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All Things Considered

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Religious affairs programme, tackling thorny issues in a thought-provoking manner

Religious affairs programme, tackling the thornier issues of the day in a thought-provoking manner

All Things Considered: Agreeing to disagree and the health of democracy

Factual: Politics

05/07/2020

Agreeing to disagree and the health of democracy

BBC Radio Wales - All Things Considered, Agreeing to disagree and the health of democracy

In a highly polarised political environment, can we still agree to disagree?

In a highly polarised political environment, can we still agree to disagree? Rosa Hunt discusses the issues.

250 years ago this November, the Methodist John Wesley preached a sermon in which he popularised that phrase: “agree to disagree”. The idea that those with opposing points of view can co-exist within a system, has always been essential for democracy to work. In both the US and the UK, the democratic practices of churches had a significant impact on the development of our contemporary political systems.

But there’s a growing sense today of polarisation in democracies around the world, epitomised by this year’s particularly bitter US election battle. What’s happened to our ability to agree to disagree? What could we learn from those democratically pioneering churchmen, and does a faith-driven ethic have anything to offer democracy today?

Talking to Rosa Hunt about these issues are:

Chris Anderson: social scientist, a professor in policy and politics at the London School of Economics
Gina Miller: Political campaigner
George Craig: Methodist preacher and a former senior civil servant at the Welsh Assembly
Rev Jamie Washam: Minister of the First Baptist Church in Rhode Island
Philip Jenkins: professor of history and religion at Baylor University in Texas, and a contributing editor for American Conservative Magazine
Sarah Teather: former minister in the coalition government, now the director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the UK

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