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The After Party urges American Christians to change their approach to politics

Families, friends, and church communities have increasingly found themselves divided along politically partisan lines, either unable to discuss important issues or estranged. Is there a way to come back from the current status quo?

According to the Pew Research Center, most religiously affiliated Americans identify strongly with one of America’s two main political parties. Eighty-five percent of white Evangelical Protestants call themselves Republicans, while 85% of Black Protestants say they’re Democrats. Meanwhile, White Catholics lean Republican 61% of the time, while about the same percent of Hispanic Catholics say they’re Democrats.

Families, friends, and church communities have increasingly found themselves divided along politically partisan lines, either unable to discuss important issues or estranged.

Is there a way to come back from the current status quo?

Some Christian leaders say Yes! And they’ve developed methods to help America’s Christians to find a better way to engage in politics. The faculty and staff at Abilene Christian University have been reading and discussing the book The After Party, and Curtis Chang, one of the book’s authors, is coming to speak to the campus and the community on October 15th.

KACU’s Heather Claborn spoke with Curtis Chang about the different approaches he and his collaborators are encouraging Christians to pursue.

Heather Claborn joined KACU as news director in January 2018. She oversees daily newscast and feature reporting and works with KACU’s news anchors to develop newscasts. She also conducts two-way interviews, reports for newscast and feature stories and maintains the station’s social media and website content. In 2020, Claborn helped staff develop the daily newsletter that is delivered by email.