Rep. Gary Palmer: Faith critical to restoring communities

Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) believes restoring a sense of community in our society should be one of this nation’s overarching priorities moving forward, with faith guiding the process.

Palmer outlined that view and others recently when he sat down with Matt Wilson on his Living Life on Purpose podcast.

In his third term representing Alabama’s 6th Congressional District, Palmer’s journey to the U.S. House is an American success story.

He recalled growing up in northwest Alabama in a house without indoor plumbing.

“Pretty much dirt poor,” Palmer described his early life.

His dad was a logger, and Palmer was the first person on either side of his family to go to college when he attended the University of Alabama and played as a walk-on for the football team.

Palmer noted that his experience is typical of what is possible in America.

“We live in a country where that’s not unusual,” he said. “That’s almost normal.”

The one time, though, when Palmer paused to appreciate how far he had come was during a visit to the White House.

From the grounds of the White House, he called his mother to let her know he had truly gone from “the outhouse to the White House.”

He told her, “’What I really wanted to say is that there’s not another country in the world where a guy could grow up like I did and be where I am right now.’”

Which is why he wants to keep that dream alive for others, and it starts with building communities, according to Palmer.

He believes it should not have to take some sort of national crisis for people to get together.

“I think the biggest challenge that we face right now is how do we restore a sense of community without us having to have another catastrophe like that of 9/11,” said Palmer. “That sense of ‘we’re all in this together.’ And we really are. I’m very, very concerned about the loss of faith in the country, the percentage of Americans who have no religion at all.”

For Palmer, there are some traits and practices which have contributed to the decline in our communities.

“You also have the issue of the lack of ability to forgive,” he explained. “When you can’t forgive someone you harbor grudges, that builds an atmosphere of contempt and contempt will lead to hatred and hatred will lead to some really bad outcomes. I think when you look at the overall country and what is our biggest challenge, I think it’s going to be cultural. The ability to restore a sense of community and community values that we all agree on. How to live together peacefully. How to restore the broken homes.”

In an environment where politics can be contentious, Palmer leans on his faith to stay strong.

“I pray before these events that no matter who is there, no matter what is said, that I’ll have the heart and mind of Jesus Christ toward everybody,” he said. “I wish I could say that I’ve always lived by that. Unfortunately, wisdom comes with learning and learning comes with experience and experience comes with age.”

He also tries to remember that he cannot know other people’s life experiences.

“I don’t know what they’ve been through,” Palmer said.

He provided Wilson with a story about the last time they had communion at his church, Briarwood Presbyterian.

“I try to read those passages in Luke, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, then I get to that part where the women went to the tomb and found it empty,” he told Wilson. “And they were confronted by the angels who said ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’ And then it really hit me, the next line, it says ‘Then they remembered His words.’ It wasn’t until Jesus had gone through all that he had done and they found an empty tomb that they realized what He was saying, that they remembered His words. But the angels asked that question, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’ made me think of this. And it really comes down to and really speaks to where we are in our culture, people are seeking life from things that are dead. They find fulfillment, they find purpose, they find joy, they find some kind of satisfaction in things that are dead rather than being focused on the one thing that brings life. I write my own devotions, and I just took out a card and scribbled this on the back of it about how it really spoke to me about where we are in our cultures. We’re a culture that seeks life from things that are dead instead of pursuing real life.”

Listen to the the entire episode of Living Life on Purpose to hear Palmer’s views on the danger of big government, social media in the current state of political conflict, John Maxwell’s “Be, do, have” rule, individual responsibility and how we can move forward living together as a spirited community.

For more stories of how people have lived their lives with a purpose, listen and subscribe to Living Life on Purpose with Matt Wilson on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify and Google Play. Matt’s guests include Andy Andrews, UAB head football coach Bill Clark and many others.