Two families linked to Mennonite colleges playfully provided Harrisonburg, Va. residents with a lesson in friendship this election season.
The couples, each with a son and daughter who love socializing with each other, put up opposing political placards before their homes on opposite sides of their street, not far from the EMU campus. Mark Metzler Sawin, a Goshen College graduate who teaches history at EMU, occupies the “blue” residence with his wife Erika, another Goshen grad. Two EMU alumni make their home in the “red” house.
When the children asked their parents what this meant to their friendships, the families put up the second set of signs pointing to the other yard: “And we’re STILL friends.”
The photo has garnered more than 14,000 “likes” on the Facebook page for the non-profit group The Other 98%.
Seminary alum calls for Election Day Communion
Another alumnus, Mark Schloneger (a grad of Goshen and of EMU’s seminary), wrote a CNN blog explaining the call for an election-day communion. Posted on Nov. 3, 2012, the blog attracted over 3,400 comments and nearly 4,000 likes in less than three days.
More than 800 congregations, schools, and groups in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., have declared that they are holding an election-day communion. Seventy-one of these communions are in Virginia. The Virginia list includes Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, and Mennonite churches, including these in the Harrisonburg area: Community Mennonite, Lindale Mennonite, Park View Mennonite, Weavers Mennonite, and Zion Mennonite.
For more info, read the related news story on transforming politics on election day.
Harrisonburg Mennonite is also holding an election communion.