Are you tired of all the animosity and vitriol that fill our society at every mention of politics or religion dividing us into two hostile camps on every possible side? So are we! We’re looking for others who want to change the dialogue from the rhetoric of polarizing animosity that is destroying the social fabric of our nation to a language of healing, where honest differences don’t have to destroy friendships. Then we can seek a broader common ground through mutual respect and compassion. The Language of Healing will help you learn how to . . . See disagreement as an opportunity for growth and discovery. Change the temper of a hostile engagement or walk away. Share mutual respect even beyond our deepest differences. Become a peacemaker in your network of friends and family. The book is divided into three main sections: An Opportune Moment. Why is this a particularly propitious moment to elevate the conversation, at least for the vast majority of Americans who are tired of those who manipulate them through fear and anger? Five Practices of a Peacemaker. What kind of conversation can lower the heat and increase the level of communication, especially where we hold significantly different views? Operating in Shared Space. Our deeply held views do not have to be subjugated to cooperate with others; we only have to endeavor to make as much space for their views as we want for ours. The end of each chapter includes three practical suggestions readers can use to practice the language of healing in their own day-to-day interactions.

When you combine courage with compassion, the world can change. Many of you were challenged and refreshed by the hope that our society is not as polarized as our media and political leaders would like us to believe. Having read A Language of Healing for a PolarizedNation you asked us to help find ways to share its content with family and friends as well as to develop new relationships with others who don't look or think like you. In response, the authors developed this conversation guide for small groups of people to have safe conversations about race, religion, politics, and sexuality in a way that can illuminate and transform the way you live in a divided world. This guide can help you and people you know : to speak your own language of healing in your corner of the world to reach out to people beyond our regular sphere of relationships, and to think proactively about how you might respond in difficult situation to disarm the tension and build bridges of honest dialogue and compassion.

America is experiencing extreme polarization and fragmentation that could split the country in two. How can we bring America back together before its too late? Laying out a quadrant framework of understanding today's political climate, Jim Belcher reveals both why we're divided and how to move beyond the left-right stalemate toward a new vital center.

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 One of Bill Gates’s “5 books to read this summer,” this New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller shows us that America’s political system isn’t broken. The truth is scarier: it’s working exactly as designed. In this “superbly researched” (The Washington Post) and timely book, journalist Ezra Klein reveals how that system is polarizing us—and how we are polarizing it—with disastrous results. “The American political system—which includes everyone from voters to journalists to the president—is full of rational actors making rational decisions given the incentives they face,” writes political analyst Ezra Klein. “We are a collection of functional parts whose efforts combine into a dysfunctional whole.” “A thoughtful, clear and persuasive analysis” (The New York Times Book Review), Why We’re Polarized reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Over the past fifty years in America, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. These merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together. Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the 20th century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and one another. And he traces the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our system toward crisis. “Well worth reading” (New York magazine), this is an “eye-opening” (O, The Oprah Magazine) book that will change how you look at politics—and perhaps at yourself.

The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too—and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems? The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.

Our nation needs healing dialogues--especially now! In the wake of the coronavirus, many of the issues dividing us as a nation and world--such as politics, race, class, gender, climate change, globalism, and religion--have only been magnified, and although the U.S. Surgeon general has called for an end to bickering and partisanship, it is unclear to what extent this will take effect. What is clear, however, is that safe, mindfully structured dialogues are imperative if we are to salvage our republic and the democratic principles on which it is built. The Depolarizing of America is the culmination of years of effort to promote safe, mindfully structured dialogues in homes, offices, classrooms, and community centers. It is an attempt to "give away" the time-tested skills and methods with which the author, Kirk Schneider, has intimate experience, to a range of both laypersons and professionals; people who yearn to socially heal. The book begins with personal observations about our polarized state, both within the United States (and by implication) the world. It follows up with a reflection on how the sense of awe toward life--issuing in part from America's founding spirit--can serve as a counter to this polarized state. It concludes with practical strategies centered on dialogue. These strategies translate awe-based sensibilities, including humility and wonder toward life, to a rediscovery of one another, a rediscovery of our potential to shape and revitalize our times. As a follow up to Schneider's groundbreaking book, The Polarized Mind, The Depolarizing of America is an essential read for those who striving for social healing and positive collective change.

Wayne Jacobsen combines the imagery of his years growing up on a vineyard in central California with the insight of his study on spiritual intimacy. In brief, meditative chapters, he illuminates various aspects of tending a vineyard and relates these insights to the lessons Christians can learn from biblical blessings of "bearing fruit", the privilege of "remaining on the vine", and the "seasons" of God's work in a believer's life.