This has been a bad few weeks in discourse. I don’t think that’s putting it too strongly. I’ve watched friends rip each other to shreds online and friendships mutilated over serious divides in ideology in my country which are being argued very badly. It is sad.
As this bloodbath of relationship because of ideology continues, I see more and more people trying to justify destroying relationships for these reasons, as though simply removing everyone from your life who has a different opinion than you was possible (or worthwhile).
I have lots to say about the nature of our discourse, but I’m going to withhold most of it at this point, because it probably wouldn’t be helpful. I will say this: the number of truly clear-cut things in our world ideologically that you should consider totally cutting someone out of your life for believing is very, very low—approaching zero. Encountering ideas and values that aren’t yours is good for you. It will challenge your thinking and should spur on more thinking and growth from you. You should be challenged to discover more. Your ability to discern good and bad ideas will increase. Your convictions will get stronger. You will be more gracious about imperfect ideas as you release the flaws in some of your own. Part of the tragedy of what is going on right now in discourse is that people have made cognitive dissonance equivalent to an assault. The result of this move is to close down and hold hostage the marketplace of ideas. So many people are so insecure about their ideas that they will not tolerate, consider, or accept an idea which doesn’t immediately conform to their predilections. Beyond that, so few actually have any actual idea of what is going on beyond prepackaged, partisan, dumbed-down talking points that there is almost no actual substantive conversation about the real content of our many (astonishingly complex) problems.
But that’s not ultimately why I’m writing this tonight.
As the situation has become more and more dire over the last 2-3 years, it has occurred to me that this desperate need so many have to be right about everything and to have the two sentence solution to every complicated problem because they read something on social media or heard it on their preferred propaganda outlet (read: cable news network) is really an unwitting admission of what drives them: that the only hope for our broken world is that there is a solution people can enact to fix it.
The tradition in the realm of ideas which accounts for this confidence in the ability of humans to solve all the world’s problems is called humanism. Humanism, true to its name, puts humans at the center of value and meaning and then requires of them to use their natural goodness and knowledge to continue the program of improving mankind. The idea that progress is the highest good and that humans, if they can just continue to improve themselves and their skills is one of the legacies of humanism to us today.
I say all of what has come before to say this: if our only hope for our world is in humanity to find a solution to our problems and to continue to improve, I think there are real reasons for us to think that our situation is hopeless. If you evaluate the legacy of humanism, what you discover is that while it is true that humans have improved in the area of technology, we have a niggling problem: we can’t become perfectly moral individuals. We keep screwing up when it comes to treating each other respectfully, equitably and charitably. In the last 100 years, the world has simply used the manifest technologies it has created to become more adept at destroying itself. We have had several insanely bloody wars and have wandered dangerously close to pushing the button that will end existence. We have so degraded ourselves in matters of justice and goodness that we no long acknowledge the inherent value of anyone or anything. The evidence is everywhere for us to see. Syria. Human trafficking. Unprecendented refugee crises. Unrest. Strife. Immoral Governments. Misused Technology.
Yes, I think if what we are hoping in is humanity to solve its own problems, the matter is quite hopeless.
It is for this reason that I refuse to put my hope in humans who are so changeable, so senseless, so cruel. Instead, I choose to put my trust in a perfect God who gave His only Son to pay for our departures from his nature and will and to secure for us a present and future which can be better to the extent that we submit to Him.
Several years ago, I stunned my brother by suggesting that I didn’t see any other hope for humanity outside of Jesus. He was surprised, because of my bend to try and think of rational solutions, that I had so little faith in humanity. I only shook my head warily and told him that on the balance of the evidence, I didn’t think that faith in humanity was merited. It isn’t reasonable, on the basis of the evidence, to think humans are equipped to save themselves in any full or lasting way. At that point, he had a hard time believing me. A few months ago, he returned to me and confessed his faith in humanity was being tested and that he wondered if I might be right. I’m confident he’s not alone in our troubled era.
If you’re troubled as well, I suggest you go seeking for the person of God in Jesus Christ. Read carefully about his plan for humanity, his evaluation of our difficulty and his solution for us in the Gospel of John. I believe if you do so, you will discover that far from it being hopeless, there is real hope, not only in this life, but in the life to come.
In difficult times, it is natural for us to feel a bit storm-blown. But in such times, it is right for us to seek things that do not blow or change with the storms of this world or the shifting winds of circumstance and human caprice. Trust in Jesus Christ. He is the only hope for our broken world.