Faith in America is “a load bearing wall in our democracy,” says Jonathan Rauch, a journalist, author and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in the Governance Studies program.

Faith gives people connections so that they don’t feel as lonely or lost, said Rauch. It gives people a sense of why they’re on the planet and how to use the freedoms found in the United States.

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But when faith collapses, he explained, people look for substitutes, including politics. A civic theology is needed to bridge differences and he has found it in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It’s a surprising conclusion for a man who is an atheist in a same-sex marriage, but who spent the past week in Utah, including at BYU speaking with students and faculty urging students to realize the unique opportunity they have.

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“Partisanship is the new religion in America, and it is pulling us apart.”

But there is hope and it resides here in Utah, he said as he also spread his message at the University of Utah this week.

Rauch — also an activist, and award-winning author — joined a Deseret News “Yellow Couch” interview. In the video, titled “Christianity’s broken bargain with Democracy,” he answers questions about Christianity, democracy, his association with leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the leadership of the current administration.

Christianity, he said, is “pretty good about what they call discipling people, bringing people into the ways of Jesus Christ in their family lives and church lives and community lives. But there’s a big hole for civic discipleship — which is helping create a theology around how would Jesus want us to behave in our public lives.”

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