When Michael Wear briefed senior political leaders, he always included a simple slide showing how many Americans identify as religious. Once, one of them looked at it and said out loud, "Oh my God, there are that many of them?" Michael tells that story to make a point Christians often miss: When Democrats seem cold toward people of faith, it isn't always hostility. Sometimes it's just ignorance.
Recorded at the Center for Christianity and Public Life's summit in Washington, DC, this conversation with Wear, CCPL's founder and former Obama faith adviser, asks why the Democratic Party keeps forgetting how to talk about faith.
Links:
Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid, Can Religion Save Democracy?: https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9781587436895_can-religion-save-democracy
Center for Christianity and Public Life: https://www.ccpubliclife.org
Michael Wear, The Spirit of Our Politics: https://www.harpercollinschristian.com/9780310367239/the-spirit-of-our-politics/
Michael Wear, Reclaiming Hope: https://www.harpercollinschristian.com/9780718082321/reclaiming-hope/
Barack Obama's 2006 Call to Renewal address (transcript): https://sojo.net/articles/transcript-obamas-2006-sojournerscall-renewal-address-faith-and-politics
David E. Campbell, Geoffrey C. Layman, and John C. Green, Secular Surge: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/secular-surge/97F16AA6E64D63718D58AF327100BFE2
