other. It’s not just an impression: Social scientists and data say the country is growing apart, with partisan divides, decreased civility and shrinking involvement with institutions like faith communities and civic clubs.

Masterpiece Cakeshop decision reveals a better way

That the majority opinion was agreed to by both wings of the Supreme Court is evidence that reasonable conservatives and liberals can agree that the rights of both LGBTQ and orthodox religious individuals can and must be protected. The substance of that opinion reveals the need to reject extreme ideas and policies — on the right and on the left — put forward by those who take only their own ideological and political interests into account.

LGBT rights are not incompatible with religious liberty unless we make them so

LGBT rights are not incompatible with religious liberty unless we make them so

We, the two authors of this piece, are something of an odd couple. One of us is an advocate for LGBT equality, the other an advocate for religious freedom. Two years ago, we began a discussion about gay rights and religious liberty. We learned something that the country sorely needs today: Dialogue centered on genuine equality, through mutual accommodation, is a better way forward than culture wars grounded in political fights to the death.

Science can change dialogue on LGBT rights and religious freedom

Science can change dialogue on LGBT rights and religious freedom

What do advocates for LGBT rights and religious freedom have in common? According to science, both have a tendency toward prejudice and intolerance. Fortunately for society, there is also hope for overcoming these human failings and living together peacefully, with our rights equally protected.