The Challenge of Polarization

TONIGHT'S

ABOUT THE SERIES

In a moment defined by cascading crises, many across the nation and world are wondering aloud about the future of American democracy. In the months ahead Princeton Theological Seminary will confront this uncertainty head-on, convening a series of timely conversations with leaders poised to shape that future.

If you have questions or suggestions for the series moving forward, email democracy.panels@ptsem.edu

To receive information about upcoming conversations and resources in the series, sign up at bit.ly/PTSdemocracyseries

COMING UP

THE CHURCH IN A NATION DIVIDED: PERSPECTIVES ON FAITHFUL LEADERSHIP TODAY Featuring

Rev Melissa Florer Bixler Rev. Duke Kwon and Bishop Karen Oliveto CAN BIPARTISANSHIP BREAK THROUGH?

A Conversation with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy

THE DEEPER SOURCES OF POLARIZATION IN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LIFE

Featuring Robert Wuthnow and Gerardo Martí

PANELISTS

ANE COASTON

ane Coaston is the host of the New York Times podcast "The Argument " Her writing has been featured in publications ranging from National Review to ESPN Magazine, and she is an ABC News contributor She lives in Washington, DC with her husband.

REPRESENTATIVE PETER MEIJER

Representative Peter Meijer is proud to represent Western Michigan, where his family has resided for four generations Peter's grandfather, Fred Meijer, instilled in Peter a love for West Michigan and inspired him to pursue a path of purpose and service

Upon graduating from East Grand Rapids High School, Peter enlisted in the Army Reserves. He was deployed to Iraq as a non commissioned officer, postponing his studies to serve with an intelligence unit at joint US Iraqi bases in the Baghdad area While in Iraq, Peter conducted intelligence operations to protect American and allied forces As a sergeant, he led soldiers and missions that resulted in the detention of enemy operatives responsible for killing American soldiers

After returning from Iraq in 2011 and finishing his undergraduate studies at Columbia University, Peter joined Team Rubicon, a veteran based disaster response organization With Team Rubicon, Peter led humanitarian efforts in South Sudan dealing with a refugee crisis He also led operations in New York after Superstorm Sandy and Oklahoma after a series of devastating tornadoes

In 2013, while in the Philippines leading a Team Rubicon response team to Super Typhoon Yolanda, Peter accepted a position with a conflict analysis NGO in Afghanistan Peter ran the NGO's advisory operations in southern Afghanistan from Kandahar City, managing a large team to help aid workers safely provide relief to the Afghan people Peter last served as Acting Deputy Director for Afghanistan, delivering emergency assistance to aid workers after kidnappings and targeted killings From Afghanistan, Peter obtained his MBA at New York University before returning to Michigan to work in urban redevelopment and real estate.

Representative Meijer was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2020 Representative Meijer is also a proud member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group working to find common ground on many of our country’s key issues He resides in Grand Rapids with his wife Gabriella.

PANELISTS

SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND

Symone Sanders Townsend is an author, seasoned democratic strategist and host of “SYMONE” on MSNBC and MSNBC on Peacock

Symone rose to prominence in 2016 as the national press secretary for U S Senator Bernie Sanders’s then presidential campaign At 25, she became the youngest presidential press secretary on record and was named to Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of 16 young Americans shaping the 2016 election. At 29, she published her first book, No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America and served as a senior advisor for President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign At 31, Symone was appointed as a senior member of the Biden Harris administration serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris Now, at 32, Symone’s namesake show provides essential context on the most pressing issues facing Americans today and creates the discourse missing in the media.

A communicator with a passion for problem solving and social justice, Symone served as the national chair of the Coalition of Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee and a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice before joining Senator Sanders’s campaign There, she worked to raise the profile of young voices in the fight for juvenile justice reform and brought millennial perspectives to policy conversations. Prior to joining the Biden Harris administration, Symone owned her own consulting firm where she helped clients find sound solutions to tough political and social problems

Symone is a former political commentator for CNN and resident fellow of both Harvard's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School and the University of Southern California's Center for the Political Future.

She is a native of North Omaha, Nebraska and currently resides in Washington D C with her husband, Shawn

CONVENERS

DR. HEATH W. CARTER

Heath W. Carter is associate professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he teaches and writes about the intersection of Christianity and American public life He earned a BA in English and theology from Georgetown University in 2003, an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2005, and a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame in 2012.

Carter is the author of Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago (Oxford University Press, 2015), which was the runner up for the American Society of Church History’s 2015 Brewer Prize He is also the co editor of three books: The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class (University of Illinois Press, 2016), Turning Points in the History of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017), and A Documentary History of Religion in America, 4th Ed. (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018).

He is working on a new book entitled On Earth as it is in Heaven: Social Christians and the Fight to End American Inequality, which retells the story of the American social gospel By the 19th century, some American Christians had come to see participation in fights against structural inequality as essential to their faith. Over the course of roughly 100 years, stretching from 1865 to 1965, these believers women and men, Catholic and Protestant, black and white and Latinx cultivated a proud, if fractious, social Christian tradition that transformed not only the churches but also the nation as a whole This book tells the story of how little known activists, eminent theologians, radical preachers, and progressive politicians powered faith filled movements for a more egalitarian United States of America

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Princeton Theological Seminary, founded in 1812, is the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church Its mission is to educate leaders for the church of Jesus Christ worldwide. Its students and more than 11,000 graduates from all 50 states and many nations around the world serve Christ in churches, schools and universities, healthcare institutions, nonprofit agencies, initiatives for social justice, mission agencies, and the emerging ministries of the church in the 21st century

For more information, go to www ptsem edu