In this episode, Dr. Marc Gopin interviews Dr. Heidi Ravven, Professor of Religious Studies at Hamilton University, on the urgency of embracing election celebrations for the future of democracy. As they have stated in print (https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/559308-celebrate-voting-a-different-approach-to-securing-a-democratic-american ), we Americans urgently need to safeguard the future of democracy through a creative and ritual embrace of the right to vote for every single American citizen, a celebratory approach to voting that will bind us together as one country.

One of the interesting things about America is its civil religion. We need to think about how we engage emotions in American civil religion much more carefully. How, Marc Gopin and Heidi Ravven ask, can we engage emotions in a way that brings us together as Americans, rather than the current way in which politics and social media tear us apart? American civil religion means everything that we do that makes us feel American with a kind of sacred devotion. The Fourth of July is a prime example because it brings together Americans in ceremony. Such celebrations are important in terms of freedom and equality, and they can be used to define us as Americans. Our basic moral belief in elections as a human right can be celebrated through ceremonies and rituals that acknowledge our identity as Americans. Political polarization tends to distort the brain of most citizens, driving us to obsess about how we are completely different from each other.

In Making Change's latest episode, Dr. Heidi Ravven makes the case for how much we actually have in common in terms of shared values of pluralism, respect, and equality. This is the first step, emotionally and psychologically, towards building a better relationship to the democratic process and towards elections. Elections can become a focus of many rituals, customs and ceremonies that will bring us together as a nation of common ethical values rather than a nation headed toward fragmentation.

Follow us on Facebook: fb.me/MakingChangePodcast

For questions and comments, please reach out at makingchange.crdc@gmail.com