Jim Hinch

Guideposts’ new series is Our Common Ground, about people working to bridge racial, economic, cultural and political divides. Such stories get less media attention but they are everywhere and they matter. Stories published so far: A multiracial church in the Deep South has hard conversations about Black Lives Matter (February issue). Two sorority sisters in New Jersey, one Christian, one Muslim, find an unexpected bond in faith. Stories under consideration include: a former gang leader now pursuing alternatives to policing in Stockton, Calif.; how a rural doctor persuaded a small Indiana town to open a needle exchange during an HIV outbreak; gay owners of a popular flower shop in Huntington, West Virginia who were embraced by their conservative community after their son was injured in a skateboarding accident. Racial, economic, cultural and political wounds run deep in America. Some people seek to heal them.