{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Reclaiming Civic Agency, with Michael Wear","description":"Underneath all the political polarization, rage-baiting, punditry, and aggression, there is a crisis of civic agency. American citizens feel politically disempowered and undermined. And the effect, over time, will be that we lose our ability to self-govern. What is needed is a path between belligerence and withdrawal. In this episode, Michael Wear (Center for Christianity and Public Life, author of The Spirit of Our Politics) joins Mark Labberton to discuss provocation and political effectiveness; the value of gentleness in public life; concrete signs of hope in local political action; the open horizon of the 2028 primaries; and what it would take to reset America\u2019s political \u201cagency quotient.\u201d Episode Highlights \u201cChecks and balances is just a longer way of saying agency.\u201d \u201cI think gentleness is profoundly underappreciated. I think that people are on guard for being taken advantage of, for being imposed upon, for being manipulated, for being used.\u201d \u201cIn parenting and in politics \u2026 we could really, especially in the moment, delude ourselves into thinking that to get a reaction and to be effective are synonymous.\u201d \u201cChristians have an alternative imagination that our politics desperately needs, and we're actually robbing the public of that.\u201d \u201cWe continue down this crisis of \u2026 both a real and perceived lack of agency, in such a way that the project of self governance is made incoherent.\u201d About Michael Wear Michael Wear is the founder, president, and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan Washington nonprofit that contends for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. He directed faith outreach for President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign and served in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, among the youngest White House staffers in modern history. He is the author of The Spirit of Our Politics and Reclaiming Hope, and co-author of Compassion and Conviction. Helpful Links and Resources Michael Wear\u2019s website, with his writing, speaking, and social channels: https:\/\/www.michaelwear.com\/ The Spirit of Our Politics, Wear\u2019s most recent book: https:\/\/www.michaelwear.com\/spirit-of-our-politics Reclaiming Hope, Wear\u2019s first book: https:\/\/www.michaelwear.com\/reclaiming-hope The Center for Christianity and Public Life: https:\/\/www.ccpubliclife.org\/ \u201cPolitics should not just happen to you\u201d: https:\/\/theheartofthepublic.substack.com\/p\/politics-should-not-just-happen-to For the Good of the Public Summit, October 5\u20137, 2026, Washington, DC: https:\/\/www.ccpubliclife.org\/summit Settled, the Minnesota nonprofit building church-based Sacred Settlements: https:\/\/www.settled.org\/ Civic Trust, Matt Harder\u2019s participatory budgeting organization: https:\/\/www.civictrust.us\/ Michael Wear on X: https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelRWear Show Notes Contending for the credibility of Christian resources in public life CCPL turns four this October; the For the Good of the Public summit, Oct 5\u20137 in DC Why pairing a think tank with intensive leadership formation is personally sustaining, not just strategic Gentleness as an underrated public virtue; bodies relaxing once people sense they won\u2019t be imposed upon Parker Palmer on a politics made of brokenhearted people Getting a reaction versus being effective; the diminishing returns of provocation, until the mission\u2019s telos shifts unnamed Jesus writing in the sand as an interruption at a moment primed for violence Dallas Willard on formation: not the practices but who you are, on the spot Pope Leo fielding American-frame questions and answering in ways that break the frame\u2019s logic The pastor who mistook refreshing RealClearPolitics five times a day for civic involvement A caution against a posture toward the church more dour than reality calls for Settled\u2019s church-hosted Sacred Settlements in Minnesota, built on bipartisan zoning reform: https:\/\/www.settled.org\/ Leaving the Obama White House more hopeful than arriving A decade that stripped ordinary agency: contested elections, COVID isolation, AGI moguls, social media reversals San Francisco AI planning, where \u201ctop-down imposition\u201d meant opposite things to technologists and theologians Congress\u2019s dereliction\u2014Yuval Levin\u2019s institutionalism, plus the Chevron and unitary-executive critiques Abdication that disempowers not just 435 House members but the voters who sent them East-West contrast: California\u2019s robber-baron drive and agency reserved for the wealthiest Resetting the agency quotient; participatory budgeting via Civic Trust: https:\/\/www.civictrust.us\/ Open 2028 primaries in both parties as a possible reopening of the horizon Christian agency surrendered through alignment versus exercised through accountable loyalty Checks and balances as another name for agency #CivicAgency #SpiritOfOurPolitics #FaithAndPolitics #Gentleness #ParticipatoryBudgeting #CivicRenewal #ChristianityAndPublicLife #MichaelWear Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary. ","author_name":"Conversing with Mark Labberton","author_url":"https:\/\/comment.org\/shows\/conversing\/","html":"