The Explosion of Politics and Faith in 2019 America

You can’t talk about politics and faith in 2019 America, at least not without a major explosion. The reason for that may not be what you’d think.

It’s not that people disagree on policies and positions, theologies and biblical interpretations. Those aren’t the reasons conversations on these topics explode because those kinds of differences have always existed.

The reason conversations around politics and faith explode today is because most of these conversations happen on social media. Even when they’re not taking place directly on Facebook or Twitter, the people discussing likely had their views shaped by what someone else said online.

Social media gives every person the opportunity to air their thoughts, and it gives everyone else the opportunity to like and affirm any one person’s thoughts.

I may not be well versed in the subject I write about on Facebook. But if what I say makes sense to you, you’re likely going to respond positively to it. And the more people who respond positively to what I say, the stronger I feel about what I think and the bigger platform I gain for sharing my thoughts.

But then someone chooses to disagree with me. She likely has just as many people affirming her thoughts as I do mine. But because I have my own little tribe cheering me on, I’m too confident in my own opinion. I don’t see it as mere opinion, but actually believe I have discovered the truth.

Reality is that I very likely have not wrestled through the history and issues that have shaped the topic I’m discussing. And any research I do, is likely for the purpose of finding a source to prove my point.

Not to actually broaden my perspective and understand what’s truly going on.

Making matters worse, most people don’t know how to write. So they miscommunicate what they’re trying to say.

Furthermore, we can’t see each other on social media. It’s a debate between me—a real-life, flesh and blood human being—and some random avatar whose name happens to be Sally Jones.

So, when she challenges me on something I’ve just said, instead of being slightly taken off guard and unsure of what to say—as I would be if we were discussing face-to-face—I dig in my heels, simmer and stir my boiled pot of ego until I’ve figured out the catch-all to trap miss Jones and her motley crew.

Then she returns the favor.

Before we know it, everyone’s pounding their keyboards and punching their phone screens to send off the quickest response and convince the other once-and-for-all of their error.

We talk instead of listen. Past instead of with. “The other” instead of each other.

These issues have always been difficult to discuss. But when you add the ability for everyone to build their own platform and convince themselves they have a PhD in all-things-discussed, it becomes a recipe for explosion.

And that’s what we’ve got in 2019.

What makes you willing to listen and understand another person in a discussion of politics and faith online, and what makes you shut-down and move along? Share in the comments below and we can all grow together in becoming more gentle communicators through social media.