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How do Americans speak to each other in these bitterly divided times? Well, a pastor outside Pittsburgh has been answering that question by preaching the Bible's golden rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He calls it a movement for civility, built around a handful of sermons and Do Unto Others T-shirts and lawn signs. The congregation has seen America's divisions at its most violent. The young man who nearly assassinated President-elect Trump last summer lived just 2 1/2 blocks away. In the first of our series, Seeking Common Ground, NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Tommy Longenecker (ph) is a huge fan of President-elect Trump. He's got the flag and lawn signs to prove it.
TOMMY LONGENECKER: This is an 8-by-4 Trump-Vance sign. We put a dozen signs up in our neighborhood.
LANGFITT: This big?
TOMMY LONGENECKER: Yeah. And let me tell you, Democrats don't like this sign up. They've been destroying my signs all over the neighborhood.
LANGFITT: Longenecker's next door neighbor, Bob Lewis (ph), didn't tear down his signs. But he wasn't a fan, either.
BOB LEWIS: They're a little big, a little garish, a little bright.
LANGFITT: A week before Election Day, Longenecker - you know, the guy with that huge Trump sign - was out blowing leaves when he noticed something in Lewis' yard.
TOMMY LONGENECKER: I saw a sign about a Christian theme, and it was purple. And I walked over to Bob. I said, I really like your sign.
LANGFITT: It read, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. And it spoke to Longenecker because people had torn down his signs and sometimes given him the finger when they drove past his house. After he saw the Do Unto Others sign, Longenecker told Lewis it seemed on point. Lewis described their exchange following church services one Sunday.
LEWIS: And he said, yeah, it's obviously relevant in this times. And clearly, not everyone agrees with everyone else's politics, and you maybe don't agree with mine. And I said, well, that's probably a correct assumption. And at that point, he said, but I like the message that it gives. And I like the fact that we can still get along and not be hateful and mean to each other.
LANGFITT: The two men have been neighbors for nearly eight years. It was the first time they'd really talked about their faith. Longenecker is a nonpracticing Catholic. Lewis attends nearby Christ United Methodist Church.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LANGFITT: Christ Church has nearly 2,000 members, four services per weekend, including traditional services, which occasionally feature a handbell choir...
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, the way.
LANGFITT: ...And contemporary services, which feature a rock band.
CHRIS MORGAN: How are you?
LANGFITT: I'm fine, Pastor Chris. Nice to meet you (laughter).
LANGFITT: Nice to meet you, as well.
MORGAN: So I'm Chris Morgan, and I'm the senior pastor here at Christ United Methodist Church. I'm in my 15th year.
LANGFITT: Morgan - everybody calls him Pastor Chris - says his congregation is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. And the previous two presidential elections took a toll.
MORGAN: So I had people just coming into my office thinking that the world was going to end. It was both sides, depending on the year.
LANGFITT: So Morgan drafted a sermon series to give his flock some spiritual tools to help them navigate the country's divisions in the November election.
MORGAN: We wanted to remind our people that no matter what happened, whether Trump won or Harris won, our job as followers of Christ is to remember that God's bigger than all of this. And our call as followers of Christ are to show people kindness and respect and love and humility and compassion, no matter what.
LANGFITT: Parishioner Patti Goyette (ph) said the sermon series helped her deal with personal and political divisions at home.
PATTI GOYETTE: I can tell you, in my personal life, I'm engaging with my significant other much differently. You know, I don't want to go into too many details because it's personal. But, you know, we've had a lot of struggles. And I think the messaging I'm getting from church helped me change my perspective entirely into, how do I fix this?
LANGFITT: Goyette recalled one sermon where Pastor Chris spoke about becoming stranded on a long bike ride because he hadn't had enough to eat or drink.
GOYETTE: That hit me because realistically, was I feeding and watering my relationship? Was I nourishing that? So that was a turning-point sermon for me.
LANGFITT: How have you nourished your relationship?
GOYETTE: I haven't gone into a confrontation with a higher heart rate and clenched muscles, you know? I listen, and I hear. When you do that, people stop yelling and start talking. And it makes a difference.
LANGFITT: The Do Unto Others program helped Goyette, but other parishioners had problems with it. Tony Reda (ph) ushers at one of the church services. He thinks the sermon series encouraged people to express their political opinions.
TONY REDA: I felt, and I've told Chris this - I felt like going to church was an hour of peace and quiet and trying to be closer to Christ. And I felt like that sermon series was bringing politics into the church.
LANGFITT: Reda says some in the congregation openly criticize Trump, which he found especially disturbing after Trump was nearly killed north of here in Butler, Pennsylvania.
REDA: There's people that are flat out saying, I can't believe they missed, after the assassination attempt.
LANGFITT: People at church have said that?
REDA: Yes, they have.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Vocalizing).
LANGFITT: I returned to Christ Church last weekend after the election and met parishioner Stephanie White (ph) at coffee hour. She's a big supporter of Pastor Chris but thought the Do Unto Others program didn't go far enough. White says Trump speaks hatefully about others and wishes the church had called that out.
STEPHANIE WHITE: The piece that I think is missing was the willingness to openly identify the rhetoric being used in the campaign.
LANGFITT: White says failing to do so creates a false equivalence.
WHITE: I understand the valid criticisms of the Democratic Party. I would never argue that the Democratic Party is any kind of saviors. They're not. But can we also talk about the terrible things that Trump says? And the response again is, well, it's both sides, it's both sides.
LANGFITT: But Pastor Chris Morgan says Do Unto Others isn't about calling out sides.
MORGAN: This series was not about making a statement about anyone's morality. Outside of the pulpit, I personally will stand up for what I think is right and what I think is wrong, and I have done those things. My job as a pastor when I am preaching is to help people grow in their faith and become as much like Jesus as we can.
LANGFITT: The Do Unto Others series helps some people see a shared humanity across the divide, keep family ties intact, which, in such fraught times, that's not bad.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
(SOUNDBITE OF BREMER/MCCOY'S "FORENET") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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