Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life

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Conclusion: Signs of Hope,Warnings to HeedAt a time of growing diversity, Americans have the opportunity to become truer to their nation’s deepestaspirations. Pluralism affords us that chance. The nation’s promise is premised on pluralism, summed up in thetraditional motto, E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” Americans need to decide as a people what differencemeans, how they will respond to it, and whether it will weaken or strengthen them as a people.It is easy enough to turn to isolation, tribalism, fear, and self-aggrandizement in an increasingly pluralistic society. Withoutresources that support other impulses, such responses are perhaps inevitable. We believe some of the most meaningfulresources to help the nation thrive can be found in Christianity: its institutions, its ideas, its people, and the tenets of the faithitself. This report attests to this conviction.However, this report also raises reasons to doubt whether Christianity will play such a strong and positive role in public life.Various scandals and failings have undermined the Christian witness, and Christians and Christian institutions regularlystruggle against the forces of racism, tribalism, religious bigotry, and general selfishness.And yet…Despite these concerns, Christianity offers great hope. Christianity calls believers to love their neighbor as themselves andseek the good of even their enemies. Christianity teaches that all people are made in the image of God, and therefore ofincomparable worth. Christianity provided the resources for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to say:You see the founding fathers were really influenced by the Bible. The whole concept of the imago Dei…is theidea that all men have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God,but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him uniqueness…There are nogradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard,50 | Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life in the United States
precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day thatGod made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. 39This truth is as potent and necessary today as it was when Dr. King first shared it. Diverse Christian traditions attest to thetruths of Christianity and embody them every day through their institutions and in their lives in community with others. ThatChristians might embrace such values anew and bring those values into public life in word and in deed should be a greatsource of hope for the future of our pluralistic nation.39 “The American Dream,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, July 4, 1965, Accessed September 10, 2019. Availableat: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/publications/knock-midnight-inspiration-great-sermons-reverend-martin-luther-kingjr-4Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life in the United States | 51
Page 1 and 2: Christianity, Pluralism, andPublic
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSABOUT THE AUTHORSWe
Page 5 and 6: PrefaceReady or not, here it comes:
Page 7 and 8: Third, and finally, we hope this re
Page 9 and 10: RELIGIOUS IDENTITYAlthough many sur
Page 11 and 12: RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND BEHAVIOREven t
Page 13 and 14: Opposition remains strongest among
Page 15 and 16: To say that questions involving plu
Page 17 and 18: As enmity for the other party grows
Page 19 and 20: PART IIHow Christian Leaders Are Th
Page 21 and 22: they view as essential to it—as e
Page 23 and 24: us and about our Judeo-Christian tr
Page 25 and 26: INSIGHTS INTO THE BRIDGE-BUILDING P
Page 27 and 28: BRIDGING ACROSS POLITICAL, RELIGIOU
Page 29 and 30: DIVIDES WITHIN CHRISTIANITY THAT CH
Page 31 and 32: Some of our respondents raised conc
Page 33 and 34: There are three ways to look at thi
Page 35 and 36: particular, don’t have a politica
Page 37 and 38: Politics and Christian CommunityPol
Page 39 and 40: POLITICS AND THE LAITYWe were also
Page 41 and 42: OPENLY DISCUSS THEIR OWN FAITH AND
Page 43 and 44: literate in the very basic sense th
Page 45 and 46: PART IIIA Way Forward: Recommendati
Page 47 and 48: DISCIPLESHIP AND CATECHISMMany Chri
Page 49 and 50: Encouraging Positive Christian Cont
Page 51: Recommendations for Political and O

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