Recently, we took our oldest child on a tour of my alma mater, Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Our oldest has always navigated life with an insatiable curiosity and desire to know more. I was eager for them to have a taste of the kind of conversations that can unfold in a college classroom, and my most memorable conversations had unfolded in my politics courses taught by my favorite professor.

When I reached out to the professor, he welcomed us to sit in on one of his classes. We joined a group of sophomores and juniors in their class focused on living and learning liberty. The students were making their way through Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” Tocqueville was a French aristocrat and political philosopher who visited America and was fascinated by how well democracy was working here, given democracy did not take root the way many had hoped during the French Revolution.

Now, I’m not sure what I had been expecting, but given our current political climate and the unprecedented events of this year’s presidential race, I suppose I was expecting to encounter some cynicism or some of the general angst that has been simmering in our communities.

Instead, I saw a professor engaging Tocqueville’s text with the same eager and joy-filled curiosity that I experienced as a student 20 years earlier, and students genuinely interested in exploring the questions that Tocqueville wrestled with. They did not speak out of fear that this democratic experiment might be at risk, but rather a sense of hope and curiosity.

It did my heart good to once again see our democracy through the eyes of this professor and students, and the reminder that as messy and as broken as things may feel at times, this wild democratic experiment we are a part of does still work, and needs us to be engaging with it just as much now as ever before.

While I hope everyone reading this is registered to vote (and if you’re not, please put this column down and go do so — I beg of you), I think our democracy demands something even more of us. At this hour, our democracy needs us to be more curious than certain.

We are living during a time of deeply troubling partisanship, with a growing tolerance for misinformation that exasperates that division. Closer to home lines are drawn based on what signs or flags are on our lawns and homes. Before we even have a conversation with someone we sum them up without bothering to get to know them. Without even meaning to do so, we harden our hearts. We stop seeing our neighbors through the eyes of Christ.

We forget that each person, whatever their political views, is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26 NRSV). It can be hard at times to see the holy within each person.

Within the Episcopal Church, we make a series of promises during the baptismal liturgy that we will do just that. We reaffirm these promises each time a member of the community is baptized or confirmed, at Easter, and during other important times in community life.

Two of the promises are about how we see the sacred within our neighbors. The first question is: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? The second question is: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? Our answer to each question is the same: I will, with God’s help. Seeing the holy within one another requires that we be open minded, curious, and trust that God will help us.

In the coming weeks and months, it will be more important than ever that we look for the goodness, the Christ, within each and every person. It is there, I promise. Get the flashlight, take some deep breaths, pray for patience, love and guidance to see that goodness in the neighbor, friend, and/or family member we are struggling to understand. When we can appreciate where someone is coming from on a personal level, it gives us a greater appreciation of the bigger picture. It shifts how we perceive things and helps us to find common ground.

We do not all have to agree, but we will be healthier communities and live in a healthier democracy if we can hold onto this idea of the greater good of the human family. What if we were to embrace the hope of the professor and students; to look at this hour in our common life with a genuine curiosity and concern for the greater good? What if we set down our certitude, so we might seek out the goodness that is within one another? What if we committed in the weeks to come to remain more curious than certain?

The Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew is an emerging church community in Greenfield. We believe that God is calling us to cultivate a community of love, joy, hope and healing. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality and service. We strive to be affirming and accessible, welcoming and inclusive; we seek to promote reconciliation, exercise responsible stewardship, and embrace ancient traditions for modern lives. All are invited and welcomed. We offer hybrid worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. We are located at 8 Church St. For more information, call 413-773-3925 or visit www.saintsjamesandandrew.org.