We are curious about where our audience stands in regard to the upcoming election. Are you? Our recent City Poll for our Telegram newsletter gives some answers.
Journey readers favor Kamela Harris for president of the United States. Our subscribers include many academic and media people. And, of course, there are a lot of New Yorkers. So, the result is not surprising.
At A Journey, we don’t hire according to ideological or religious preferences. Of course, over time, we usually know where each other stands. Speaking for myself, I need to listen more and talk less. I am amazed at what I learn when I just shut up.
But we all are united in trying to follow the principles of sympathetic objectivity.
That means that we listen and work hard to be empathetic to the mindset of the people on whom we report, sympathetic to their sufferings, and sympathetic (favorable) to any practices or ideas that the rest of us could profitably use even if we don’t agree with their religion or politics. Of course, we are curious about why people see things differently than we do and are pleasantly surprised that so much wisdom is shared with us. We try to pass along the good sense and tips to you.
Seeing the big support that Harris has among our readers, we realize that we must work very hard to share the wisdom and knowledge that their like-minded NYC religious people have. And, we need to be alert to pass the knowledge and compassion wealth from the Trumpers to the Harrisites, too.
We have been reticent to publish many policy stories, except as they concern freedom of religion and the health of our religious institutions. Our mission is not to discover policies. Our mission is to explore and report on the religions in New York City. We generally only cover policy by reporting on what religious people are doing and talking about.
Recently, Sid Greenfield and I hosted Brazilian anthropologist Carmen Rial for a discussion on evangelical Brazilian soccer players as global missionaries. Her presentation represented the minds and hearts of the soccer players quite well. Along the way, she noted that Brazilian Pentecostals consider anthropologists as their enemies. Yet, her presentation was a healthy, enriching appreciation (with some criticisms). I found myself admiring her integrity and honesty. I hope that we can bring the same responses from the different political groupings among Journey readers.
