I grew up surrounded by Republicans.<\/p>\n

As we baled hay in the fields and made pies in the kitchen it was Rush Limbaugh blaring on the radio between farm reports. I was surrounded with suspicion about Clinton and rumors and scandal.<\/p>\n

I also had this idea of my mom as the rebel Democrat… secretly keeping her views to herself… it sparked my curiosity… I don’t know if I was right, but that was always my impression of her political views.\u00a0 I’m baking cookies with her tomorrow and I’ll have to ask.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t quite sure what to think… but I listened, and loved my family, and didn’t let politics get in the way.<\/p>\n

I headed off to college and found myself entrenched with the Democrats. Actually, many of them farther left than democrats. I began to care about different issues, found my voice, and struggled with how to engage those with whom I disagreed.<\/p>\n

<\/a>But I have always been a fence walker.\u00a0 Whether I myself leaned one way or the other, I felt like my role was to navigate the space in between.<\/p>\n

In college, that was the space between my more conservative friends of faith and my more liberal friends of action.\u00a0 I hung out, freely and comfortably, with both.<\/p>\n

In seminary, it was the space between young and old… between an LGBT community and a church that wasn’t quite sure what it meant for them to belong… between lay and clergy.<\/p>\n

In ministry, it was bring folks to the table of different sides and trying to distance my own personal beliefs so that I never closed off myself to others because of my opinion.<\/p>\n

I have always been a good listener.\u00a0 I see multiple view points.\u00a0 I understand how and why people disagree… only I cannot understand why they do it so vehemently.\u00a0 10 days after an election, I watch those who gloat and those who mourn. And what I really want to do is round them all up in a room and have them talk about what their hopes are… because they might see that they are not so different.<\/p>\n

And there really is not so much difference between your view point and mine.\u00a0 Pragmatically, we’d probably do the same thing in a given situation.\u00a0 We just emphasize different parts and set different priorities.\u00a0 That is okay. We can still be friends.\u00a0We can still be family.\u00a0\u00a0We can still worship together.<\/p>\n

I’m standing right here… in the middle… not because my heart is here – but because this is where I can best meet you.\u00a0 And when I think of it that way… that is where my heart had been all along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up surrounded by Republicans. As we baled hay in the fields and made pies in the kitchen it was Rush Limbaugh blaring on the radio between farm reports. I was surrounded with suspicion about Clinton and rumors and scandal. I also had this idea of my mom as the rebel Democrat… secretly keeping…<\/span><\/p>\n

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