How do we have conversations with people whose view of the world is so different from our own? – Preview

I was recently in a conversation with a friend who said there is a concerted movement in the United States to destroy Christianity.  Immediately yellow “Caution” signs flashed in my brain, and I thought, “Oh boy, where is this coming from, and where is this going?”  My friend went on describe, with authority, that all sorts of underhanded groups, motivated by Marxism, are attempted to eradicate our nation’s history of and connection with Christianity.  The tone of voice he used was dark, foreboding, and carried absolute certainty.  He communicated what he believed to be truths, making them sound like facts that everyone agreed upon.

Because our conversation was part of a group book study which I was leading, I was concerned that my friend’s comments were going derail the entire book study.  So I interrupted him, said that we needed pause that line of thinking to keep the discussion on track.  Later that week I emailed him, asking him to provide source material for his comments.  I was fairly certain he had not come up with his ideas on his own.  He wrote back with the name of a book that someone else gave him, as it was the book that informed his thinking.  Now he has given me the book, and I am going to read it.  Before I started reading, though, I did some searching online, seeking reviews of the book.  What I found is telling. Those from one political ideology love the book.  Those from the opposite ideology do not love the book.  But I will read the book and evaluate for myself before I respond further to my friend.

Have you encountered what I encountered with my friend?  Someone speaking with a tone of authority about their ideological viewpoint, and they are making claims, which they say are factual, but which you never heard of before?  Maybe they speak with passion and intensity, and yet you get the feeling that their view of the world is very different from your own.  My guess is that most of you have experienced this.   I suspect you have experienced this because it is part and parcel of our contemporary culture in America.  We are largely comprised of two very different opinions about the world.

The same goes for the church.  A few years ago I blogged about how we need to be Purple Churches (here).  Not red (conservative Republican) and not blue (progressive/liberal Democrat).  We need to be church families where red and blue mix together, under the leadership of Jesus our King because we are citizens of his Kingdom. 

But that mixing is difficult.  It means we’ll have relationships with people who think very differently from us.  How do we do that?  How do we have conversations with people from the other viewpoint?

This coming week on the blog is the next in our quarterly Current Events blog series, and we are going to see what the Scriptures teach us about how Christians can talk with and relate to others with whom we disagree. 

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