Week four—Holding Faith in Divided Times: Lies That Demand Our Loyalty
Moving toward healing and peacemaking
Our time together centered around our prayerful verse for this week: John 8:32: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” But first we spent time sharing how we are living out our challenge to think of one healing or peacemaking action we can take each week. The responses were varied: everything from greeting strangers while hiking in the foothills to taking the risk to reach out to an estranged friend who believes differently. There are so many simple ways we can live this out, both by caring for ourselves (taking a nap, eating something healthy, going for a walk) and in reaching out to others. All are woven together in a beautiful tapestry of listening to the Spirit and responding to God’s call to move toward love.
Logical fallacies
Returning to our discussion of truth, we shared the news sources we listen to regularly: from traditional print media to network news to podcasts. We discussed the challenge of finding diverse perspectives, and the frustrations that inevitably arise when encountering news sources that seem to distort or misrepresent truth. Again, the communal wisdom that was shared was both helpful and affirming.
We have gotten cynical about truth. But it’s vital to both our democracy and our faith that we find ways to discern truth from falsehoods. Wisdom and discernment are needed now more than ever.
This led us to a discussion of logical fallacies: weak arguments based on poor or deceptive tactics. They are quite common, and can be persuasive, because often there is a grain of truth which makes it harder to detect the lie.
One common logical fallacy is correlation error—when two things happen at the same time so we might assume causation, such as the way shark attacks and ice cream consumption both peak in July. We looked at some humorous examples: per capita margarine consumption seems to correlate with the divorce rate in the state of Maine, and the age of Miss America apparently correlates with the number of murders by steam or hot objects.
Other kinds of deceptive arguments we explored included: bandwagon (everybody knows that); personal attack or conversely an appeal to pity; strawman (distorting another's views to make it easier to refute); arguments from silence or absence of proof; slippery slope (claiming a chain reaction ending in some dire calamity); false dichotomy; confirmation bias (innate tendency to notice only the data that confirms your theory); and No true Scotsman (when data doesn’t fit your thesis, redefine terms to make it work). See if you can identify the logical fallacy in these examples (more than one might fit):
• "IVF reduces our respect for life. If we don't respect life, we are likely to be tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization."
• “No Christian would vote for a Democrat. I heard that Jim Wallis voted for Biden, that just proves he’s not really a Christian.”
• “Feminists are wrong to hate men because some men, like Gandhi, have been good, moral leaders.”
• “We either have open borders or we cut off immigration. Open borders mean we let in pedophiles and drug traffickers, so we must cut off immigration.”
This led to a fruitful discussion of how these sorts of deceptive arguments are common in political discussions, debates, and advertising. Again, the “grain of truth” often makes them subversive, and our own tendency to confirmation bias makes them appealing and therefore less likely to be challenged.
We reflected, then, on our own experiences with being told and even believing something that turned out to be a lie: prejudices that were instilled in us by parents or culture, faulty theology that led to exclusion. We explored the impact of those lies more generally, including the way they tend to undermine our confidence in the ability to discern truth from error.
Autocratic tyrants depend on people giving up on the ability to discern truth, and concluding there is no absolute truth. Reclaiming our ability to believe in truth and seek it is central to both our faith and to our democracy.
Us vs. Them:
Many of the lies that we have been taught related to divisions in our society. Tribalism—the tendency to divide the world into us/them—seems to be inherent to human nature, perhaps even our “original sin.” We see it in every nation throughout history. We even see it in the Bible. We can see it in so many divisions in our society: Black/white, gay/straight, conservative/liberal, native born/immigrant.
It’s a very human tendency. It’s a natural tendency because it helps reinforce group identity. We feel united even as we are more and more divided. Our social media algorithms are built on this and feed into it.
The challenge of diversity and inclusion vs. tribalism and exclusion is the core spiritual challenge behind Christian nationalism. This is behind the white nationalists’ scapegoating LGBTQ+, immigrants, the poor, people of color. We see this in the Christian right and rightly call it out. But we need to be careful as well to guard our own hearts.
We see these divisions as the background of so much of Scripture, but we also see it addressed and repudiated. The books of Ruth and Jonah address xenophobia—the fear of the other. The gospels show us Jesus reaching out to Samaritans. Acts 8 shows Philip welcoming an Ethiopian eunuch—a sexual minority—into the Kingdom. The breaking down of barriers is found throughout the Bible, from Genesis 1:26 to Revelation 7:9. The book of Acts shows how the early church struggled to break down walls between Jews and Gentiles. Paul also addresses this in Ephesians 2:
But now in Christ Jesus you (Gentiles) who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God... in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
In this text, Paul is actually referring to two literal walls in the Temple, visible to any who entered. Within the Temple there was the “Holy of Holies”– the place where God dwelt. It was separated from the worshipers by a purple curtain—a “wall” intended to protect them from being consumed by God’s holiness. Only the high priest was allowed to enter there. Matthew 27:51 tells us that (whether understood metaphorically or literally) at the moment of Jesus’ death this cloth, this dividing wall, was torn in two, symbolizing the way any barriers of sin or shame between us and God have been defeated through Christ’s atoning death.
The second physical wall separated the front of the Temple, where Jewish men worshiped, from the Court of Gentiles, where devout non-Jews could worship. A sign was posted warning Gentiles not to proceed beyond that barrier. And so, in Ephesians 2 Paul is drawing a parallel between our “us/them” divisions and our reconciliation with God. He is suggesting that it is absurd for Christians to continue these divisive walls of tribalism in light of the cross.
Loving God, we seek your truth. Help us to recognize the ways we lean into convenient lies and perhaps even perpetuate them. Help us to be people of rigorous honesty, especially the truth about ourselves and the biases that we all live with.
May the truth of your wide, inclusive, expansive love drive out all the false narratives of us vs. them. May the truth that all living things were created by you and declared good dwell in our hearts. As we go out into the world, encountering people who differ from us, whether in culture or physical differences or in perspectives and beliefs, may we return again and again, to the truth that they are your beloved children. May we see the spark of the image of God in each one. Help us to be a part of your agenda to bring healing and reconciliation into a broken and divided world. Amen.
Preparing for next week
This week we will read together ch. 5 of Wallis’ book on economic justice as Jesus’ test of discipleship. Closely connected to that we will pray and meditate together on Matthew 25:31-45, where Jesus says that how we treat the poor and vulnerable is how we treat Christ himself.
In next week’s gathering we will look at a small but influential movement that may be unfamiliar to many of us but is central to the rise of Christian nationalism: New Apostolic Reformation. We will explore eschatology: what we believe about the end of the world, the return of Christ, and apocalyptic literature. In particular we will see how all of those heady theological presumptions impact our view of the world and the way we respond to our neighbors.
We’ll begin our time with these opening questions:
1. This week we meditated on Matthew 25:31–45 where Jesus says how we treat the poor and vulnerable is how we treat Christ himself. How is this reflected in your church budget? Family budget?
2. Is there an anti-poverty non-profit you support? Why or why not?
And, as always, perhaps the most important way we can respond this week is through prayerfully asking: what is one healing or peacemaking action I feel called to this week?