beckelthomasAlthough Cal Thomas is pictured on the left, and Bob Beckel is on the right, their political ideologies are just the opposite. In this day and age of polarization, have you ever wondered what brought these two highly opinionated men together to co-author Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America and to co-write USA Today columns that attempt to rise above the usual partisan bickering? In a fascinating interview with WORLD’s Marvin Olasky, Beckel shares how he and Thomas came to be fast friends despite their political differences:

“I was in the process of getting divorced. … I had a lot of difficulties. I had retreated to a farm in rural Maryland and refused to come back to Washington to do any television appearances. I got a call one day from Fox saying, would you come and do an appearance with Cal Thomas? And for some inexplicable reason, I said yes. Five different times I tried to call and cancel. And I couldn’t cancel.

“I reluctantly drove in and there was Cal. I knew him a bit, but not really well. He looks at me and says, ‘Is there something wrong?’ Right away. Instead of saying the normal Washington thing—’Good. Fine. Great’—I said, ‘Actually it’s not.’ And he said, ‘Let’s talk about it after we’ve done the show.’ He spent many hours with me after that and talked about faith but never pushed faith on me. He sent me a lot of books. I was one of those people who needed to have proof. I needed to see skin and bones. The idea of whales and arks and burning bushes and opening seas—all that was just in my mind Charlton Heston.

“One of the first books that Cal sent me was Evidence That Demands a Verdict. I began to read that. Cal continued to send me books. … Finally, Cal said, ‘Why don’t you come to church with me?’ Now, I hadn’t been to church in … well, I hadn’t been to church. So Cal takes me to Fourth Presbyterian Church in Washington, which is full of more right-wing Republicans than any church in all of Washington. [But] the message that day was a message that worked. It was about faith and belief and that there is a certain leap that you need to take but in the end what else is there? When you compare the rest of life, what else is there really? Slowly but surely it came to me that there was something there.”

In light of recent discussions on this blog about showing civility toward one another, I encourage you to read this interview in its entirety to see how these two men from opposite sides of the fence approach issues that divide America (and WORLDMagBloggers).