What Would the Neighbors Say? with Reverend Janet Newton

Many of us received long-held admonitions about what to talk about at dinner parties — we may even have passed those same admonitions down. How to avoid heated disagreement in mixed company? Don’t talk about sex, politics, or religion. But in the absence of conversation about these most fundamental aspects of human longing and understanding, we’ve been left with nothing but assumptions which, let’s admit it, are probably wrong.

As we look out at the fraying fabric of civic discourse — and hold anxiety about what Tuesday’s election might bring — what might change in our understandings of ourselves and others if we (*gasp*) actually let ourselves speak freely about our human experience…and invited others to do the same?