By Graham Glover –
I spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill these days. Sometimes I interact with Members of Congress, other times their Staffers. A lot of time I just watch. But no matter who I’m talking to or what I’m observing, the one thing that is blatantly obvious, even to the political outsider, is how divided the people are who make up this place. While our institutions aren’t broken, our people clearly are, and it’s not getting any better.
There are several theories why our politicians and our politics are so divisive these days. Some think our parties have embraced the ideologies extremes (I think this assumption is correct.). Others think our numerous media outlets no longer simply report facts, rather a highly partisan and ideological interpretation of them (Again, I agree.). Some blame the rise and use of social media, which gives individuals the ability to self-select what types of news and interpretation of news they receive (Correct.). Still others highlight the excessive amount of money that flows into our political system and the growing power of political elites (Once again, correct.).
But the one thing that I think most divides us is how we have sorted ourselves against one another. Conservatives live with and among conservatives. Liberals the same. Democrats move to highly Democratic areas of the country. Republicans are no different. It’s quite shocking how quickly this has occurred and how sharp the political and ideological differences are in the places we live. One need only look at a county by county breakdown of the 2016 presidential election to observe this dichotomy. We have literally sorted ourselves away and against those with whom we political disagree. And sadly, I don’t think this phenomenon will change anytime soon. If anything, it’s only going to get worse. And the worse it gets, the more permanently divided our politics will become.
The same is also true, I think, with Christians. In many places we have sorted ourselves to such a degree, that we are growing more divisive against those with whom we theologically disagree. And this is a problem.
By and large, Christians live near and among other Christians. We socialize with those who share our faith (or at least those who have some affiliation or affinity toward Christianity). Within the various subsets of Christendom, we talk with people who agree with us. We are educated by those that typically don’t question our theological presuppositions. And we tend to worship with those who share our understanding of what worship is.
On their own, these things aren’t problematic. It’s certainly good to surround ourselves with those who affirm us in our faith. I do this regularly, as I suspect many of you do as well.
My concern however is that we do these things at the expense of interacting with those with whom we theologically disagree. If, by our estimation, others are wrong, we sort ourselves away from them. And the more we do this, the less inclined we are to ever consider anything they have to say. It’s as if their one error makes anything they suggest, wrong. This is what’s happening on Capitol Hill, and sadly, it’s what’s happening among Christians. We are sorting ourselves away and against those who disagree with us more and more, and in so doing, are finding ourselves more estranged from our neighbor. A neighbor whose theological beliefs should have little to do with how we treat or respect them as a person.
Our politics won’t get fixed until our politicians and our electorate learns to live with and among those who don’t share our political opinions. My fellow Christians, let’s not follow their example.
