An all-star roster of Wyoming business and thought leaders on Tuesday announced the formation of an interfaith, geographically disparate group seeking to apply the biblical premise of being a “peacemaker” to the raging public sphere.
That’s because a silent majority in both Wyoming and the United States are exhausted with the vitriol driving civic discourse, Ron Rabou, board member of the new group Becoming a Peacemaker, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
The nonprofit organization was slated to start its functions early next year. But the Sept. 10 killing of conservative icon Charlie Kirk and other, recent political violence hastened the launch, Rabou added.
“We should be able to sit down at the table and have a discussion with each other,” Rabou said.
He added that he hopes to embody Christ’s teachings during the group’s outreach efforts, but that its function is about bearing those teachings in mind while grappling with the larger culture.
“This organization isn’t about taking a Bible and trying to beat someone over the head with it,” he said.
The group seeks to engage on social media, equip grassroots volunteers, encourage elected officials to lead with humility, and ask party structures to “reflect the grace and truth of Christ,” says a statement it released Tuesday to Cowboy State Daily.
These efforts may include a statewide professional messaging campaign, engaging faith leaders and church communities, offering candidate and campaign staff briefings on peacemaking, and encouraging Christians to “step up and step in,” the statement adds.
The Board
Matt Micheli, attorney and former state GOP Chairman, is listed as the nonprofit group’s incorporator, on a founding document filed in April with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office.
He characterizes himself, now, as a volunteer hoping to see Becoming a Peacemaker thrive.
Become a Peacemaker’s board consists of people active across denominations ranging from Catholic to Episcopalian to evangelical, to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).
Its board members are:
• Rabou, who is a motivational speaker, author, and farmer of Albin, Wyoming;
• Diemer True, a Casper-based businessman, former state GOP Chair and former state legislator;
• Former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice and current state Attorney General Keith Kautz;
• Diana Enzi, founder of a program behind the training and placement of dogs and handlers to root out landmines in war-torn areas, and wife of the late U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi;
• Jim Neiman, owner of one of Wyoming’s two largest lumbermills and a civic and Christian leader from Hulett;
• Michael Evers, a business leader and Episcopal priest, of Sheridan;
• Evan Simpson, business leader and LDS religious leader of Star Valley;
• Frank Moore, who led the Mountain States Lamb Cooperative and who is active in the Catholic community of Douglas, Wyoming;
• Patty Micheli, rancher and LDS religious leader, of Fort Bridger;
• And Mike Leman, legislative liaison for the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, and a Deacon at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Casper.
Blessed Are …
“Peacemaking” is a verb, Micheli noted, in a reference to the gospel account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which says, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
So the group must be both strategic and active about making peace across Wyoming, Micheli added. As a nonprofit it won’t be lobbying the legislature or endorsing political candidates.
To Micheli, that’s the point.
“This is a group of people that believe that if we want to see change, it has to come from outside of the political campaign process,” he said. “We’re only trying to appeal to people to follow the teachings of our savior, and to be peacemakers and seek peacemakers – and to be actively engaged in our civic politics.”
There’s a need for it, Moore said. He believes 80% of Americans can agree on most topics and disagree peacefully on the remainder. But the tone on social media and in the public sphere deceives that majority into thinking everyone’s at war.
“I’d like us to get back to the point where we can peacefully disagree with somebody,” said Moore.
He’s always had friends who think differently than he does, Moore continued, but under the recent atmosphere, “it feels like it’s a problem.”
Such Urgency
One factor driving the chasm is the constant urgency of campaign language, Leman said in his own phone interview.
“We’ve heard for quite a few elections now, that ‘This is the most important election,’” he said. “Sort of the language about that – to drive (the candidate’s) own folks to the polls – has gotten increasingly hyperbolic.”
It’s tough to remedy disputes when the political right and left use words differently, Leman acknowledged.
But when there’s a difference in how the two sides use language, goodwill must prevail, he said.
“If what we’re saying isn’t resonating, we can’t just jump to the conclusion that it’s because the other person is operating from malice,” said Leman. “If folks aren’t hearing each other, can’t we come at it at a different angle, and help them understand?”
Enzi said she has seen vitriol on both sides of the political aisle, and “a lot of angry people in our world.”
She said the organization’s focus isn’t to preach from one political side to the other, but to focus on common goals and solutions.
“We all should be looking for American solutions to problems, and Wyoming solutions – not this side or that side,” said Enzi.
Now
Kirk’s death shook the public sphere, in part because of graphic video of the fatal neck shot; and in part because Kirk was an ardent driver of open discourse.
Some on the left rejoiced Kirk’s death. Some on the right called for “war.”
In Wyoming, however, the state Republican and Democratic Parties both have voiced grief and condemned the political violence.
Rabou was concerned about another possible consequence of the growing and well-broadcast political violence: timidity reigning in spaces where people should be bold about their values, and unhesitant to speak.
“We live in a world where, especially now, people are afraid to stand up for what they believe,” said Rabou. “And now more than ever, we must stand up for what we believe.”
But, added Moore in his own interview, a peacemaker can do that in a way that is “cordial” even to his political opposites.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
