“Faith Matters” is a column that features pieces written by local religious figures.
The church I attend these days is a church that does not discuss partisan politics. This is new for me (and may surprise many of my friends), as the churches I pastored for 11 years were pretty politically homogeneous and active in political advocacy. This is also a choice for me.
As our society and social media have driven wedges between us, I have come to realize that I could easily live my life surrounded by people who think and pray very much like me. That unity was something that I needed for a season of my life. But I have also sensed an unholy disdain rising in me for those with whom I do not agree.
So today I am pretty much off social media, and I am feeling called to intentionally sit in pews with people whose politics I do not know. It has not always been comfortable. And some things are lost in a church that is not easily organized for advocacy around very important moral issues. I really do miss that.
And our pastor preaches from the gospel.
I remember a few months ago when the rhetoric and actions coming out of our executive branch were particularly heartless. Federal workers were being disrespected, their work thrown away. Life-transforming aid from our country toward the well-being of people abroad and refugees here at home was being eliminated and defamed. Most heartbreaking to me, our immigrant neighbors all around the U.S. were being separated from loved ones with incredible cruelty and injustice. I am guessing there were some people in the pews around me in my church who were consuming media that was telling them that all of this was fine and even righteous.
The reading for that Sunday was Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke: “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies … Pray for those who mistreat you … Give to everyone who asks of you … Do to others as you would have them do to you … Be merciful, just as God is merciful …” (Luke 6:27 – 36).
In such a hard moment for our nation, I was blown away by the gospel. Our pastor did not mention political parties or politicians. He simply preached the words and teachings of Jesus.
But I was struck by how pointed and grounding those words were for this moment in the United States. Jesus taught extreme compassion. He taught us to love people that we don’t like. He taught us to pray for people who hurt us. Note that he did not teach us to agree with them or to allow harm to continue. But he taught us to take the risk of holding our hearts always open to them through prayer.
To sit in a politically mixed congregation in the United States in 2025, surrounded by people who are being fed different news algorithms and content, who react differently to Donald Trump and the policies of this administration, and to listen to the words of Jesus together – this feels to me like a deeply meaningful act. Many days, it feels like a hopeful act. If we can ground ourselves in Christ’s extreme compassion together, and no one storms out of the room, I think that there still might be hope for us.
I personally pray that this grounding will lead us to engage actively in the politics to which religious practice and scripture continue to inspire in me: to love across difference and state borders, to bless the peacemakers and the poor, to offer food to the hungry and to visit those who are imprisoned, to resist the death-dealing forces of greed and violence
And I am moving in the theory that, if we can sit and listen to the same gospel together each week, if we can pray for each other’s welfare and care for one another’s children, perhaps it soon becomes evident that the lives of people we have grown to love are being affected by the cruelties of this age. Perhaps we can build enough trust in spaces like these to have hard conversations with hearts open and ears to listen.
I am not recommending this practice for everyone at every moment, but, for me, for now, this is how I feel called to resist the dehumanizing powers and principalities that threaten my spirit.
Rev. Vicki Flippin, who is ordained in the United Methodist Church, serves as Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Yale Divinity School.
Previous“Faith Matters” columns:
• Faith Matters: Faith Over Fear
• Faith Matters: Scar Glory
• Faith (Still) Matters
• Faith Matters: Gaza & Ramadan
• Faith Matters: On Passover & Redemption
• Faith Matters: Freedom Struggles & Holy Week
• Faith Matters: Welcome The Stranger
• Faith Matters: Beyond Neutrality
• Faith Matters: The Lightened Yoke Is Love
• Faith Matters: Combat Negativity With Compassion
• Faith Matters: Focus On God