On Polarization
I have always been a peacemaker of sorts. Whenever I take one of those Enneagram or Myers Briggs or DISC tests (which I find to be of dubious value, truth be told), I usually land in whatever category they have for peacemaker-ish people. The positive spin on this is that I genuinely do long for peace — between people, families, churches, nations, etc. The less positive spin is that I just hate conflict, like to be liked, and prefer being comfortable to wading into the discomfort of generative conflict. It’s not particularly flattering to admit this, but, well, the truth isn’t always flattering.
It is not surprising that a peacemaker-ish type would occasionally have a critical word or two to say about the polarization that seems to be tearing our institutions and our world apart these days. I have devoted no small number of words to that task over at least the last half decade or so on this blog. I’m going to be talking about it in a workshop at a conference in a few weeks. I talk about it in sermons all the time. It has seemed to me among the central tasks in a world where people seem so eager to go to war over ideas and to define themselves by who or what they are against.
Peacemaker-ish people are bridge builders. We say things like “try to see it from the other side” and “don’t assume that you have all the truth.” We point to Jesus’ words about taking the log out of your own eye before presuming to take the speck out of our neighbour’s and about how the one without sin should throw the first stone. We talk a lot about humility and basic human decency. If we’re feeling spicy, we point out how the perverse incentives of the digital age are turning us all into narcissists and urge the recovery of a vision of shared humanity. All of these peacemaker-ish labours, we think, will help defang our polarized moment and — who knows? — maybe even bring divided people a step or two closer to one another. “For Christ’s sake,” we sometimes add.
Well, speaking of Christ… Among the awkward truths about Jesus is that he was (and remains) a deeply polarizing figure. Which makes him a bit tricky to straightforwardly recruit to the “we need to do something about all this polarization!” cause. The same Jesus who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” somehow managed to divide public opinion like few others before or since. You don’t get executed by an unscrupulous collusion of religion and empire at thirty-three for being insipidly inoffensive and encouraging people to be a bit nicer and just get along. Jesus was not the first-century equivalent of a middle-class Subaru driver with a COEXIST bumper sticker. He said hard things that baffled and angered people. And, at the very same time, he said things that drew people to him like nobody else. He was, and remains, an enigma of the most beautifully compelling and shatteringly truthful sort.
And it wasn’t like Jesus divided people along lines that we might recognize (or prefer) today. He seemed, at times, to infuriate or confuse people across the ideological spectrum. He had this habit of telling those who were convinced they saw clearly that they were blind, those who thought they heard accurately that they were deaf, those who thought they were healthy that they were actually sick and in need of a physician. In his life, teaching, example, death, resurrection, and ascension Jesus proclaimed and embodied two vital truths:
- The love of God is deeper and wider and more persistent than you might believe or prefer.
- The sinfulness of human beings is deeper and wider and more persistent than you might believe or prefer.
Left-leaning folks love the former because it puts all those idiots on the right in their place. Right-leaning folks love the latter because it puts all those idiots on the left in their place. Jesus wouldn’t (and won’t) let either off the hook. It wasn’t just telling these two truths that got him killed (there was that business about claiming to be a king and God incarnate that didn’t sit so well with the powers), but for those who didn’t want to hear one or both of those truths, Jesus was a deeply problematic figure. Yes, Jesus polarized. Then and now.
Of course, there is crucial and blindingly obvious caveat in all this. Yes, Jesus was polarizing. But we are not Jesus. This is extremely important to remember. God save us from more people marching off to weaponize their politicized version of Jesus with the justification, “Well, Jesus divided people and so will I!” We see only in (profoundly self-interested) part. Jesus alone saw (and sees) fully and truly. Our polarization is often due to a combinations of ignorance, tribalistic self-interest, and plain old fallibility. Jesus alone comes full of grace and truth.
