Part One: How to Be Less Rabid
a. Read like a scholar.
Read longform over short.
The form dictates the content. Television is less
conducive to deep, thorough evaluation than are written
forms. Longer research (think Foreign Affairs, The Economist, The Atlantic)
allows ideas to be fully supported and counterarguments to be explored. You
don’t have to agree with the ideas! In fact, any opinions worth holding will be
better for the challenge. For straight facts, AP headlines or a local broadcast
are your friends. But 24-hour news cycles favor the titillating over the
edifying, and the worst thing you can do is bounce around the walls of an echo
chamber in a red-faced snit.
Speaking of
red-faced snits, read sober articles, not angry ones. All good arguments
can be made with a tone meant to lead the student into discourse, not to stir
his baser passions. If the writer is snarling, find someone who can handle
ideas with equanimity. If the writer (or speaker) needs to create a frenzy, he
may be distracting you from really evaluating his claims. No one does his best
thinking while angry.
Read serious,
not sarcastic. Nothing degrades both speaker and listener so much as
sarcasm. If you enjoy the set up and knock down of a quick-witted pundit, ask
yourself whether you even care about persuasion and real civil discourse.
Because belittlement and meanness have no positive function outside of bar
fights. Such tactics polarize, but never convert. If you love snarky victories,
you might also have enjoyed gladiatorial matches in Ancient Rome (see what I
did there?) Conscientious disagreement involves painting your opponent and his
view in the most charitable light possible, thereby crystallizing the real
points of divergence and setting a noble example to boot.
b. Remember your purpose.
Wayne Grudem enumerates the
purposes of the church as a threefold mission: 1) to God, worship, 2) to
believers, nurture, and 3) to the world, evangelism and mercy. When the church
applies itself to these three missions, it plays a long, strong game. When it
gets itchy, it loses faith in the long game that God has designed, and usurps
various roles never assigned to it. Our battles are spiritual and local, as are
our tools: to pray fervently, to read Scripture earnestly and comprehensively,
to love unreservedly, to let God hold the outcomes.
c. Don’t be idle.
Feeding our indignation can feel
like meaningful action. But the work of the kingdom is rarely accomplished over
social media or in yelling matches. Picketing, or stapling campaign packets, or
typing out a hasty response online may feel like fighting the good fight, but
it’s often a distraction from the glamour-less work of sitting by the bedsides
of the infirm, mopping the church hallways, or babysitting the grubby children
of a frazzled neighbor. J.I. Packer clarifies, “Jesus encourages his disciples
to match worldly persons’ ingenuity in using their resources to further their
goals,” but he specifies that “their proper goals have to do not with
earthly security but with heavenly glory [emphasis mine].” He lists as responsibilities
of Christians to urge, pray for, obey and watch over governments (238), but
while much evangelical political activity might claim to fall within the
categories of urging or watching over, Packer repeatedly cites 1 Peter 2:13-17
as an apt Biblical guide. Where specific actions are not mentioned in
Scripture, it is yet sufficient in principles to guide. Peter’s emphasis is
clearly that in action relating to worldly governments, Christians are to be so
above reproach, even as they exercise their freedoms, as to always bear
faithful witness to the gospel. Winning points is quite beside the point, and
the point is this: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so
that we might die to sin and live for righteousness…” Love your God and love your neighbor so
radically that all the political world is awed by your example and God is
glorified.
No comments:
Post a Comment