More than one person has said to me, "Can we please just vote and get this election over with?" This has been an excruciating political season that has brought out the worst in American politics. The political polarization in our nation has been reflected in our churches too. When people of faith can't talk to each other because of politics, the Body of Christ suffers.

The late Richard John Neuhaus was one of the most influential (and polarizing) theologians of the late 20th century. A former radical Leftist, he ultimately became the theological voice of the Religious Right in the 1980s and 1990s. His conversion to political conservatism was matched with a religious conversion from Lutheran ministry to the Roman Catholic priesthood. One of his enduring legacies is the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which has fueled and coordinated schism in mainline Protestantism, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

But between his far Left beginning and his far Right ending, there was a brief period during which Neuhaus lived in the political center, filled with the ambiguities and contradictions of the real world. In his 1977 book Christian Faith and Public Policy: Thinking and Acting in the Courage of Uncertainty, Neuhaus struggles in the tension of multiple perspectives. A passage from it serves as a corrective for me whenever I am tempted towards one extreme or the other:

If the church is true to its mission its public witness will not be conformed to any existing party or school of thought. The church's witness should be perceived as politically radical because it provides an independent place to stand, shaped by a distinctive understanding of human nature and destiny; because it is devoted to an Absolute Future by which all existing political designs are relativized; and because it is concerned with the misery of the poor, the marginal and those often deemed unimportant to the political process. The church's witness should be perceived as politically liberal because it distrusts the hubris by which people seek to control other people; because it believes in maximizing people's freedom over their own lives; and because it is committed to keeping the political process open to future development and correction. The church's witness should be perceived as politically conservative because it recognizes human sinfulness and therefore the fragility of humane social order; because it values tradition, custom and communal ethos, and is suspicious of designs that disregard the same; and because it insists upon the limited character of all political programs short of the kingdom of God.  (p. 63)

Religious people are often drawn to the philosophical purity and moral clarity of extremism, which offers a form of self-righteousness by eliminating the ambiguities and contradictions of the real world. The same was true in Jesus' day. When his theological and political purity was tested, he confounded his critics by refocusing their attention not on ideological purity but on purity of heart and serving the concrete needs of one's neighbor. Thus, the question "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25) transposes to "Who is my neighbor?" (v. 29), with the answer, "The one who showed him mercy" and "Go and do likewise" (v. 37).

During this heated election season and in its inevitable angry aftermath, let us also refocus our energy not on our own political self-righteousness, but on showing mercy to our neighbor - including, and perhaps especially, that Christian brother or sister who supports the other candidate.