Seeking the spiritual foundations of America’s future

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—a moment of reflection, celebration, and for many, a moment of uncertainty. The country has seen generations labor to give fuller expression to the ideals named at its founding. Yet exhaustion, anger, and disillusionment amid polarization and conflict have become part of the atmosphere of public life. A letter from the American Bahá’í community points to a dimension less often examined. Some of the nation’s founding principles, including freedom, equality, and justice, it suggests, are not only civic aspirations. They are, in their essence, spiritual principles, whose fuller realization depends on the renewal of trust, love, moral courage, and a sense of shared purpose.

This is the central idea animating “A Common Endeavor: Realizing the Promise of America,” a letter from the Bahá’ís of the United States addressed to “all who hold the promise of America in their hearts.” Released as the country approaches its anniversary, the letter invites thoughtful conversation about the moral and spiritual foundations of social progress and the capacities needed for a diverse people to move forward together.

One expression of that invitation has been a series of public gatherings convened by the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, bringing together leaders of thought from government, civil society, academia, and the media, as well as representatives of faith communities and participants in grassroots community-building efforts. Each gathering has explored a particular theme raised by the letter—from the role of religion in society to the foundations of social trust and the stirrings of spiritual renewal in public life.

On Capitol Hill

At a recent press conference on Capitol Hill, Member of Congress Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania reflected on the need to recover a sense of shared purpose in a divided time. Standing with representatives of different faith traditions, he pointed to the Bahá’í teaching that all people are as “the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.”

“No matter our political party, our ethnicity, our background, our faith,” he continued, “we are brought together, bound together by our shared humanity and our shared purpose as Americans.”

Member of Congress Gus Bilirakis of Florida described the anniversary as a moment to look to “the kind of future we wish to build.” The American story, he said, “is not one of uniformity. It is one of unity amid diversity.” Spiritual renewal, he added, does not require people to “think alike or worship alike,” but invites a rediscovery of the values that bind people together: “humility, compassion, gratitude, service to others, and a commitment to the common good.”

Earlier that morning, elsewhere on Capitol Hill, a gathering had taken up the question of social trust: what sustains it, how it frays, and how it might be rebuilt. The session was co-sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who likened the letter’s spirit to what he called the ‘Oregon Way’: the patient habit of bringing people together across distance and disagreement. The work of getting across “traditional divides,” Senator Wyden said, was “so essential” at a moment when so much in public life pulls people apart.

The conversation that followed was moderated by the actor Rainn Wilson, a member of the Bahá’í community.

Karissa Raskin, CEO of Listen First Project, an organization supporting hundreds of groups to bring people together from different backgrounds, pointed to curiosity and humility as the conditions in which trust takes root, suggesting that much of the hostility people anticipate from one another proves illusory. “We’re a lot closer to each other than we believe,” she said.

Jasmine Miller-Kleinhenz, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and member of the Bahá’í community, described the patient work of building relationships one doorstep at a time, and spoke of love not as a sentiment but as a force to be drawn upon.

The same conviction echoed in the comments of Michael Toscano, whose work focuses on family and technology, spoke of the family as the primary setting in which trust and moral habits are formed. He also highlighted the need for society to make technological choices that serve human flourishing rather than erode the relationships on which families and communities are established.

The day’s conversations reached beyond the gatherings themselves. In a separate video interview with media outlet 535, Mr. Wilson joined Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut where they discussed Senator Murphy’s book “Crisis of the Common Good” alongside the themes of A Common Endeavor.

The government, Senator Murphy observed, has too often overlooked the conditions in which people find meaning and connection. He noted that earlier periods of division in American life gave rise to new forms of civic action, including service clubs created in the early 20th century by citizens who wished to serve their communities. Part of the task now, he suggested, is to create conditions in which people feel able to turn toward one another with generosity. Recalling the Declaration’s reference to the pursuit of happiness, he said that Americans are “doing our best work when we’re actually thinking about the policies we make and whether they’re actually making people feel spiritually fulfilled.”

As evening fell, a larger audience gathered for a live recording of Mr. Wilson’s podcast, Soul Boom, devoted to what its participants called “the stirrings of spiritual renewal.” Among them was Amanda Ripley, a journalist and author whose work examines various forms of conflict. Disagreement itself, she suggested, need not result in conflict. A healthy society, in her view, is one that has learned to exchange ideas well, with honesty and skill, rather than one that avoids conflict altogether. Much of the work, she added, is a matter of storytelling, of learning to tell the quieter stories of repair and connection as compellingly as the stories of conflict that more readily command attention.

A story such as that of a 17-year-old mentoring an 11-year-old, she said, can be “really compelling” when told with care and creativity. “It’s not less newsworthy than the story of violence,” she said. “Telling different stories that give us a fuller picture of what’s actually happening can help us create the world we want to live in.” Stories that convey “a sense of dignity and agency, and hope,” she added, allow people to collectively experience the joy, struggle, and promise found in acts of service and relationship-building that might otherwise remain unseen.

Vivek Murthy, who served as U.S. surgeon general, described his hope for the country in plain terms: “A place where we love better, where we serve better, and where we grow better,” pointing to neighbors who quietly care for one another as evidence that such capacities remain very much alive.

Derik Smith, a professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College and a member of the Bahá’í community, related the themes of the evening to the work of creating communities in which every person can contribute to the well-being of the whole. He described justice not only as the distribution of resources or rights, but as the creation of conditions in which latent capacities in every person can be released through service, friendship, and collective action.

In Wilmette

The series of forums on “A Common Endeavor” had opened weeks earlier near Chicago, at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, where religious and civic leaders considered the place of faith itself in the life of the nation.

Nayana Shah, a theoretical physicist and member of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, reflected that spiritual renewal cannot remain an abstract idea. “It has to come from practice,” she said.

“How does my day look different?” added Dr. Shah, “Not just intellectualization of how I’m going to think differently. It has to not stay in the head. For a renewal, the heart has to be very much at the center.”

The Reverend Alvin Bibbs, who works to bring people together across different backgrounds, suggested that renewal must be preceded by something deeper, “a spiritual awakening” in his words, before any renewal can take hold.

Mat Cotton, a member of the Office of Public Affairs who moderated the Chicago panel discussion, framed its purpose at the outset: not to enter “partisan debate” or to dwell on “particular political policies or personalities,” but to “ask deeper questions” about the moral and spiritual dimensions of the country’s challenges.

Ken Bowers, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, set the present moment within a longer arc. Each generation, he observed, inherits both the achievements and the unfinished work of those before it. Across the nation’s history, many have “struggled and sacrificed” to meet the needs of their time. The task now, he suggested, is not merely to recall the ideals of the past, but to ask what spiritual principles can help the present generation take “constructive and practical measures” toward greater unity, justice, prosperity, and peace.

The Office of Public Affairs will continue to hold discussion forums over the coming months, among them a gathering in New York, with the Bahá’í International Community. For PJ Andrews, a member of the Office of Public Affairs, the promise of the moment lies in what people are willing to believe about one another. Beneath outward divisions, he suggested, there is often more “goodwill and integrity, sincere concern for others… and a desire to find a path forward” than is commonly assumed, not only among those with whom one already feels comfortable, but also among those who may seem distant. To act on that conviction, and to learn alongside others how to do so, is the essence of the common endeavor itself.