Amid political division, service unites: President Carter’s pastor offers hope

Less than two weeks before one of the most polarizing elections in U.S. history, Pastor Tony Lowden, who has served both Democrats and Republicans, offered a simple message to help people of all political persuasions find common ground: Follow your faith, and help others.

“We’ve become so polarized because of what’s happening in our politics. It reaches in our households, our communities, our streets, places of worship, our jobs,” Lowden said. “But my question is, will you fight the good fight no matter what? We’re not going to worship the Democrats or the Republicans, the donkey or the elephant. We’re going to be focused on our mission.”

To Lowden, that doesn’t mean avoiding the political world. It means engaging wherever and whenever possible, as long as it empowers him to do what his faith impels him to do: care for the disadvantaged, especially children, the homeless or impoverished, and those in prison. It’s why he joined the Trump administration as “reentry czar,” helping prisoners rehabilitate and rejoin society, and why he ministers to former president Jimmy Carter.

Dr. Yohuru Williams, Professor of History at the University of St. Thomas and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative, noted that this bipartisan engagement offers inspiration: “Your journey is all about encountering people whom you have differences with,” he said. “And yet you find a way in the awkwardness, the discomfort, to find that pathway forward…”

Moving beyond a troubled past with faith and forgiveness

Lowden’s early years gave him firsthand experience of how the world can be to those on the fringes – but also, a life-changing lesson in the difference a single person and the discovery of faith can make.

He described in detail growing up in a north Philadelphia “trap house” run by his mother, where drugs, alcohol and crime dominated. And where he suffered physical, verbal and emotional abuse. But he also had his “Nana,” who lured him to church every week with the promise of banana pudding. She ministered to his wounds, prayed over him and helped him.

“How can I help you help them?” A president’s example

Pastor Lowden’s mission led him to college, where he studied economics and government; to the seminary; and eventually to a church in Georgia. There he engaged with the state’s Republican governor on prison reform, founded a non-profit to help at-risk kids, and eventually was requested by former president Carter to preach at his church and become his personal pastor.

Now 100 years old and in hospice care, Carter has been a source of inspiration for Lowden. “Every time I go to visit him, he asks me four questions: Where have you been? What have you done? Who have you helped? And how can I help you help them?” Lowden said. “There’s nothing physically that he can do. But he still believes that there’s something inside of him that he can give.”

Lowden sees Carter as an example of what we are all called to do: to help others however we can. Whether as president of the United States working to eradicate a disease or as a private citizen building houses for Habitat for Humanity, he said, acting with intention and humility is the aim.

Lowden recalled visiting some of the houses Carter helped build decades ago and finding they were in poor repair. It was a chance for Lowden to live out Carter’s example – using his White House connections, he contacted the owner of a roofing business he had met and secured free repairs for those houses. “This gentleman, who was a Republican, was encouraged because this man of God [Carter], who was a servant leader, wanted to help people who did not have a roof over their homes,” Lowden said.

Ants and snakes: No act is too small

Lowden’s time in the Trump White House was another chance to cross the political divide, and Carter approved: “He said, when your country calls you to serve, you have to serve regardless of who’s in office.” Lowden helped set policy for prisons in a bipartisan manner, although he left the administration when he felt he couldn’t support its response to the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Whether in government or out, however, he emphasized that everyone can help in some way, big or small. Dr. Williams underscored that point in an anecdote about Lowden and himself walking through the same Georgia cemetery that Carter and Lowden had previously visited.

“I’m deathly afraid of snakes,” Williams said, and asked if they might encounter any on their visit. “[Lowden] says, ‘there are definitely snakes, Dr. Williams, but you really have to be concerned about the ants because you’ll see the snake coming.’ That’s the same with our politics, too. People look for the big predator, and they miss the little things that inflict such poison and pain.”

In the same way, people should look for opportunities of any size to help, and not be distracted by things they can’t control. Even a weekly banana pudding can “be the pebble that makes the ripples,” Lowden said, referring to an inspirational quote he encountered while on the University of St. Thomas campus in St. Paul.

Are you feeling anxious about the upcoming election? Reverend Tony Lowden gives advice on how to make it through by focusing on your mission.

Finding Forward’s next event will be held on November 20th

Finding Forward and the Luann Dummer Center for Women welcome Grammy-winning artist, author and Minnesota native Dessa for a conversation about the power of storytelling, and much more.

Her new book, Bury The Lede: A Cocktail Book, features essays about artist collaborations encased between drink recipes, demonstrating the alchemy behind bringing different ingredients together to create something wholly new.

Dessa will by joined in conversation by Luann Dummer Center for Women Director Dr. Elizabeth Wilkinson.