"Civility Covenant" - Jim Wallis op-ed - godspolitics.com/

"Fed up with lack of political civility"


By: Jim Wallis

November 25, 2010 06:06 AM EST posted at POLITICO dot-com

Civility just might be getting sexy.   As a preacher, it’s not often I get to declare something sexy. But I’ll make an exception for civility.

This spring, more than 100 religious leaders from across the political spectrum joined together to sign a “Civility Covenant.” We pledged to demonstrate in our own discourse and churches a better way to hold a discussion.
During the heat of the midterms, a group of 130 former legislators from both sides of the aisle issued a warning to candidates that the tone of their campaigns could undermine their ability to work effectively together as legislators.
Eight in 10 Americans believe that the lack of civil discourse among our political leaders is a serious problem, according to recent polling by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). More people agree on that fact than on what religion President Barack Obama is.
It’s little wonder that people are fed up. With more than $2 billion spent on the midterms, much of that on ugly and nasty ads, it’s hard not to think about how else that money could have been used.
New Hampshire’s Union Leader took on exactly that task. The newspaper calculated that with the money spent on trying to win just one Senate seat, a $555 check could have been sent to every unemployed resident in their state. Most other states spent far more. How many months could all the money spent in California have sustained unemployed workers?
The PRRI poll also pointed out that only one in five Americans believe national political leaders work well together to overcome differences to get things done.
This is where the disconnect is so great. What I thought was most significant is, if you dig into the numbers more, you find that most people see themselves as doing exactly what their leaders fail to do every day—getting along even with people they differ with politically.
At Sojourners, we ran a “Truth and Civility Election Watch” during the fall to introduce some accountability as to what was being said and how it was being said. We found that those fed up with all the attack ads is a sizable and growing constituency
Eight in 10 Americans who attend church or belong to a religious community believe that the people in their congregation work well to overcome differences. Christians disagree a lot. Differences range from deep matters of theology to the color of the sanctuary carpet.
But, a clear value in the early Christian Church was unity and overcoming division. The Apostle Paul used the image of a body, in which a diverse group of people had different talents and roles, but how important it was that they all work together.
Tough times often bring together people to overcome their differences and find solutions to difficult problems. This is happening across the country in families, communities and congregations.
But there is the alternate reality that tough times can lead people to find scapegoats and turn away from their neighbors in fear. The cable TV and talk radio hosts are doing their best to encourage that. Even though they dominate the 24/7 news cycle, we can’t let them win.
This doesn’t mean that politicians should leave their principles behind, or stop fighting for what they believe in. “None of us shrank from partisan debates while in Congress or from the partisan contests getting there,” the former members of Congress wrote in their letter, “During our time in Congress, partisans on the other side may have been our opponents on some bills and our adversaries on some issues. They were not, however, the enemy.”
Martin Luther King Jr. fought passionately and successfully for deeply held moral beliefs against stiff opposition. But, you never heard the kind of poisonous language and demonization of “the other side” as is so common from our politicians and pundits today.
Legislators are likely to be sorely tempted to take the easy road of demonizing the other side and making outrageous accusations to win a partisan fight or get themselves another cable TV interview. Republicans need a better purpose than to make Obama a one-term president; and Democrats need to be committed to more than just reelecting the president.
I believe there are a lot of people ready to listen to and follow those who are ready to go past the partisan surface and go to the roots of our most serious problems. There is a constituency ready to respond to political leaders who do what so many of the rest of us have to do every day -- put aside our differences and get things done.
As religious leaders, we said to one another and to the country, “We pledge that when we disagree, we will do so respectfully… and recognizing in humility that in our limited, human opinions, ‘we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror.’”
From freshman legislators to the long-term veterans please, don’t sacrifice your principles but use your leadership to make civility sexy. It just might be what we need to get stuff done.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values and chief executive officer of Sojourners. He blogs at http://www.godspolitics.com/.