Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist
How do we bridge the divide?

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It was not a good day to be a same-sex couple hoping to marry in any of 11 states.

It was not a good day to be a woman who may have an unwanted pregnancy someday.

Nor was it a good day to be a parent whose son or daughter is approaching 18 and may not be settled on college.

But it was a great day for Laura Vallerand's Bible study group.

"One woman came in and said, 'I feel like we should be celebrating! We should be having mimosas!' " said Vallerand, 51, a member of Cedar Park Assembly of God in Bothell.

"Although there were many who would not go along with that," she added, "I wouldn't mind."

It is their time, after all.

Polls showed three-fourths of white voters who described themselves as born-again Christians or evangelicals voted for President Bush. And those white evangelicals represented a fifth of all voters.

Their top issue? Moral values. More important than terrorism or the food on their plates.

It's a hard thing to wrap your mind around when you're a heathen like me: single mother. A believer in a woman's right to choose. A friend of gays, some of whom have married in Canada, or (gasp!) had children.
 
I woke up yesterday feeling like I had entered a world with no gray areas. Just black and white and red all over.

And I saw no way to bridge the divide that splits America not only along party lines, but in our very hearts and souls.

So I found Vallerand, a member of Cedar Park, where senior pastor Joseph Fuiten made it his crusade to register 60,000 new voters.

Vallerand empathized with my postelection sorrow; she felt the same way when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992.

"Like I was going to a funeral," she said.

But she believes in managing her life — and political views — with a Bible in hand.

"God's the creator, the manufacturer, and the Bible is his handbook," she said. "So if you want to know how to best function and best operate your machine, you go by the Book."

And she promised this: Just because a re-elected Bush cites that Book while making policy doesn't mean issues like abortion and gay rights are not still up for debate.

"Those people are not just going to lie down and give up."

But will we ever meet at middle ground? Can red and blue make a color we can all live with?

Vallerand's husband, Philippe, said he would try to make it so.

"These issues are so close to your heart," he told me, "you may feel like you don't belong here."

So the tables have turned. And how do we sit at them together?

"Make sure they see how valuable they are," Philippe Vallerand said of those who don't share his pew.

Once there, remain engaged, he said, "Not with a sword of justice in my hand, but with my hand open."

It feels like a long reach, but it's one we have to make.

Reach Nicole Brodeur at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Thanks for the prayers.