The eCrozier

I commend you to a comprehensive survey and analysis by a group called “More in Common.” You can find their report at https://hiddentribes.us. Their research points out that American’s hopes, dreams, and beliefs are far more complex and nuanced than what we hear daily in the media. Their research describes how the appearance of a 50/50 split in society is actually just a result of “the loudest and most extreme viewpoints” monopolizing all forms of media. The extremes, which the researchers call “Progressive Activists and Devoted Conservatives,” only make up “14 percent of the American population—yet it often feels as if our national conversation has become a shouting match between these two groups at the furthest ends of the spectrum.”

Their research discovered what they call the “Exhausted Majority” (2/3 of us) who are fed up by the current “tribalism.” Two-thirds of us want to return to an approach that assumes mutual good faith from one another and a common collaborative spirit that’s needed for a healthy democracy. What was once simply called “being a good neighbor.” That won’t at all be easy, because the media knows how to keep us watching and clicking through to their webpages (and their advertisements which generate revenue). Without maintaining a level of outrage over the latest “sin” of the other extreme, the media manipulators make less money.

But there’s good news here. It’ll, however, require those of us who are exhausted by the current state of affairs (and I hope that represents many Episcopalians in Georgia) to work toward a different narrative from the one dominated by the extremes. I think we do that best by getting out from behind our media screens, into our neighborhoods, and away from the digital lynch mobs who mercilessly judge others from the privacy of their couches.

And as we meet our neighbors, the people who live or work near our homes and churches, we’ll discover their “needs,” but we’ll also discover their capacities and their hopes for the future. If we see only the deficits in others, then they remain objects of our pity, charity, or sometimes, our scorn. When, however, we get to know them and learn that we share at least some of what they long for, we together become a force for building up, rather than tearing down. Have you ever seen “Progressive Activist” and a “Devoted Conservative” build a Habitat House together? I have (just stay away from their lunch time banter).

That’s all to say we won’t get anywhere pretending we don’t have differences in how we and our neighbors see the world around us. It’ll always be important to name those differences, but at the same time, to not get stuck there. As we go into our church neighborhoods, I urge us to we find the one or two things people there agree on and work toward seeing that come to fruition in the neighborhood. In doing so, we’ll recognize that becoming a good neighbor is far more important than being a charity-dispenser or a behavior-judge. It is, after all, a clear command from Jesus (to love our neighbor) and we love them best when we know their heart’s desire.

+Scott