OPINION:
In the 1998 film, “The Truman Show,” Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank. Truman lives in a fabricated world. Truman’s hometown is actually an elaborate television set. His friends and family are actors who advance the “action” for those viewing the show and keep Truman from looking too closely at his reality. When asked why he thinks Truman has not discovered the true nature of his reality, the show’s director Christof answers, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented. It’s as simple as that.”
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While we aren’t living in a reality television show produced for the enjoyment of others, Christof’s answer begs the question: What reality are we being presented with?
For instance, a recent study of Google News by AllSides Media “found Google News has a Lean Left bias.” While it is tempting to chalk this up to an intentional skewing of the media presented, the study stops short of such a conclusion noting that the left-leaning focus could also be “a fair reflection of content available online, perspectives of the average online user, or the greater effectiveness one political side has in promoting its perspectives in news media.” Whatever the reason, those depending on Google News to find information about the events of the day, are being presented with a partial version of reality.
It is tempting to spin off in a rant about the diabolical left’s attempt to erode traditional values, but as Christians, we need to ask ourselves: would it be better if Google News were biased toward conservative perspectives? Not really.
While many Christians might resonate with more conservative positions, conservative positions still aren’t Christian positions. The right’s portrayal of reality doesn’t assume the presence of the Triune God. It doesn’t present reality from the perspective of the cross. Both conservative and liberal perspectives tell stories that deny the Triune God. Conservative stories may leave more room for religious faith but neither the right nor the left has a vested interest in helping Christians conform more closely to the image of Christ. Conservative media will tend to coordinate people around issues deemed problematic and solutions deemed effective by conservatives. The same is true for liberals.
Conservatives and liberals will seek to draw Christians to their side. So, what is often framed as a polarization problem in the political realm will inevitably become a problem in the Church.
As Christians are pulled to one side of the political aisle or the other so that our political identities begin to divide us from others, particularly other Christians, we lose site of the unity we have in Christ. As Catholic missionary Leslie Newbigin notes, “the division of the Church into rival and hostile bodies is something finally incompatible with the central verities of the Gospel.” To put it differently, Christians should have a greater affinity with brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the political aisle than with those who share their convictions about U. S. politics.
How does the polarization problem seep into the Church? There are a number of different ways it can occur; however, the media plays an important role.
Right- and left-leaning media are good at creating what Michael Suk-Young Chwe calls “common knowledge.” When everyone knows what everyone knows and that everyone knows, the basis for coordinated action is formed. This common knowledge “not only helps a group coordinate but also, to some extent, can create groups, collective identities, ‘imagined communities’ in which, for example, each newspaper reader is aware of millions of fellow readers.”
To put it differently, as we consume media from the right or the left, we open ourselves up to the influence of the common knowledge that forge our identities into “right” or “left.”
This problem can’t be solved by reforming the media. The world is always going to be the world. What is needed is a renewed commitment to Christian coordination.
For Christians, discipleship is our most powerful coordinating mechanism. Through discipleship, we learn to sit under the authority of Christ alone. That authority requires us to love God with all we are and have. We are to exercise an unqualified loyalty to the Triune God. That loyalty not only presses us to love others, it shapes the way we love others.
By coordinating as the body of Christ through discipleship, we orient ourselves to the world in a way that transcends politics. We don’t trivialize politics, but we recognize that politics are provisional. We also recognize that, as I note in “Serpents and Doves,” “the ‘common good’ every Christian pursues on behalf of the world is the building up of Christ’s body. Let that sink in. We build up the body of Christ for the sake of the world.”
Coordinating ourselves through discipleship is not an isolation strategy, but an activity necessary for us to distinguish the Church from the world. Without such a distinction we diminish our capacity to proclaim, “Jesus is Lord” in word and deed.
As Christians participate in the upcoming political season, we need to remember that who we choose to vote for is far less consequential than who chose to call us “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Our role in the United States may involve political participation, but that participation never trumps our responsibility to be the Church. Politics can’t actually divide Christians because we are united in Christ; however, it is up to us to ensure that we are found “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).
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James Spencer earned his Ph.D. in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He believes discipleship will open up opportunities beyond anything God’s people could accomplish through their own wit and wisdom. As such, his writing aims at helping believers look with eyes that see and listen with ears that hear as they consider, question, and revise the social, cultural, and political assumptions hindering Christians from conforming more closely to the image of Christ. James has published multiple works, including his most recent book “Serpents and Doves: Christians, Politics, and the Art of Bearing Witness,” “Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ,” “Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody,” “Thinking Christian: Essays on Testimony,” “Accountability, and the Christian Mind,’ and“Trajectories: A Gospel-Centered Introduction to Old Testament Theology.” In addition to serving as the president of the D. L. Moody Center, James is the host of “Useful to God” a weekly radio broadcast and podcast, a member of the faculty at Right On Mission, and an adjunct instructor with the Wheaton College Graduate School.
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