United Methodists Connect Across Divides to Bring Kindness into U.S. Election Season

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A United Methodist Insight Special

Hundreds of United Methodists across the United States mobilized in August in multiple community efforts to bring kindness, civility and community into the fractious U.S. presidential election season.

Motivated in part by their own experiences of division as well as the political polarization across the country, United Methodist churches and annual (regional) conferences have independently developed discussion groups, community-building resources, and church peacemaking programs. Several events kicked off in August before the Democratic National Convention took place Aug. 19-23 in Chicago.

Individual churches such as First UMC in Des Plaines, Ill., a northwest Chicago suburb, are holding events on their own. The Des Plains church was scheduled to host a "Celebration of Unity" on Aug. 25, featuring a 10 a.m. bilingual Spanish-English worship service on its front law, followed by several musical performances and a lunch.

"The goal is to create a fun event where people from the community can come together and get to know each other while enjoying diverse music and dance, ethnic foods, inspirational speakers and lively activities," said its announcement.

Three of the most wide-reaching events emerged in early August in the Western North Carolina and Northern Illinois conferences and from the multi-campus megachurch now known as Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, based in the Kansas City suburb of Leawood.

In the Chicago-based Northern Illinois Conference, United Methodists partnered with Braver Angels Illinois for an Aug. 1 community conversation on how to reduce polarization in the U.S. presidential election and beyond, said Lisa Rogers, chair of the Advocacy Partners subcommittee of the conference's Anti-Racism Task Force. A second gathering is planned Aug. 29 in Rockford, Ill.

"We turned (a restaurant) into a bipartisan space for one night, listening to each other respectfully and expressing ourselves without trying to convert others to any viewpoint," said Ms. Rogers' report in a conference newsletter. "We left knowing new neighbors and having actionable ideas for changing our toxic politics – as well as hope for our community and nation."

Ms. Rogers said the collaboration with Braver Angels began about a year ago when the Northern Illinois Anti-Racism Task Force created the Advocacy Partners subcommittee, a group focused on creating action-oriented programs. Armania Drane, Northern Illinois' project manager for strategic initiatives, brought Braver Angels to Ms. Rogers' attention. Ms. Rogers invited the group's Illinois co-leader, Chuck Stone, to talk with the committee.

"We decided, while Braver Angels does not have an anti-racist agenda, they are working to address and combat the political divide in America and that is something our group felt was important to support," said Ms. Rogers via email. 

While Advocacy Partners doesn't have shareable resources currently, Ms. Rogers said the group plans to continue its initial efforts into the fall election season. She said the committee plans to hold a skills workshop with Braver Angels in late September or early October with participants from the initial August meetings.

"I have learned the importance of remembering that we have more in common with people than what divides us," said Ms. Rogers, a member of First UMC in Elmhurst, Ill. "Building relationships with people with different political views, cultures, races, gender identity, sexual preference, and any of the other ways we differ from each other, is such an important part of the human experience and it is becoming more rare all the time.

Ms. Rogers said the Northern Illinois Conference has made a concerted effort to provide anti-racism educational opportunities through a learning path, book studies, film viewings with discussions, and other offerings.

"For me, as well as many other United Methodists, these opportunities lead to new relationships, collaborations, and a burning desire to advocate for systemic change," said Rogers.

In Western North Carolina, Uwharrie District Superintendent the Rev. Beth Crissman, who also serves director of peace building ministries, said the impetus for The Purple Church Initiative came from a study released in April 2024by the Religion and Social Change Lab at UMC-related Duke Divinity School. The study looked at the impact of disaffiliations (departures of mostly conservative churches from 2019 through 2023) as well as the theological and social diversity within U.S. congregations, Rev. Crissman said in an online interview.

"The study found that even post-disaffiliation, the United Methodist Church, is still a very diverse denomination, theologically. politically and socially," Rev. Crissman said.

The theme "Purple Church" was suggested by a similar theme about U.S. political diversity. Crissman said she's heard the term frequently since 2018, when she first encountered it in a Raleigh, N.C., article about a Presbyterian church.

"So, when the Duke study came out earlier this year, Bishop Ken Carter and I decided that as part of peace-building ministries, we needed to launch a Purple Church Initiative ahead of this fall's election so that we could equip our congregations to be ambassadors for peace before, during, and after the elections," Rev. Crissman said.

Rev. Crissman said the Purple Church Initiative grows out of biblical roots.

"Throughout scripture, we're told that we are to embrace our diversity and to learn to live in harmony with each other in the midst of diversity," she said. "We're told how to be at peace in that space within ourselves and within our congregations so that we can be a peaceful witness in the broader community."

