Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Evangelicals, it's time for dialogue work — the ‘Christian’ way

Evangelicals, it's time for dialogue work — the ‘Christian’ way
Getty Images

Trippie is an Evangelical Pastor at Restoration Church in Buffalo. Dan is also an adjunct Professor of Ethics at Liberty University and holds a Ph.D. in Ethics from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Recent tragedies in Buffalo have prompted him to organize workshops offering opportunities for dialogue across divides.

In Buffalo, New York, we know the trauma of social breakdown and tragedy firsthand, but we also know the healing that happens when neighbors come together across their differences. Over the course of this past year, we have suffered an extreme blizzard with devastating loss of life; the ruthless, racially motivated murder of ten of our fellow citizens; and the firebombing of a pregnancy clinic by an extremist pro-choice group called Jane’s Revenge. In the wake of these events, Western New York evangelicals have shed countless tears alongside our neighbors. But through trauma and tears, we have been reawakened to the vision of our leader, Jesus – “Blessed are the peacemakers."


Recently, a group of evangelical leaders in our area met to relearn and practice an ancient art form – dialogue. This fall, I received a surprise call from a rabbi offering support. Rabbi Melissa Weintraub co-directs an organization, Resetting the Table, whose very mission is to build healing and transformative communication across divides. In the Evangelical community in Buffalo, we were hungry for this work.

Among the many misconceptions afloat about evangelicals is the idea that we are resistant to building bridges with our fellow Americans. These misconceptions are rooted in long-standing media distortions of our community. Type the word ‘evangelical’ into mainstream media search engines, and you will likely find a flat and demonizing caricature. Evangelicals are represented primarily as a sinister voting bloc, duped with crazed conspiracy theories, and fomenting white supremacy and hate. Extremists are highlighted as stand-ins for Evangelicalism in America today. Nuances around important questions — like what the role of Christianity in public life should be — are lost in studies and articles that conflate wide-ranging Evangelical beliefs and internal debates with the most virulent forms of Christian nationalism. These media portrayals are not without cost; 43% of Democrats say they have “unfavorable” impressions of evangelicals – more than any other group in American society.

In fact, evangelicals are a richly diverse community consisting of an estimated 25% of the American public and embodying enormous viewpoint, racial, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity. 1 in 3 American evangelicals are people of color. Structurally we are decentralized; evangelicalism has no bishop, presbytery, or ruling body. Instead, we are a tapestry of denominations, institutions, and integrated movements. We uniquely span the rural/urban divide. Our opinions are manifold and complex, not captured by the simple story of what percentage of us voted Republican in the last election.

We are bound by shared foundational beliefs: one, that the Bible is God’s inspired and authoritative word. Two, that God is the author of life, Christ came to redeem life, and life in Christ is abundant life. Three, that Jesus’ resurrection is “good news”; therefore, we must share our faith. The word “evangel” literally means “the heralding of good news.”

Around the unifying power of these beliefs, lie many differences. Despite our voting patterns, we are deeply impacted by the political polarization infecting the rest of our culture. We are divided on issues ranging from race relations to vaccine mandates to gender roles to abortion law. Like many faith communities in the U.S. today, we face corrosive tensions on these issues that many of our pastors feel ill-equipped to navigate.

When Resetting the Table approached us, we were inspired by a dual aspiration: One, to mobilize regional evangelicals to contribute to healing across divides in Greater Buffalo, in the face of tragedy and pain that risks separating us further from one another. Two, to surface our own internal differences and hard conversations, both because that is the Christian way and because it is what our community and country need.

And so, we brought together twelve ideologically and racially diverse evangelical and Southern Baptist pastors in Western New York for a two-day training with Resetting the Table. This is what we found. Our views on guns, immigration, separation of church and state, and abortion were almost as wide-ranging as the U.S. electorate. Yet the training deepened and actualized our capacity to honor each other’s dignity without backing away from our honest differences. The commitment to dig beneath these flashpoint issues to affirm the dignity in each other, even as we came at issues from rival places. That is a spirit we need to restore in our public life.

