I’m ashamed to admit my representative to the US congress receives more letters from me than my mother does.

My poor mother!

I am passionate about peace, I am passionate about people having enough food to live a healthy life, I am passionate about caring for the earth, and I am passionate about my life reflecting the values and teachings of Christ. I am also passionate about letting my representative know these priorities in my life and asking them to vote for national legislation that reflects these concerns.

The recent months of election fever and political rhetoric has left me frustrated with the polarization in the country. There seems to be no clear way forward through difficult economic days, through wars and fighting terrorism, through unemployment and hunger, and through environmental concerns for the earth. I know my representatives in congress are often at odds with my priorities and passions. These days I struggle to practice hope in the democratic and legislative process.

Last week I attended the 67th annual meeting of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in Washington DC. As always, it was an excellent time filled with meeting new Friends and spending time with Friends from all across the Quaker community. And as always, I am challenged by a group of Friends as committed to their passions as I am to mine. The times of worship with these Friends nurtures me and helps me listen to Christ.

I also had an “aha!” moment during my time there. It was during the first session when staff from FCNL talked about what the recent elections meant. FCNL is a bipartisan organization that works hard to establish and nurture relationships with every elected legislator, regardless of party affiliation. I find it much easier to tell my legislators what I think they should vote for and how they should work for my concerns in the government. I’m not very good about listening to why they think differently nor am I very good at seeing my elected officials as people who may be as passionate about their faith as I am. To be honest, there are times when I am so frustrated with my legislators that I work against them in every way I can and refuse to work on a relationship with them. Through the words that were spoken and in the long periods of worship, I heard the Spirit’s voice very clearly. And the Spirit asked “How Christian is this response?”

I know I need to engage my elected officials in a different way. I need to work hard to establish a relationship with them, to care about them as people with as many passions and concerns as I have. I need to write letters in kinder ways that express why my faith nudges me to care about these concerns. I need to find out about their faith community, their faith story and how their concerns and priorities are expressed to the hurting world we share. I know that there are places where my priorities and my legislators priorities overlap, and I need to encourage their passion and I need to work with them for those shared concerns in the world.

I’ve been challenged by Friend Edward Burrough’s words from 1659: “We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other…., but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound.”

I’ve got work to do. I believe there is common ground to stand on in my polarized nation.

If only it would stop there. The wider circle of my faith community struggles with many of the same polarizations and struggles clearly visible in the United States these days. It seems much easier to spend time and energy telling one another how to believe, what words to use, what to believe the Bible says, what priorities to have and how those priorities need to be the same as my priorities. And if those in my faith community don’t have the same priorities as mine, then it seems too easy to spend time and energy dissolving the relationship, working against the “other”, or distancing myself from controversy and uncomfortable relationships. It is too easy to not listen to hearts and souls, not to engage another’s faith story and not find common concerns for the hurting world we share.

And the Spirit asks “How Christian is this response?”

I long for a faith community that works together “for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound.”

I’ve got work to do.