Rev. Erik Hoeke: Community is what we make of it

Seventy-two percent of Americans agree that in our complex society we have a shared responsibility to engage with people different from us, according to a 2023 study conducted by More in Common US. So why are politics so partisan and divisive? And how might we meet these challenges in our neighborhoods and communities?

When I was a pastor of local churches, I had the benefit of looking out from the pulpit each Sunday morning and seeing a collection of individuals with their own beliefs, hopes, anxieties and backgrounds. A person relying on the fossil-fuel industry to make a living might share a pew with an environmental activist. Young families would chat after worship with senior citizens — each group hoping for governmental support to help them in their stage of life. Amid national conversations about racially motivated police brutality, racial justice advocates sang and prayed in unison with parents of law enforcement officers.

These people didn’t always know these differences existed. But as their pastor, seeking to understand each person’s deepest longings, I could see how the congregation was a collection of people engaging across lines of difference for a shared purpose: to connect with the divine in worship and to find a sense of belonging in a religious community.

We all seek to belong, whether it’s in a church, local pub, senior citizens center or a mothers of preschoolers group. In the last three years, I’ve relocated twice, and each time I immediately joined a running club to find a sense of belonging. There, around a shared interest, I formed a community with my neighbors: people whose religious beliefs, racial or ethnic background, type of employment and age were often different from my own. Yet each week, all of us had the same desire to go for an evening run followed by a beer or two with friends.

We have the power to create communities of belonging around us and to choose which groups to participate in. Likewise, we are capable of rejecting communities that insist on complete uniformity among its group members — something it seems that at least 72% of us do not want.

It’s easy to forget this in a political climate that often encourages total allegiance to a particular party or candidate. Yet how many of us would truly agree with every point of a party or candidate’s platform? And how difficult — and lonely — would it be to only interact with people who are entirely like-minded?

The truth is, as unique individuals in an increasingly complex world, truly homogenous communities only exist at the extremes. We already live together among differences, in many cases without realizing it. And often these differences can provide great benefits.

Recently I was in a training about mental health awareness which included religious leaders, hospice workers, social service providers, an EMT, a writer, an artist and an IT specialist. The room was filled with knowledge from so many different workplace settings and personal interests. That knowledge created a robust learning environment in which we explored many layers of an issue we all cared about. We all knew something, but none of us — not even the instructor — had all the knowledge on our own. In that space, there was room for each of us to belong, to contribute our voice and to listen to our neighbors.

When we choose to vote, we are opting into a shared, public life together. It is a recognition of this shared responsibility to engage with persons of difference and a commitment to the value of creating space for everyone to be seen and heard. Most of us want this, and there are many ways we can live it out in our local communities.

Beyond Election Day, we do have the power to choose or create spaces of belonging in which to participate, whether or not the election results are what we wanted. I hope that we choose wisely. If we do, our neighborhoods — and eventually, our nation — will be better for it.

Rev. Erik Hoeke works at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.