I think my favorite songwriter of all times is Bruce Cockburn. In one of his songs ("Down Where the Death Squad Lives"), he has this haunting line: "Around every evil, there gathers love. Bombs aren't the only things that fall from above down where the death squad lives."

This image of love gathering around evil is especially poignant to me because one of our sons is a leukemia survivor. Learning about his illness meant learning about white blood cells, which quite literally gather around infection so it can be removed from the body.

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The recent Sojourners forum was, I think, groundbreaking. True, it was only a beginning, and there is much more to do, but I believe one positive outcome is that it shows there are more than three alternatives: religious right, religious left, and secular left.

I think we all sensed that the three candidates were striving to find higher ground and common ground and creative space beyond the current left-right polarizations where the air is hot and pretty stale.

Sadly, the questions were sometimes relics from the polarized territory - questions about evolution, abortion, and so on. I think what is becoming possible is a new kind of question deeply rooted in faith and values.

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