"So are
there other Republicans at the church?" he asked me. And I laughed.
I laughed
because it was a great question, asked directly, and without a hint of irony or
cynicism. My breakfast companion was sitting across from me at a local diner
when he asked this question. He is getting to know Church of the Redeemer, but he's
been an Episcopalian for his whole life - maybe longer. And as a Republican, he
knows the drill. There are, for the record, plenty of Republicans at Redeemer,
and in the Episcopal Church. 39% of Episcopalians, to be precise, identify as
Republican. Not a small number. But compared to, say evangelical Christians,
56% of which identify as Republican, Episcopal culture simply feels a little
more politically liberal. Plus, Cincinnati is a Democratic leaning city in a
Republican leaning state. So that skews our congregation's numbers a bit as
well.
I laughed
because, it was a lovely, vulnerable question. We live in such a heated and
politically divided time. And I won't even bemoan that. I think it makes sense
that things are heated and divided. I don't like it. But I think I get it. To
many people - myself included - it feels as if the soul of our country is currently
on the line, and how we navigate these next few years will be profoundly
decisive. At the same time, we are getting more and more accustomed to living
in self-selected bubbles based on common interest or affinity. So if he's
getting to know Redeemer, he wants to know if it's a bubble. And that is a
vulnerable question, because he's sitting there over his eggs benedict asking,
"Is there a place for me?" It takes courage to wonder that aloud, and it filled
my heart with love.
I laughed, because,
and I told him this immediately, not two minutes earlier, another Republican parishioner
had just texted me to congratulate me on my 8th anniversary of
ministry at Redeemer. "See?" I joked, "Republicans!"
