How to talk about politics when we are tired of it

As a political science major who works as the editor-in-chief at the Institute for Global Engagement, Dennis Hoover ’90 says politics is not a dirty word. 

“Deep diversity and sincere disagreement about public issues is a part of life. Being a responsible citizen and neighbor sometimes means engaging in debate and difficult conversations with civility and constructive candor. We do need to be able to discuss politics and religion in ‘polite company’—that is, with discernment and mutual respect,” said Hoover.

After a contentious election year, the sentiment might be to stop talking about politics for a while. Hoover disagrees.

“Politics is not just about elections, campaign promises or donations, and jockeying for power. Rather, politics in its fullest sense is about the political community of which we are all a part. Healthy citizen participation and neighborly engagement means bringing one’s values into public life—values that for the Christian, are naturally formed and shaped by faith,” said Hoover.

How Messiah shaped him

Hoover says he had wonderful professors and mentors who were caring, committed and intellectually gifted Christians who encouraged him to wrestle with spiritual, philosophical, theological and moral questions, including questions of peace and justice in a deeply divided world.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

“The ‘if it is possible’ phrase injects a note of realism. In some cases, peace may be elusive, or perhaps only a more proximate peace may be reached—agreeing to disagree, agreeably," said Hoover.

—By Emily Groff ’26

Sidebar:

Peanuts for Christ

Out of all the writing he has done over the years, Hoover says his favorite piece is “Peanuts for Christ,” an essay he wrote for Religion in the News magazine. As a lifelong fan of the Charles Schulz comic strip, “Peanuts,” Hoover found something lacking in the memorials when the cartoonist died in 2000: Schulz’s faith.

In the piece, Hoover cited estimates that “10 percent of the 18,000 strips involved religion.” There was even a 1965 best-seller, written by Robert Short, “The Gospel According to Peanuts,” which used the strips as modern parables.
Hoover wrote that, while there was sweetness in “Peanuts,” there was also “a substructure of decidedly non-sugar-coated Christian theology—God is sovereign, no matter how difficult things get; humanity is fallen, sustained only by the grace of God; there is an obligation of holy living, met not by ‘faith in ourselves’ but by reliance on the Holy Spirit.”