We the People Is a Job Description
When I was a boy, my dad was the custodian at our school. Almost every day he would take me into the gym and give me basketball lessons. In our town, basketball was more than a game. It was who we were. So when I had a bad night on the court, it felt like…
Voting: An Expression of Human Dignity
What we found we could say together — and why Paths to Understanding joined Faith in America On Sunday, November 1, we gathered online for the last of our Faith in America prayer events before Election Day. Around the table were Episcopalian, Lutheran, Muslim, Evangelical Christian, Jewish and Indigenous leaders. We prayed. We did not…
The Traditions Got There First
When Daniel Yudkin read a verse from First Peter at the Bridge Building Summit, I heard it with a pastor’s ears. “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” I have read that line at baptisms and ordinations and at the bedside of the…
What Do We Owe Each Other?
What Do We Owe Each Other? The room at the Bridge Building Summit was full of people coming at the same problem from every direction. Some build technology, some make art, some run programs in schools and neighborhoods. When Daniel Yudkin of More in Common stood up, he told us he was not giving a…
PTU Partners in Faith in America
Why Paths to Understanding is part of Faith in America — and what we can all do before November 3 The contract we already share Across the wisdom traditions we walk with — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Indigenous, humanist and many more — there is remarkable agreement on two things. Every person has…
Gathering Neighbors in Different Neighborhoods
People sometimes ask us what Paths to Understanding actually does. It’s a fair question. On any given week you might find us on a television set with Jeff Renner, in a room full of clergy from a dozen traditions, on a call with a small town that just downloaded a toolkit, or in a statewide…
The Table Is Waiting. Someone Has to Set It.
For the past few weeks, I have been telling you about the argument of my new book: that we haven’t lost our values, we’ve lost each other; that morality is cooperation, so trust must be rebuilt through relationship; that evidence about groups must come from experience with groups. This week I want to talk about…
A Multifaith Statement for Free, Fair, Safe, and Honored Elections
Puget Sound Region · September 2, 2026 As leaders and people of many wisdom traditions of the Salish Sea region, we speak together — not for any party or candidate — but for the democratic process itself, and for the neighbors it exists to serve. Earlier this year, marking the 250th anniversary of the United…
Morality Is Cooperation
Last week I made a claim: America’s crisis is not a failure of values but a failure of relationships between groups. This week I want to go one layer deeper, because the two are more connected than we usually think. Ask people across cultures and traditions what makes a person good, and remarkably similar answers…