E-Book Overview
"How Do We Ever Speak with One Voice Again in Our Divided and Angry Country?"It is amazing how one America is isolated from the "other" America. The red/blue state divisions run so deep that it is possible to live without any interaction—ideological or otherwise—with those who hold different opinions than oneself. We are a people alienated, from ourselves and from our government. The authors, an odd mix across the Blue/Red divide—one a founder of the modern evangelical movement, the other a liberal Jewish former Clinton aide—hold an extended conversation across many months, several states, and two countries—sometimes contentious, sometimes funny, exploring the idea of how unlikely pairings—and thus, the entire country—can come together. They argue that we're entering a new era in history, and now is the time to rise up to it; to make ourselves able to tackle the enormous problems in our laps; to, in effect, move mountains.
E-Book Content
HOW FREE PEOPLE MOVE MOUNTAINS A Male Christian Conservative and a Female Jewish Liberal on a Quest for Common Purpose and Meaning
KATHY ROTH-DOUQUET and FRANK SCHAEFFER
Frank’s Dedication For my son Francis, a man of many talents who, with top academic credentials (and virtually unlimited opportunities), chose the vocation of teaching high school. Through his devotion to his students and the sheer joy he brings to teaching, Francis has changed countless lives for the better. Francis gives me hope for our future.
Kathy’s Dedication For my father, Ed Roth, and my mother, Debbie Roth, of blessed memory
Contents ✯ 1. Opposites Well Met
1
2. Rock or Sand?
9
3. Things That Change, Things That Endure
19
4. God, Secularism, and a New Agora
31
5. The Devolution of the American Experience
45
6. The Source of Goodness
55
7. Beginning to Imagine a New Dream
69
8. History Unfolds and We Respond
81
9. Lessons from a Village
87
10. What Makes Us Tick?
95
11. Countercultures: From the Met to the Military Base
107
12. The Good of Good
119
13. Making a Great Generation
127
14. Politics Matters
139
15. Principles Matter
149
16. God and Darwin Shake Hands
169
17. A Marriage of Equals
181
18. Blending Voices
193
Notes Acknowledgments About the Authors Other Books by Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher
203
1. Opposites Well Met ✯
Kathy Imagine Susan Sarandon and Clint Eastwood arm-wrestling. That’s Frank Schaeffer and me. Frank helped launch the religious right; I wore the blue staff badge of Bill Clinton’s West Wing. He’s post-evangelicalism Christian; I’m what he calls post-Judaism Jewish. He’s St. Paul and Fra Angelico; I’m sociology and political science. He’s a sermon on Armageddon; I’m I’m OK, You’re OK. A couple of decades ago we rallied on opposite sides of mass demonstrations. Once, we never would have met, let alone practically lived together for nearly a month. I left two small children and a husband at home and Frank and I rolled down the tarmac together—highways, airports,
HOW FREE PEOPLE MOVE MOUNTAINS rental car counters, hotels, restaurants. And though Frank was someone I had met just three times before, someone edgy, worldly, and handsome, this was no love affair. He was my coauthor. We were traveling to publicize AWOL, our first book. We met the first time when I went to one of Frank’s book signings. I showed up because he was a guy writing about a subject I wanted to write about. I went with the wild fantasy that we’d get to talking and this author whose work I’d r