The Need

The building is mute (what’s on your front lawn?).

The membership is mute (when was the last letter to the editor?).

The clergy are invisible (save where expected).

Our faith is private.

Our religion is private.

Our feelings are private.

A public conversation is going on without us.

Media and professors proxy for us.

We think we speak when our denomination speaks—but they are not our voice.

Petitions, demonstrations, marches, and lobby-days make an important statement, but they represent only one half of a conversation.

If you want to find out what a church member really feels and thinks, open a conversation.

If you want to know your neighbor better, open a conversation.

If you want to engage a stranger, open a conversation.

Our churches operate mainly in the private or social domains (counseling, coffee hours).

But a second, additional life exists in the public domain where we are absent.

A public conversation promises to reveal us to each other, for who we are.

Let me introduce you to another realm of life—the public realm, where everyone gets to speak and everyone gets to be heard.  

Click on “THEORY” and then the headings about the Public and Private Realms.