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It was standing room only at two back-to-back events Friday at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, where Edmonds-based European travel guide Rick Steves and Lutheran Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee issued a call to protect democracy from what they described as the growing threat of Christian nationalism.
Steves and Wee have become familiar faces around Edmonds, often seen together at the summer market, the Edmonds Arts Festival and other local gatherings. While the two share a personal relationship, their connection extends well beyond this to a shared conviction and commitment to speak out against what they see as a growing existential threat to American democracy.
During an interview following the Friday presentations, they said they’re speaking out now because they see this moment as both dangerous and deeply destructive — and both feel strongly that remaining silent is no longer an option. Recalling the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” — they argued that someone has to “bend the arc to justice” before it bends in darker directions…