“We do have a higher rate of violence—not crime, but a higher rate of violence—than other industrialized nations,” says Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project. “Some of that, our high murder rate, is related to the widespread availability of guns and illegal weapons.” More →

November 18, 2016

“Everybody feels that sense of coming to the table together, dining together, sharing the meal together,” says Renee Boughman, executive chef in North Carolina’s High Country.
More →

November 18, 2016

James Madison offered small “r” republican government as the sentry against the universal human tendency “to go low” and enshrine it politically. He thought large republics avoided tyrannies of majority or minority by jamming the political works with significant numbers of elected officials who disagree. More →

November 11, 2016

“When you walk into the voting booth, I’ve compared it to the holy of holies in the ancient temple. A curtain is closed behind you. You are alone with your God and your vote. People will cast their votes listening to their hearts,” says Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance. More →

November 4, 2016

“Stereotypes lose their power because they’re replaced by true, authentic relationships,” says Rev. Josh Graves, pastor of the Nashville megachurch Otter Creek Church of Christ, describing his project of engagement between Christians and Muslims. “It’s very hard for people to care about people they don’t know. That’s just true of humans wherever you are on planet earth.” More →

August 26, 2016

“It’s just amazing to see how it doesn’t matter what race you are, anything like that; it’s just everybody has the same needs, so we all pitched in and just started helping out,” says Jared Stockstill, administrator at Bethany Church in Baton Rouge. “So I just feel like it’s really gone a long ways toward bringing us together, the community back together, and everybody’s pitching in and helping.” More →

August 19, 2016

“If I can just be a small part of a revolution in business where it ceases to be just about making money but it’s about solving problems and service, that would be enough to keep myself going,” says Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments. More →

August 19, 2016

“In life there is so much temptation,” says boxing coach Mike Mosley. “There’s so much bad out there that it’s hard to know that you’re doing the right thing. I know 100 percent of the time when I’m in the gym is the right thing, and there’s a freedom in that.” More →

August 19, 2016

“We need to deal with the unconscious beliefs that we have about each other,” says Lisa Sharon Harper, author of The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can be Made Right. “We can’t restructure our society and actually begin to heal what race broke until we understand how our society structures have created biases in our own minds.” More →

July 15, 2016

As it wrapped up its current term this week, the US Supreme Court handed down a number of decisions important to religious communities on issues including immigration, abortion, and affirmative action. More →

July 1, 2016