"The purpose of the initiative is to give practical, biblical, theologically sound tools to local congregations and their leaders to meet people where they are so that we can be ambassadors for peace," Rev. Crissman said.

"We realized that our leaders needed something practical and applicable. I was with one group of clergy just recently, and when they looked at this resource, their first response was, 'Oh, good. Something that I can put my hands on. I don't have to digest it a lot, and I can use all of it, or I can use pieces of it to apply specifically in my context to meet my congregation where they are, to move us along this path of peace'," she said.

Rev. Crissman said she's most enthusiastic about Purple Church's Peace on Purpose Pledge. The pledge to be a peacemaker beyond the election cycle stems from a tour of Northern Ireland that the Western North Carolina Conference sponsors each year. Groups meet with an Irish Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Gary Mason, Founder and Director of Rethinking Conflict and one of the individuals who helped foster the Good Friday peace accord that ended armed conflict between Northern Ireland Catholics and Protestants.

"We met with leaders of the IRA and loyalist leaders, and we heard from both of them was how they described the 'complicit silence' of the church in the midst of the conflict," Rev. Crissman recalled. "They said it was almost as if, within the church on Sunday morning, they were ignoring that the conflict was even happening. Their perspective was, it's like the church doesn't even care that this is going on."

Rev. Crissman said she came away from that encounter with a deep conviction "that our call to be peacemakers is very clear from Jesus."

"It doesn't mean we have to be the most vocal prophets, but it does mean being willing to step into a space where sometimes that space is literally sitting across the aisle, being willing to acknowledge that the person who's sitting across the aisle from me on Sunday morning might vote differently than I do," she said.

"We might disagree strongly over multiple things, but I have a call not to agree with them always, not even to try and convert them to my side, but to be in a holy relationship with them that says, as John Wesley would say, 'if your heart is, as my heart is take my hand,'" Rev. Crissman said.

She said she interprets Wesley's words to mean, "how do we seek to find the unity in the essentials that define who we are as Christians, knowing that there might be a lot of diversity in how we live out our lives in the public square, but to agree on our call to love God, to love our neighbor, and also to love ourselves."

The Purple Church Initiative is scheduled to hold a "Polarity Management Workshop" Oct. 5 led by Lyndon Rego. Other resources are listed on the conference's Peace Building Ministries webpage.

In Leawood, Kansas, Resurrection United Methodist Church has launched what may be the most ambitious – certainly the most widely engaged – effort thus far. Introduced Aug. 1, the immediate popularity of "Do Unto Others: A Campaign for Kindness during the 2024 Election Season" has taken Resurrection leaders and members by surprise, said Cathy Bien, the church's director of public relations, communications and special projects.

Ms. Bien said that as of Aug. 20, somewhere between 400 and 500 mostly United Methodist churches had signed on to "Do Unto Others." In addition to its 20,000-plus members at the main Leawood campus and its seven metropolitan Kansas City satellites, Resurrection links with a nationwide network of United Methodist churches through its annual Leadership Institute that occurs in September.

"We've had amazing response this year," Ms. Bien said. "It's taken off quicker than we thought. So far we've had 3,000 downloads from the website."

In addition to individual churches, the UMC's Arkansas Annual Conference announced Aug. 20 that its committee on church and society had adopted "Do Unto Others." The Arkansas United Methodist Foundation has set aside $15,000 in grants for low-income churches to create customized yard signs promoting the campaign. Arkansas United Methodist churches are asked to register for the campaign to receive funding.

"Do Unto Others" is the latest project of Vision 2030, a long-range plan that Resurrection adopted in 2019 focused on "bridging the gaps" between faith and society, Ms. Bien said. Part of Vision 2030 engages Resurrection in community outreach efforts tied to the national election cycle.

"I think it's taken off because people are yearning to get past the division in the country; they want to do something," Ms. Bien said.

Ms. Bien said that "Do Unto Others" rests on three "pillars:"

  • "We can be intentional about how we treat others.
  • "We can spread the message of kindness.
  • "We can find new ways to grow in faith and knowledge as we approach relationships."

Ms. Bien said she will lead a discussion group among "Do Unto Others" participants at Resurrection's leadership school in September.

Churches and individuals can download free resources like those for a political campaign such as yard signs, T-shirts, videos, photos, social media, sermon ideas and faith-based curriculum for all ages.

Cynthia B. Astle has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels since 1988. She serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online media outlet she founded in 2011.