I believe evangelicals could be a force for national healing. Today’s polarized climate could offer an opportunity for evangelicals to return to a proper understanding of ourselves. After all, our doctrinal distinctiveness is fixed in a belief that God speaks to humans through inspired words. We are no strangers to the power of dialogue.

To my own community, I call on us to live up to our theology of human dignity – to see how honoring our disagreements is a way to honor our fellow-image bears of God. Maybe as we learn to listen again to those within our walls and beyond them, we can be a force for breaking down the ones dividing our nation.

To the broader public, I invite you to try to see Evangelicalism in the U.S. in all our diversity. Courageous, mutually transformative conversations can only occur when all parties feel free to speak their minds without retribution or surrendering their own convictions.

If American democracy is to endure, we must all relearn this lost art of dialectic. When we do, we will see we are not each other’s enemies, even when we vehemently disagree. And we will surely find more ways to work together, in service of our collective human flourishing.

Read More

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra is once again stepping onto familiar ground. After serving in Congress, leading California’s Department of Justice, and joining President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he is now seeking the governorship of his home state. His campaign marks both a return to local politics and a renewed confrontation with Donald Trump, now back in the White House.

Becerra’s message combines pragmatism and resistance. “We’ll continue to be a leader, a fighter, and a vision of what can be in the United States,” he said in his recent interview with Latino News Network. He recalled his years as California’s attorney general, when he “had to take him on” to defend the state’s laws and families. Between 2017 and 2021, Becerra filed or joined more than 120 lawsuits against the Trump administration, covering immigration, environmental protection, civil rights, and healthcare. “We were able to defend California, its values and its people,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
​Voting booths in a high school.

During a recent visit to Indianapolis, VP JD Vance pressed Indiana Republicans to consider mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Getty Images, mphillips007

JD Vance Presses Indiana GOP To Redraw Congressional Map

On October 10, Vice President JD Vance visited Indianapolis to meet with Republican lawmakers, urging them to consider redrawing Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The visit marked Vance’s third trip to the state in recent months, underscoring the Trump administration’s aggressive push to expand Republican control in Congress.

Vance’s meetings are part of a broader national strategy led by President Donald Trump to encourage GOP-led states to revise district boundaries mid-decade. States like Missouri and Texas have already passed new maps, while Indiana remains hesitant. Governor Mike Braun has met with Vance and other Republican leaders. Still, he has yet to commit to calling a special legislative session. Braun emphasized that any decision must ensure “fair representation for every Hoosier."

Keep ReadingShow less
A child looks into an empty fridge-freezer in a domestic kitchen.

The Trump administration’s suspension of the USDA’s Household Food Security Report halts decades of hunger data tracking.

Getty Images, Catherine Falls Commercial

Trump Gives Up the Fight Against Hunger

A Vanishing Measure of Hunger

Consider a hunger policy director at a state Department of Social Services studying food insecurity data across the state. For years, she has relied on the USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report to identify where hunger is rising, how many families are skipping meals, and how many children go to bed hungry. Those numbers help her target resources and advocate for stronger programs.

Now there is no new data. The survey has been “suspended for review,” officially to allow for a “methodological reassessment” and cost analysis. Critics say the timing and language suggest political motives. It is one of many federal data programs quietly dropped under a Trump executive order on so-called “nonessential statistics,” a phrase that almost parodies itself. Labeling hunger data “nonessential” is like turning off a fire alarm because it makes too much noise; it implies that acknowledging food insecurity is optional and reveals more about the administration’s priorities than reality.

Keep ReadingShow less
Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

U.S. President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

(Photo by Suzanne Plunkett - Pool / Getty Images)

Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

American political leaders have forgotten how to be gracious to their opponents when people on the other side do something for which they deserve credit. Our antagonisms have become so deep and bitter that we are reluctant to give an inch to our political adversaries.

This is not good for democracy.

Keep ReadingShow less