Braver Angels: Bishop Calls for Healing Over Hostility

Mark Beckwith knows he could stay safe in rural New Hampshire and wait for the current storm to pass. Instead, the retired Episcopal bishop is asking Americans to do something harder: be brave enough to heal together.

Beckwith leads a national movement called Braver Angels, born from the deep polarization that followed the 2016 election. The group originally wanted to call themselves Better Angels, referencing Abraham Lincoln's famous appeal to our higher nature, but another organization already held that name.

The name change turned out to be perfect. "The challenges of our time called us to be braver," Beckwith explains from his home in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

As tensions escalate across America, particularly in Minneapolis following the shooting of Renee Good, Beckwith sees people retreating to their respective corners. Slurs and accusations fly freely. Physical and verbal violence increases from all directions.

But the former bishop of Newark, New Jersey, believes three ancient principles can guide us through: reconciliation, healing, and hospitality.

Reconciliation means committing to relationship even when it seems impossible. It's not appeasement or compromise for its own sake, but genuine repair and renewal of connections between people.

Healing involves tending wounds, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. Faith traditions offer rituals, prayers, and practices that provide comfort and restoration when pain feels overwhelming.

Hospitality might be the hardest right now. Drawing on wisdom from his late mentor Henri Nouwen, Beckwith describes hospitality as creating free space where strangers become friends instead of enemies.

"Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place," Nouwen taught. It means recognizing the humanity in everyone, resisting the urge to stereotype and scapegoat.

Why This Inspires

Beckwith admits this work is hard. He acknowledges his own privilege and the temptation to hide from danger. For people with targets on their backs, hospitality may feel impossible right now.

Yet he sees a path forward. When we look at others with openness and curiosity rather than prejudgment, we begin healing our democracy. When we refuse to respond to hostility with more hostility, we preserve something precious.

The growing number of people refusing hospitality to anyone outside their ideological bubble concerns him deeply. But his faith-rooted vision offers an alternative.

"We can do better," Beckwith insists. "Our personal and national health require it."