A Huge Step in Fighting Polarization in the Church and Society

Arthur Brooks in Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt, speaks to one of the causes of polarization:

“You might say, ‘There are some who are simply beyond the pale. There are millions of awful people in this country who advocate ideas that we cannot tolerate. They deserve our contempt, not our love!’ I have heard the sentiment from serious journalists, respected academics, and mainstream politicians. I have thought it myself. That attitude is both wrong and dangerously radical. Anyone who can’t tell the difference between an ordinary Bernie Sanders supporter and a Stalinist revolutionary, or between Donald Trump‘s average voter and a Nazi, is either willfully ignorant or needs to get out of the house more. Today our public discourse is shockingly hyperbolic in ascribing historically murderous ideologies to the tens of millions of ordinary Americans with whom we strongly disagree. Just because you disagree with something doesn’t mean it’s hate speech or the person saying it is a deviant.”

I read this book last year and highly recommend it.

Photo by Mert Kahveci on Unsplash