Conclusion

Chapter 7 summarizes the key findings and contributions of the book. First, it highlights the book’s contributions to understanding how broadly shared democratic ideals can refract into different understandings of what it means to be a good citizen in practice, and ultimately, different styles of engaging in active citizenship. It then discusses the implications of these findings for American democracy itself. Although Interfaith and the Patriots disagree about how democracy ought to work and the proper role of citizens within it, they share an abiding faith in the American democratic project itself. Moreover, the book suggests that this disagreement is not new, and that the complexity of America’s democratic tradition is both a blessing and a curse, fueling perpetual disagreement over what it means to be a good citizen, but also encouraging political commitment. It concludes by suggesting that as long as groups like Interfaith and the Patriots continue to cultivate and enact many different stories of America, and no single story becomes dominant, then citizens can productively interrogate their respective benefits and drawbacks.

Putting Faith into Action

Chapter 4 demonstrates that Interfaith and the Patriots developed different ways of enacting active citizenship in the course of their work together, and specifically their efforts to put their faith in action. Although both groups asserted that there was a public role for religion in diverse and pluralistic democratic societies, they differed in their understandings of how this should work in practice. Interfaith’s efforts to put their faith in action were driven primarily by concerns about religious inclusion, while the Patriots were driven primarily by concerns about religious liberty. Participants in the groups thus emphasized subtly different religious values, developed different ways of engaging with religious others, and engaged in different kinds of religious (and civil religious) practices. The chapter concludes by tracing the groups’ choices about how to put their faith in action to differences in their democratic imaginaries—their ways of understanding how democracy works and the proper role of active citizens in it.

Becoming Active Citizens

Chapter 2 focuses on similarities in the ways in which members of Interfaith and the Patriots described their choice to become more active citizens, despite significant differences in their demographic compositions and policy demands. For members of both groups, this process involved waking up, standing up, and speaking up—acts that were described as democratic and sacred responsibilities alike. In justifying their choices and distinguishing them from alternatives, participants in both groups drew loosely on a “civil discourse” that valorized the qualities associated with active citizenship, while critiquing or distancing themselves from fellow citizens who chose not to wake up, stand up and speak up. In the process, they also drew on “civil religious discourse” that infused active citizenship and American democracy itself with sacred significance.

Styles of Active Citizenship

While Chapters 4 and 5 demonstrate a correspondence between Interfaith's and the Patriots’ styles of active citizenship and their respective democratic imaginaries, Chapter 6 specifies a key mechanism through which each group’s way of imagining what it means to be an active citizen influenced how they actually practiced active citizenship. Close attention is paid to moments of disagreement and conflict within each group: over whether to be civil or confrontational in interactions with public officials; whether to pursue self-interest or the common good; whether to speak with a collective voice or as individuals; and whether to attempt to replace or persuadeelected officials who did not represent the groups’ interests. In each case, the choices both groups’ made were shaped by conscious considerations of what kinds of actions were most appropriate for “groups like them,” in light of their ideal visions of how citizens in a diverse democracy should interact with one another and with government, under God’s watchful gaze. As the groups embraced practices that felt appropriate and rejected others that seemed inappropriate, they were channeled toward different group styles of active citizenship.

Narratives of Active Citizenship

Chapters 3 traces how Interfaith’s and the Patriots’ shared commitment to the ideal of active citizenship began to refract into two different group styles of active citizenship. Specifically, this chapter identifies a key process through which the groups’ developed different ways of imagining what it meant to be an active citizen in practice. Both groups drew on American culture and history to develop narratives of active citizenship, yet the groups’ narratives highlighted different combinations of characters, events and plotlines that coalesced into different ideal-typical models of active citizenship—the prophet and the patriot. The fact that they told such different stories about the origins and development of the American democratic project reveals profoundly different democratic imaginaries—ways of understanding how democracy works and the proper role of active citizens in it. Consequently, when these narratives were referenced in the course of the groups’ efforts, they offered different blueprints for their action.

Holding Government Accountable

Chapter 5 demonstrates that Interfaith and the Patriots developed different ways of enacting active citizenship in the course of their work together, and specifically in their efforts to hold government accountable. Although holding government accountable was a central component of both groups’ efforts, the ways in which they organized their neighbors for collective action, described how accountability should work, became informed about political issues and processes, and interacted with public officials differed in significant ways. Interfaith’s efforts to work alongside public officials to solve shared problems were grounded in a vision of a covenantal relationship between moral communities, political authorities and God. Meanwhile, the Patriots’ confrontational relationship with government reflected a contractual model of citizenship, which framed their individual God-given rights as perpetually threatened by government control. The chapter concludes by demonstrating that the groups’ choices about how to hold government accountable reflected differences in their democratic imaginaries—their ways of understanding how democracy works and the proper role of active citizens in it.

Introduction

Chapter 1 introduces readers to Interfaith, a progressive faith-based community organizing coalition, and the Patriots, a conservative Tea Party group. It depicts members of both groups struggling to move forward in the wake of the Great Recession, and as a result choosing to become more active citizens capable of inserting their voices, values, and knowledge into the policy debates that impact their lives. It then situates the groups’ efforts in the historical contexts of changing conceptions of good citizenship and rising societal secularization, enabling readers to discern previously unrecognized convergences and divergences in how these groups engage in active citizenship. Finally, it describes the research methods that were used to study these groups and provides an overview of the key arguments and contributions of the book.