Depolarizing Ourselves in a Polarized World

I don't know about you, but I am weary of the toxic political polarization that has torn communities, churches, families, marriages, friendships, and this country apart. I invite you to read the following guest post that I wrote for Scot McKnight's Substack, on the topic of depolarizing ourselves amid another ugly election cycle. Scot is a New Testament theologian and author of numerous commentaries and books (including two of my favorites, The Blue Parakeet and Tov). He also ran my doctoral program, and I am deeply grateful and honored to contribute to his Substack. Following is the start of the post, with a link to the full post on Scot's Substack underneath. (Photo above courtesy of Pixabay)

Over the past few years, Pew Research, The Harris Poll, and many other pollsters have conducted numerous surveys that examine the way politics and political partisanship have impacted our society. Their findings quantify what many of us have experienced and know to be true. For example:

The political divide runs through the church today, to varying degrees

(Numbers indicate % identifying as red or leaning red / blue or leaning blue)

• All Protestants: 59 /38 

• White evangelical Protestants: 85 / 14

• White non-evangelical Protestants: 58 / 39

• Black Protestant: 11 / 84

• Hispanic Protestant 49 / 45

(Source: August 2023 Pew Research report)

To avoid talking about politics:

• 57% of Gen Xers/Baby Boomers avoid specific friends.

• 57% of Gen Xers/Baby Boomers avoid specific family members.

• 36% of Gen Zers/Millennials avoid specific friends.

• 34% of Gen Zers/Millennials avoid specific family members.

(Source: Nov. 2023 Harris Poll survey)

• 86% of 8,480 people surveyed agreed that "Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems." (Source: Sept. 2023 Pew Research report)

• 68% of 2,095 people surveyed agreed with the statement: "I wish I knew how to talk to people better on the other side of the political divide." (Source: Nov. 2023 Harris Poll survey)

It's clear that we are a polarized nation of polarized people who frequently sling around insults or avoid conversations altogether, as opposed to engaging in the meaningful, nuanced conversations that we really want and need to have—conversations that represent God well and have the potential to solve and heal our broken world. Thus I believe that it's very important for all of us, and especially Christians who profess to represent Jesus, to proactively think about the way we plan to communicate in the coming months, especially for those moments if and when we end up in political/theological conversations with people who have a different perspective than ours. The two questions that are crucial to think about in such conversations are:

• Do we want to simply insist that we are right and demand that others listen to us?

• Or do we want to initiate a respectful conversation that might perhaps heal a broken relationship, and perhaps persuade the other person to consider and possibly adopt some portion of our point of view?

If we're shooting for the second outcome, then it's extremely important that we....

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