In this week's episode, guest and friend John Wood Jr. joins me to discuss his "unorthodox path to Christianity" involving a beautiful journey of the heart facilitated by lessons he learned from his parents, by performing music, meeting the woman who would become his wife, and encountering Christ in others. John also shares about his pathway to working as the National Ambassador at Braver Angels, America's largest bipartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to the work of political depolarization, which you will remember as the same organization co-founded by David Blankenhorn (Episode 2), to overcome tensions, foster understanding, and help people find common ground.

John is a public intellectual, speaking, writing and organizing Americans around issues of civil society, depolarization and the practical application of moral philosophy. John writes an opinion column at USA Today, was a nominee for congress in California's 43rd district in the 2014 election cycle, and served as 2nd Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. John is a highly regarded public speaker on matters of racial and political reconciliation. He is a member of the Progress Network, an initiative of the New America Foundation dedicated to foster civilizational progress through thought leadership across a wide spectrum of views, a field builder with New Pluralists, a collaborative of organizations dedicated to civic bridge-building and racial justice, and an advisor with the American Project: an initiative of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy dedicated to restoring the communitarian roots of conservatism. John also hosts the "Uniting America with John Wood Jr." podcast.

Guest Links

https://linktr.ee/johnwoodjr

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to find more content like this, please visit my website at www.markbeckwith.net, where you can listen to more episodes (and read episode transcripts), read my blog, and sign up to get weekly reflections in your inbox. I also explore the themes of this podcast further in my book, Seeing the Unseen: Beyond Prejudices, Paradigms, and Party Lines. This episode of the Reconciliation Roundtable podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by Luke Overstreet.