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An Inauguration Like No Other
As the United States holds its 74th Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2025, we will all have to do our part in keeping the ship of democracy sailing. One symbolic way to do that is to spend some time with the Inaugural poets, and add some meter and rhyme to a disordered day. President Trump has chosen not to include poetry in his ceremony, but other recent presidents have. Here you will find “every inaugural poem ever performed (there are fewer than you think)”.
A Journey Ends: The Days After the Election
A round-up of favorite practices to strengthen democracy.
1 Week to Election Day: What to Do in between Voting and Results
An invitation to weather uncertainty, anxiety, and impatience by plugging into a more transcendent story.
2 Weeks to Election Day: The Necessity of Superficial Bonds
An invitation to create casual, shallow relationships with those who see the world differently.
3 Weeks to Election Day: Lament as an Alternative to Anger and Anxiety
A reflection on the wellness benefits of expressing yearning, anger, and disappointment.
4 Weeks to Election Day: The Telescope and the Magnifying Glass
An invitation to settle in for the long haul in the struggle to defend democracy.
5 Weeks to Election Day: A Parable for Democracy
A parable about the freedom of shifting from "I" to "we."
6 Weeks to Election Day: Reading Our Way Into the 21st Century
Highlights the democratic spirit of five of the new century’s greatest books
7 Weeks to Election Day: Welcoming the Stranger?
A call to settle our bodies and then act on behalf of our refugee neighbors.
8 Weeks to Election Day: Spiritual Literacy in the United States Capitol
An exploration of how monuments and memorials could be less problematic.
9 Weeks to Election Day: Creating "Thin Places" in Your Community
A challenge to reach across the differences that unnecessarily (and unhelpfully) separate us.
10 Weeks to Election Day: Do Something!
A call for all of us to volunteer for causes and concerns close to our hearts.
11 Weeks to Election Day: Faithfully Convening on the Issues, Part 2
A guide to making hay in a most turbulent convention season.
12 Weeks to Election Day: Democracy Testimonies
A guide for discovering personal stories about life in a democracy.
13 Weeks to Election Day: A Movement in Bad Faith
A warning about the ways that Christian nationalism threatens democracy, religious freedom, and Christianity.
14 Weeks to Election Day: Pause the Politics and Play the Olympics
An invitation to take a break from the overwhelming news and indulge in the friendly competition of the 2024 Olympic Games.
15 Weeks to Election Day: Facing the Reconing
An invitation to revisit the work of Resmaa Menakem, whose reflections on U.S. upheaval feel more descriptive by the day.
16 Weeks to Election Day: Faithfully Convening on the Issues
A guide to making hay in a most turbulent convention season.
17 Weeks to Election Day: Oceans Rise, Empires Fall
A reminder of where real power comes from.
18 Weeks to Election Day: A Post-Debate Spiritual Roundup
How to recover from a particularly disheartening political event.
19 Weeks to Election Day: Practicing Democracy When Debates Lack Diplomacy
A reflection on how to approach presidential debates with grace and generosity (even if the candidates don’t).
20 Weeks to Election Day: Giving Them Something to Talk About
Conversation cards that help clarify the values, virtues, and visions of democracy.
21 Weeks to Election Day: Celebrating Pride in the Wake of Progress
The joyous celebrations of Gay Pride as a counter to the historical shadow of shame.
22 Weeks to Election Day: The Music of Democracy
A reflection on how music can express different kinds of patriotism.
23 Weeks to Election Day: We Need to Talk - Part 2
From clashes to covenants — how a church that seemed to be a tinder box created a sacred flame.
24 Weeks to Election Day: We Need to Talk
A story about a church struggling with Christian Nationalism.
25 Weeks to Election Day: The Personal and the Political
A reminder to tend to our personal, non-political needs as we worry about the national and international news.
26 Weeks to Election Day: Healing the Heartbreak of a Family Divided
How to deal and heal when political divisions affect your treasured relationships.
27 Weeks to Election Day: Sacred Resistance on the Campus Green
A plea to do better by our students as they practice their civil rights.
28 Weeks to Election Day: Inaugurating a Movement in New Haven
Takeaways from the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy Conference at Yale University, gathered to counter extremist forces opposed to democratic ideas like civil rights and the common good.
29 Weeks to Election Day: Brightening Up Tax Day with Gratitude and Dissent
A ritual for making meaning out of an often-dreaded responsibility.
30 Weeks to Election Day: Renouncing Racism in Local Politics
Finding collaboration, justice, and mercy in the messiness of a city council debacle.
31 Weeks to Election Day: Honoring the Earth
Reflections on U.S. National Parks, "America's best idea," to get us through the cruelest month and on towards summer days.
32 Weeks to Election Day: Noticing and Nurturing Micro-Democracies
How a visit to a dog park revealed people coming together for the common good.
33 Weeks to Election Day: Nurturing Right Relationship with Fear
Political fear-mongering as an opportunity to pause and get to know your body's response to this common emotion.
34 Weeks to Election Day: Practicing Fusion Politics with the Poor People's Campaign
Practices inspired by a movement that puts moral policies and people over party affiliation.
35 Weeks to Election Day: Reflections and spiritual practices for voting in the primaries
Reframing voting as a sacred rite and an opportunity to believe that anything can happen when we use our agency.
