Rob Henke is a staunch Democrat who has never voted for a Republican.
Dan Szy is a staunch Republican who sees no reason to vote for a Democrat.
That they can meet in the same room without an ugly showdown may seem remarkable, but they actually do. They get together every month through a group in Missouri called Braver Angels.
Braver Angels is a national organization founded in 2016 that holds workshops and spirited discussions among 6,000 members across alliances in all 50 states.
The organization is split between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, Reds and Blues, who have decided to replace hatred and hostility with harmony and understanding.
As its mission statement proclaims: “This growing partisan animosity is the crisis of our time and threatens our nation. Braver Angels exists to address this challenge.”
Cynthia Gardner, a retired teacher who has been a member since 2020, started a Columbia Alliance this month to foster empathy and lively political discussion in the city.
When she joined the Missouri Alliance, the pandemic was holding meetings on Zoom. But in recent months, the group has been getting together in person in the St. Louis area, led by the blue-leaning Henke and the red co-chair Jane Campbell.
Once a month, the St. Louis Alliance gathers at a member’s home for a respectful discussion about hot-button topics, from immigration to abortion to teaching about race.
The two group leaders, called Red and Blue co-chairs, find articles in the media that speak to both sides of an issue selected for members to read and discuss during the next meeting.
Group members “treat people who disagree with us with honesty, dignity and respect,” according to a statement on the Braver Angels website. “We believe that, in disagreements, both sides share and learn.”
“It’s not a debate,” Henke said. “It’s a discussion, and ideally, it involves reflection on your own positions.”
Henke, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, founded the St. Louis Alliance after attending national Braver Angels workshops. He wanted to organize a group and squeeze in a meeting before the 2020 election.
As the Blue co-chair, Henke asked Dan Szy, who had also attended the workshops, to be the Red co-chair, and the two guided the group through Zoom meetings during the pandemic.
“(We started) in that really politically charged time of the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 and talked through what we were seeing in the news about the elections,” Szy said.
“We talked through every controversial topic that there was and had a spirited principled discussion among people who really disagreed but were willing to listen to one another.”
Jane Campbell took over as Red co-chair after Szy, who lives in Columbia, decided to focus on his new position with City of Refuge when the Zoom meetings ended.
Gardner was inspired to start a Columbia chapter after the distance to St. Louis caused her to rethink her involvement in the that group. She hopes to organize workshops and speaker forums ahead of next year’s election, in addition to the usual discussions.
“I would definitely like a group interested in hosting events like workshops and so forth...(and) picking a topic and discussing,” she said. “I think that’s how you build community within the group.”.
She arranged the first meeting of the Columbia Braver Angels group Oct. 4 at the Columbia Public Library. They watched a documentary about Braver Angels’ first meeting in 2017, reacted to the video and proposed recruiting a diverse set of voices through Columbia organizations.
Jennie Shirey knew about Braver Angels and said she was waiting for a chance to be involved.
“When I see news reports and realize that it feels like my blood pressure is going up just because of what I’m hearing,” she said, “I know that I want to talk back to the screen, and that’s not going to do anything.”
Columbia’s Braver Angels group may be a chance to heal the divide, said James Patterson, associate minister at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, after the meeting.
“When you really care about people, what you’ll discover is that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to make it better,” he said. “Not necessarily for things in my lifetime, but for the ones that come behind me. That’s always a beautiful place to find yourself.”
Though Braver Angels discusses contentious topics, many members have formed unlikely friendships, including those with starkly opposing viewpoints.
“Instead of the Republican, in my case, being demonized, you actually know some, and they kind of become friends,” Henke said.
“I think politics is incredibly important, but you also get the sense that there may possibly be in life more important things than politics,” he said. “And you certainly find out that you can connect with people on a human level, whose politics you disagree with.”
As the 2024 election season approaches, Gardner said she hopes Braver Angels and the new chapter in Columbia can help people “see the bigger picture” and approach political discussions with flexibility and empathy.
She plans to hold the next meeting for Columbia’s Braver Angels Alliance Nov. 6, again in the Columbia Public Library’s Friends Room, as another introduction to the format.
“It’s not about changing political views,” she said. “It’s about changing our views of each other so that we see our common humanity."
