海角大神

Religion and politics are the no-gos of polite dinner parties. Church and state are meant in most regards to be American democracy鈥檚 oil and water.

Overlaps are inevitable, and interesting. Some now view climate change, for example, as 鈥�.鈥� In Britain a tribunal wrestles with whether veganism is a belief that should be .

What if some of the pro-social precepts that guide many faith traditions 鈥� from the most formally ritualized religions to ones rooted in a more secular fellowship 鈥� were applied to 鈥渃ultivating a culture of citizenship鈥�?

That鈥檚 the idea behind Civic Saturday, an offshoot of Citizen University, a Seattle-based nonprofit founded in 2016 by former White House policy adviser Eric Liu. Its stated goal is to promote agency, not an agenda. Participants sing together. They read texts of 鈥渃ivic scripture,鈥� like the preamble to the Constitution.

鈥淲hichever faith or tradition you鈥檙e from, organized religion has figured out a few things over the millennia about how to bring people together,鈥� , 鈥渁bout how to create a language of common purpose and 鈥� use text to spark people鈥檚 reckoning with their own shortcomings, weaknesses, and aspirations.鈥�

Liu鈥檚 work: reaching out to the unaffiliated. 鈥淸T]hey鈥檝e been hungering for a sense of purposeful shared community,鈥� he told his interviewer, 鈥淸one] that elevates questions of moral challenge right now.鈥�

Now to our five stories for your Friday, including a look at the deepening reach of #MeToo, an update on a harrowing Afghan saga, and a check-in from Britain鈥檚 Parliament about why debaters may be losing their mojo.