Brandon and Micah discuss the considerations going into their votes (Micah, somewhere to the left of Bernie, is considering holding his presidential vote, whereas Brandon, a conservative Democrat, is that rarest of creatures -- an enthusiastic Biden voter). Meanwhile Adria philosophizes about the importance of maintaining close relationships across political divides.

Then we delve into the ways politics can toxify our faith communities. Adria lays down the Gulizia Rule regarding where it's acceptable to draw political boundaries around faith communities and where it is not. Brandon discusses how the mix of politics and faith became so toxic in his own community that he left it for another, and finally Micah weighs in with a pastoral perspective to keep us all humble.

Finally, we discuss the important of faith formation in forming our consciences for faithful citizenship, each of us tackling it from our own particular faith perspective (Brandon detects the distinct odor of Rome in Rosemary's contribution, and he is not wrong.)

Resources, links, attributions, errata:

-The evangelical college that only recently changed its policy on interracial dating was Bob Jones, not Liberty (sorry, Liberty)

-Watch this space for an update on Brandon's 100-euro shirt! Links and picture coming!

-The USCCB's voting guide, "Forming consciences for faithful citizenship" is available here: https://www.usccb.org/resources/forming-consciences-faithful-citizenship-pdf

-If you don't believe Rosemary when she says that a Catholic need not fear damnation in the absence of sacramental confession, so long as they are truly contrite (and firmly intend to get to confession ASAP), check CCC #1452 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm

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Music and sound effects credit (under the Creative Commons license):
Gustov Holst's Thaxted was performed by Kevin MacLeod
Red-tailed hawk was recorded by Craig Smith
 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Thaxted
https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/479610/

Image credit:
 https://www.vecteezy.com/holiday-seasonal/61847-grungy-easter-event-flyer-vector &
https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/147260-blue-stars-patriotic-grunge-background
and our generous graphic designer, Anonymous.