But caveat aside, I sometimes wonder if polarization is the necessary evil that we/I often claim that it is. Jesus used some stark and uncomfortably binary language in his teaching. Darkness and light, wheat and tares, good fruit and bad, heaven and hell, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. He said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mat. 10:34-35) and promised that he would divide people, even those in the same household. Which admittedly fits a bit awkwardly with “blessed are the peacemakers.”
At the very least, all of this probably ought to make peacemaker-ish people like me squirm a little more than we do. It’s hard to read the gospels honestly and not come to the conclusion that in a fallen world where we flee from hard truths and lie to ourselves and others to preserve our own categories and assumptions, even grace and truth can be polarizing.
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I am a 9 on the Enneagram, the peacemaker. 😊
In my One Year Bible, today we finished the letters of Paul and the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Paul were polarizing figures in their time; each claimed to speak for God in an absolute and uncompromising way that left little room for dissent. They represent prophetic religion, which is inherently polarizing.
But prophetic religion isn’t the only kind of religion. There is priestly religion, which is less polarizing; and there is wisdom religion, which is least polarizing. Qoheleth, Proverbs, Job, these are illuminating, not polarizing. Ruth wasn’t polarizing, nor was Barnabas in Acts; they embody a different approach to religion. Many of the teachings of Jesus are wisdom religion, puzzling at times but not polarizing. Jesus polarized by claiming divine prerogatives, or by claiming to be divine (as in John).
In the Bible, prophetic religion lives in tension with the other kinds of religion. For myself, as religion is practiced today, I could live with less of the prophetic approach and more of the wisdom kind of religion.
In secular settings, the prophetic comes across in rhetoric like “silence is violence.” So we must agree vocally or be evil; this doesn’t leave much room for independent thought. The prophetic also is embedded in the very word “justice” which is so absolute and uncompromising. When someone labels their views as justice, who can disagree? It’s a fundamentalist word, really, and it leaves me wondering, “Who appointed you to determine what justice is?”
I could live with less social justice rhetoric. I favor social concern. Concern is something we can agree on.
Yours was a thoughtful post that clearly set me to thinking too! Peace to you today.
Agreed, Chris. Very grateful for the whole scope of Scripture and for the ways in which Jesus embodies the best of the prophetic, the priestly, and wisdom traditions.
I, too, naturally and easily gravitate away from the prophetic and toward the wisdom. This is what I aspire to, largely for the reasons you articulate. God knows the world could use a few less uncompromising voices convinced of their righteousness, be they secular or religious in nature (or secularly religious). The downside of this can at times feel like one lacks conviction or is even cowardly in the face of those things in the world that demand courageous resistance. But then we’re back to your question, “Who appointed you…?” And on an on we go.
I agree with Chris. A thoughtful post that got me thinking.
“Our polarization is often due to a combinations of ignorance, tribalistic self-interest, and plain old fallibility. Jesus alone comes full of grace and truth”
Those lines above – I had to read and re-read. Fallibility aside, how do you deal with that?
Good question, Elizabeth. Maybe among the most important questions of our time.
I don’t know any easy way to overcome the tribalistic self-interest that seems to come so easily to us. We have such deep hungers to belong and to be right. Put those two together and you have 90% of social media these days. There are so many incentives, both in our world and in human nature, that push us apart and contribute to polarization. We must somehow reach across difference and decide that understanding and loving our neighbours (even our enemies) matters more than these incentives.
Ryan, may I have your permission to post a link to this post on my FB page?
Of course! No permission required 😃
Thanks for wandering out of the black and white and into the hard truths of the scriptures with grace and a challenge for all who read to walk away with. I was contemplating James 4:12 a few days ago, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” The thought that came immediately to mind was, “Who am I a mere mortal who does not know inner motives, who does not know past histories, who does not know current conflicts work my way into believing that I have a right, let alone any objective capability to judge others?” We see only in (profoundly self-interested) part – this resonated so much. Thanks for the article. It was another little vision cast from God into this thing he is continuing to teach me and seems intent on getting my attention about.
Thanks, appreciate this, Aaron!