From Jake: It is a significant day in the life of Mere Orthodoxy. Today we launch our new website and member dashboard. But behind that launch is a much larger story about the work that media projects like our own have to do today. It is a truism at this point to lament the division, anger, and extremism that is now ubiquitous in American life. But hidden inside the many problems now afflicting us is an exciting opportunity.

Mere Orthodoxy exists to form Christians in the church who participate in broader culture for the common good. Today’s essay is my attempt to reflect on that opportunity by talking about how we got here, what challenges we now face as both Christians and members of a pluralistic civic experiment, and what we at Mere O are doing to try and seize the opportunity before us to build up both the church and our civic life.

We built the website and member dashboard not simply because we need a website of some kind, but because we want the site and member dashboard themselv…