A New Path for Christian Political Engagement

Instead of disengaging from politics or trying to retrench into the old lines, a new group of evangelicals wants to change the terms of engagement. Launched earlier this month, Public Faith, founded by professor and writer Alan Noble and former director of faith outreach for Obama's reelection campaign Michael Wear, is trying to chart a new way forward. Rather than thinking about the public sphere as a battleground to be won or lost — as a culture war — Public Faith wants to see it as the neighborhood commons. It's a change in mind-set, Noble told MTV News. "How we can live peacefully with our neighbor insofar as it's up to us? That doesn't entail denying our core convictions, but it does mean that when we go into conflicts, we're recognizing that our neighbors do not share our fundamental values."