Braver Angels spreads its ‘building bridges’ gospel across Greater Minnesota

Near the eve of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, while news outlets and pundits proclaimed either delight or disaster, a group called Braver Angels Minnesota continued its work building bridges across the political divide.

From April 24-May 3, some of its leaders hit the road in Greater Minnesota with a “Reduce the Rancor” bus tour, visiting Worthington, Willmar, Kerkhoven, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Bemidji, and Brainerd. The group’s website states: “Braver Angels Minnesota is part of a national citizens’ movement that brings together conservatives, liberals, independents and others to restore trust, respect and goodwill in American politics.”

A variety of local civic and educational groups sponsored the local bus tour stops. “Communities are built on social trust and relationships,” Sara Carlson, co-chair of Willmar Lakes Area Vision 2040 and director of the Willmar Area Community Foundation, said in a news release. “It is really important that we all do our best to guard that trust and those relationships carefully so we can tackle hard things together.”

Speaking to a small group at an open house event Monday afternoon at the Willmar Area Community Foundation, Melinda Voss of Braver Angels Minnesota said the “partisan trend over the past 40 years is a national security problem.” China, Russia, Iran and North Korea want to see the U.S. divided, she said.

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“Humans are not designed to listen to the other side,” Voss said, referring to human biology and the amygdala, a part of the brain that controls emotions of fear and aggression. “We have to make allowances that we are human. We are interested in strengthening the community. We’re interested in productive conversations. We need to engage people and connect personally.”

Voss, who identifies as “blue” on the political spectrum, is a leader of the Twin Cities East Metro Braver Angels chapter. Joining her at the open house was Scott Schluter, a leader with the Greater Minneapolis Area chapter and who leans “red.”

“There’s more common ground than we’ve been led to believe,” Schluter said. There are 28 points of agreement between reds and blues with values, concerns and policy around immigration, he said. Other Braver Angels Minnesota chapters include Western Suburban, Owatonna, Ely and Northern Minnesota Alliance.

While informal conversation occurred in afternoon open house events, evening programs included “fishbowl” exercises, in which small groups from conservative and liberal perspectives took turns sharing their “hopes and concerns for the new administration.” Following that, audience members paired up to share their thoughts after listening to both sides. 

“There’s a way to connect with everyone. We must give up the idea that you are always right,” Voss said. “The other side has a right to their opinion. We blues have a lot to learn.”

COVID-19 lightning rod

A spokesperson and celebrity of sorts from the red side paid a surprise visit to the Willmar open house. Wilk Wilkinson is a truck driver from Clearwater, Minn., a podcaster and a friend of Dr. Francis Collins, former head of the National Institutes of Health.

Along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Collins and his primary scientific perspective became a lightning rod for dissent from those opposing COVID-19 mandates and vaccines. Some of the lightning bolts came from Wilkinson, who identifies as a conservative Christian.

Along with work and family, Wilkinson keeps busy hosting the podcast “Derate The Hate,” with several hundred episodes dating back to 2021. Over that time, he has become involved in the national Braver Angels organization. “We all have our blind spots,” Wilkinson said. “Braver Angels provides people with a space, a structure for contentious issues in a non-contentious way.”

Wilkinson said they met when Collins reached out to Braver Angels seeking to understand the negative reaction to COVID-19 actions. “Francis Collins has been demonized in the conservative media,” Wilkinson said. “I disagreed with him, but now we are dear friends. I got to know him as a person. All humans have the same basic needs but have different ways to get there.”

Wilkinson appeared with Collins in his home in Chevy Chase, Md., near Washington, D.C., for an interview on PBS entitled “Ex-NIH director and truck driver explore how to bridge divisions deepened by the pandemic” that aired March 26.

At the Willmar open house, Wilkinson said he also is friends with former neo-Nazi leader Jeff Schoep, who in 2020 told the New York Times that his “Nazi days” were over. “Jeff Schoep is now for counter-extremism,” Wilkinson said. “It’s an incredible story about what can happen when you engage someone hateful.”

Founded in 2016

Braver Angels, founded in 2016 with co-chairs Bill Doherty and the Rev. Jeff Thiemann, is described in a news release as “a national, nonpartisan nonprofit with a particularly strong base in Minnesota dedicated to reducing unhealthy polarization without either side compromising its values.” Braver Angels Minnesota is working to recruit communities to create new local alliances and offers a number of workshops and online courses.

Doherty is a professor and director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. Thiemann is retired as president and chief executive officer of Portico Benefit Services, a separately incorporated ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He has been an active volunteer in Braver Angels at the national and state levels.

“We are lucky in Minnesota to have such strong national leaders,” Voss said. She also noted the “civility caucus” in the Minnesota Legislature, calling the state an “ideal place” for such an effort because the Legislature is evenly divided.

The Reduce the Rancor campaign kicked off in March 2024 with the support of colleges and universities, religious and civic groups, and chairs of state Republican and Democratic parties. 

A “National Debate: Trump’s First 100 Days” was slated for the evening of Thursday, May 1, with an in-person discussion of the debate scheduled for 3-5 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Dovetail Cafe and Market in Duluth. Online registration is available at www.mn.braverangels.org.

In 2020, the organization changed its name from Better Angels to Braver Angels following a trademark dispute with The Better Angels Society, a nonprofit associated with filmmaker Ken Burns. The term Better Angels was inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, in which he appealed to the “better angels of our nature.”

Editor’s note: Forrest Peterson is a freelance writer based in Greater Minnesota.

This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

MinnPost is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization whose mission is to provide high-quality journalism for people who care about Minnesota.