Slowing Down

Character Formation in an Uncertain Moment

In just under a week, I will wake up in the morning and have no idea what I’m going to do.

And that’s a good thing!

The One America Movement has blessed me (and all of our staff who reach seven years with the organization) with a sabbatical, an amazing opportunity to spend three months resting, thinking, refreshing, and spending more time with a family I too often see only at the end of a long day. I am so grateful.

It’s a weird time for rest. Much of the world feels unsettled. No matter your political views, things are definitely…different…right now. And as I prepare to slow down instead of speed up, I’m struck by one overriding thought:

Character formation is the path forward for our country.

Politics has become our field of moral battle, the place where we try to change the outcome of big issues that impact real people. And those big issues matter, a lot. But in the process, if we create a society of self-righteous, hateful people, a society with broken families and young people who believe that right and wrong are completely subjective, a society where we replace community and connection with distraction and isolation, then none of our hoped-for outcomes will last. We might elect somebody or pass a bill, but it won’t last. We might prevent an authoritarian movement from taking power, until the next authoritarian is smarter or more charismatic. We might wipe policies and ideas out of the public square that we don’t like, until even worse ones rise like a swamp creature out of the lagoon of our character-poor culture.

Toxic polarization tells us that we can simply rest on the idea that everything is somebody else’s fault. Character formation asks us that even if that were true, what are we called to do about it? Who are we called to be?

“For all my life, after every presidential election,” my pastor preached the other day, “there is one bumper sticker company out there who must make a fortune… because every four years, they get to reprint a design that reads, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for _____” and sell them for $8 a pop. We love the idea that our sectarianism absolves us from responsibility for the community as a whole. We love blaming everything on the other side. But here’s the thing: if we’re all children of God, we’re all children of God. Your enemy isn’t your enemy, they are your brother. No matter how misguided, how lost, how difficult, we’re in this thing together. The beggar is certainly your burden. But the hypocrite is your burden, too.”

This sermon was easy for me to agree with, given the work I do. But I’m challenged by the degree to which I live that out in my own life, or not. A three month break is a great opportunity to think about that - and to live into the kind of faith I believe changes worlds and hearts. In a culture that too often worships shortcuts, I want to be able to suffer patiently if need be, and to be challenged. In a culture that distracts us, I want to be radically intentional. In a culture that laughs along with cruelty and crudeness, I want to model shocking love, the agape love that is God’s love for us flowing outward not just to our friends and family but to the people who we think are “the other.”

I am more and more convinced that such character formation is exactly what faith traditions are designed to deliver through the unique package they offer: a connection to our creator, shared commitment to a community, ritual and tradition, and an impetus to physically show up to sit next to your neighbor, especially your neighbor who isn’t like you.

So resting isn’t slowing down, it’s actually an opportunity to work on myself, so I can in turn serve my family, my community, the organization I love, and the country I love.

What I love about One America is that we’re not trying to fix other people or manipulate outcomes or build a short-term “empire.” We are rising to support the work of faith in America in a moment when our country needs to see faith lived out. When a spiritual sickness must be met with real spiritual renewal, and not with shortcuts.

Our organization is in good hands, not because of any one leader (though our COO Chandra, who will be leading while I’m gone, is awesome), but because we are all doing the work together of challenging ourselves and each other, across our differences, as a team. The work of being committed to a challenge culture and a peacemaking mission, that seeks the reconciliation of all people through a shared pursuit of truth and a refusal to write off others.

Not a bad model for the United States of America right about now.

Andrew Hanauer is President and CEO of One America Movement