Krista Tippet On Being: The Civil Conversation Project

The new email for Krista Tippet's On Being program focuses on The Civil Conversations Project. The email describes the project in this way:

Restoring Political Civility
Conservative Christian voices are prominent in our most heated debates. Evangelical educator Richard Mouw has wisdom on navigating fear, and the temptation it brings to distort the truth about those we see as enemies. This is part of the Civil Conversations Project — ideas and tools for healing our fractured civic spaces.

How Do We Live and Honor Each Other Despite Our Differences?

Tippet goes on to interview Mouw which includes some interesting exchanges on this much-needed subject matter. After quoting a passage from of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah on seeking the Shalom, the peace of others, Mouw elaborates:

And how do we look at what was in that context, you know? Hebrew people in exile trying to figure out how in the world they're going to relate to a pagan culture. And then God says, seek their Shalom, seek their well-being, you know, even if you disagree radically with them. And then in the New Testament, the Apostle Peter says that we have to honor all human beings and have a regard for their well-being. I take those to be sort of different ways of getting at a very common Biblical theme. What does it mean for me to honor the Muslim, to honor the Mormon, to honor people of unbelief who are hostile toward Christianity? What does it mean to honor them? And then I think we need to work at the theology there, you know. How do we view other people?

The transcript of this interview is worth considering, as are the merits of The Civil Conversations Project, which has implications beyond interreligious conversations and relationships.