The temptation as we near the election is to go extreme and partisan (I feel this keenly, due to the high and frightening stakes of this contest over the very soul of democracy)–but I have to be careful to frame pressing issues in a firm spiritual frame.  I owe you that, and myself–to keep reminding all of us that the core of our liberal faith is just that–liberal.  Meaning: open, free, tolerant, respectful, compassionate. No doubt we are sometimes fearful, and that’s when we let in hate and our own form of intolerance, and then we defeat ourselves.  It is a hard road, but its ours to walk.