By Nathan Layne BLAINE, Minnesota (Reuters) -From the pulpit on Sunday, Father Joe Whalen exhorted his parishioners to avoid the kind of extreme partisanship and hate that appeared to be behind the killing of one of the church's own,

Even as the national political discourse has grown hyperpartisan in recent years, Minnesota had kept a foothold on its own traditions.

Early Saturday morning, when a man dressed like a police officer knocked at the home of a Minnesota state legislator, marked the start of nearly 40 hours of violence and fear that swept through towns in an arc around Minneapolis.