Matthew Brower column: Politics—it’s good for the soul

Matthew Brower

G.K. Chesterton, the English writer, philosopher and Christian apologist once wrote, “I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss. . . Nothing of importance can be separated entirely from its social effect, which is politics, or from its ultimate value, which is religion.” With our legislative session in full swing, I can relate well to those words of Chesterton.

Sometimes, when people ask what I do for a living, I explain that I specialize in “uncomfortable dinner party conversation”— religion and politics and the space where they intersect. I suppose some would say those things should not intersect and, to the extent one thinks they do, that should be kept private and out of public discourse.

But faith isn’t something we put on and take off like a costume. It’s not something we simply believe or do within the four walls of a church. Faith is integral to who we are. When we enter into discussions about important social matters, we bring our entire selves whether Catholic, Presbyterian, Muslim, agnostic, atheist, etc. In so doing, we

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