She’s a gay rights activist. He’s an evangelical Christian. In our new video series, they explain why “impossible” friendships can be our most valuable.
 

 
It’s a friendship that, to many people, might seem hard to comprehend: she’s a gay rights activist who worked to legalize same-sex marriage, and he’s an evangelical Christian who worked to prevent it. Yet Sheila Kloefkorn and Glenn Stanton found a way to reconcile these differences and form a friendship that suggests there’s no ideological divide that can’t be bridged. Earlier in We Are Not Divided, we told you the story of Braver Angels, the organization that initially brought them together. Now they tell us, in their own words, why they stay friends — and explain the inherent value in forming bonds with those you disagree with.
 
This is the first video in “Bridging Divides,” a five-part series for We Are Not Divided hosted by Scott Shigeoka, in which we meet people whose personal experiences show us how real-life divisions can be overcome, despite the odds. See the transcript of this conversation here.
 
Reasons to be Cheerful – Conventional wisdom says that we are hopelessly divided. That we have little in common. That our disagreements are signs of a fundamental, irreconcilable rift. But this narrative masks a larger truth. We humans are incredibly skilled at overcoming division.

For six weeks, Reasons to be Cheerful is exploring our capacity, and our deep desire, to bridge our divides. In this very special project, published in collaboration with media outlets across North America, we are delving into the many ways people come together through science, politics, technology, religion, social movements and culture. We’re telling these stories through evidence-based reporting, analysis and first-person experiences.

We will never all want the same thing. But if we can locate the bridges we’ve already built, maybe we can build more of them.
 
Visit Reasons to be Cheerful website here.