Faith, Democracy, and the Courage to Listen

By Hannah Beard, WSCF-US Leadership Team 2026-27

A few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to represent WSCF-US at WSCF-Europe’s Youth in 4D training in Paris, France. The training brought together young people of many faiths from across Europe to explore the relationship between faith and democracy. Through workshops, Bible studies, group projects, and conversations over coffee breaks, participants reflected on the challenges facing democracies today and the role Christians can play in promoting justice, participation, and peace. Before this training, the topic of democracy felt like an abstract political concept, but throughout the week I began to understand it as something deeply connected to the Christian life and community.

In one of the workshops, we explored different case studies such as liberation theology in Latin America, the Confessing Church in Germany, apartheid in South Africa, the Civil Rights Movement in the American South, and so many more. In learning from these movements of resistance many questions unfolded: What does faithful resistance look like? When is nonviolence enough? What do Christians do when institutions cause harm? What does it mean that people have sometimes risked - or lost - their lives in the struggle for justice? What can we, as faithful witnesses, learn from these movements as we continue our own struggles for liberation and democracy today? Rather than answering all of these questions, we engaged with these ideas and I specifically wrestled with the question of nonviolence and whether there are limits to it. As we struggled with these questions, my thoughts kept returning to Palestine and my experiences traveling there. At what point does nonviolence become the thing that extinguishes a people? And do we have that sort of time?

Midway through the week, a Coptic Orthodox priest joined us for a conversation. After days spent wrestling with difficult questions, I expected him to offer clear answers. Instead, he offered something even more valuable: a different way of thinking. One of the questions that someone asked him was, “There are a lot of loud and organized Christians with harmful beliefs…how do we be loud and organized like them?” I expected him to offer a thoughtful strategy for organizing movements or influencing political leaders but instead he gave this simple answer that shocked the group.
He said, “You have to be you. Be efficient in grassroots. Don’t change yourself. If you aren’t somebody that is going to knock down the walls of Congress then don’t. Be a voice for change in your community and speak about issues the way you naturally do. Change happens when people are authentic to themselves.”

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Another conversation with this priest still echoes in my mind. He challenged us to consider whether democracy can survive if we refuse to hear voices we disagree with. “When you exclude”, he said, “you kill democracy.” I found myself wrestling with his words. What happens when those voices spread hatred or deny another person’s humanity? I still don’t know where the line is. But I left that conversation grateful that room was made for difficult questions instead of easy answers. 

The second half of our week shifted from asking difficult questions to practicing how to listen well to one another. We quickly discovered that listening is difficult work - especially when the people across from you come from different countries, cultures, and experiences, or hold convictions very different from your own. Yet democracy depends on this kind of listening. Listening well allows us to hear not only our own voices but also the experiences, wisdom, and humanity of others - and in doing so, we become more attentive to the ways Christ can speak through our encounters with one another.

I left Paris with far more questions than answers, but perhaps that was the point. Democracy, like faith, is something we practice. It requires courage, humility, and a willingness to remain in relationship even when disagreement feels easier than understanding. I am deeply grateful to WSCF-Europe for creating a space where young people from different countries, traditions, and faiths could wrestle with these questions together. My hope is that I carry this posture of curiosity, courageous listening, and faithful participation back into my own community, trusting that even small acts of justice and authentic witness can help shape a more democratic and more compassionate world.

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Photo credits to Marcos Dorneles.