This week, Faith Matters was delighted to welcome Dan Vallone, the US Director for More in Common, a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to build a more united and inclusive America that is resilient to the profound threats posed by our country’s polarization.

Dan has a super impressive background, including serving six years active duty as a US Army infantry officer, with one tour in Afghanistan. He is a graduate of West Point and earned a Master’s degree from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on a Fulbright Scholarship, and later an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also spent time as a special advisor on innovation to the US Department of Education.

In this conversation, Dan spent time helping us understand why it seems we have become so divided politically in the United States. He shared some really interesting research that shows that the large majority of Americans are proponents of listening, compromise, and good-faith engagement with those on the other side of the aisle.

Dan left us with several practical takeaways about how we can be active healers in our communities, and how faith institutions like the Church can play vital roles in helping us come together and healing a divided country.

We want to extend a huge thanks to Dan for his thoughtfulness and leadership on this issue and hope you enjoy!

For more resources on healing political divides and creating unity in our communities, check out these podcasts and articles from Faith Matters:

Good News and False Gods
Proclaim Peace — A Conversation with Patrick Mason and J. David Pulsipher
Is the Constitution Hanging by a Thread? — A Conversation with Thomas B. Griffith