Beyond a House Divided: The Moral Consensus Ignored by Washington, Wall Street, and the Media »

As Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Carl A. Anderson is the CEO and chairman of the board of the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, with more than 1.7 million members. He is the author or co-author of four books – two of which have been New York Times best-sellers. In the decade since Anderson assumed the responsibilities of Supreme Knight in 2000, the Knights of Columbus have achieved new heights in charitable giving. During that time, the Knights have donated $1.4 billion directly to charity, while volunteering 640 million hours to charitable causes. A member of the bar of the District of Columbia, he and his wife Dorian are the parents of five children.

If you follow politics or the news, America is a country of culture wars and great divides, a partisan place of red states and blue states, of us against them. From pundits to politicians it seems that anyone with an audience sees a polarized country - a country at war with itself.
In a radical departure from this "conventional wisdom," Carl Anderson explores what the talking heads have missed: an overwhelming American consensus on many of the country's seemingly most divisive issues. If the debates are shrill in public, he says, there is a quiet consensus in private - one that America's institutions ignore at their peril. From health care, to the role of religion in America, to abortion, to the importance of traditional ethics in business and society, Anderson uses fresh polling data and keen insight in BEYOND A HOUSE DIVIDED to show that a surprising consensus has emerged despite these debates. He sheds light on what's been missing in the public and political debates of the last several years: the consensus that isn't hard to find if you know where to look.
For Anderson, allowing polar opposites to drive the discussion has made the resolution of contentious issues impossible. Instead, he says, we should look to the consensus among Americans as the best prospect for a beneficial conclusion.

Acknowledgments 7

Foreword 9

1 Beyond a House Divided: Our Moral Compass 15

2 Beyond the Wall of Separation: Religion in America 27

3 Beyond Greed: Toward Morality in the Marketplace 43

4 Beyond Partisan Politics: Values-based Leadership 61

5 Beyond the Clash of Absolutes: Abortion 79

6 Beyond Mythology: The Statistics on Marriage 97

7 Beyond Red and Blue: What We Can Do for Our Country 119

Notes 131