Could the pondering behind the Alpha Course help to bring our world together?

‘Stay Curious’ is the slogan promoting the favored ‘Alpha Course’ that 1000’s of churches across the globe might be running in coming months. 

Personally, I reckon that ‘stay curious’ might be great advice for anyone attempting to navigate our fractious twenty first century world.

The Alpha Course is “a series of group conversations that freely explore the fundamentals of the Christian faith in an open, friendly environment.” Everyone’s welcome, say the organisers, irrespective of their background or beliefs. The course has been successful in helping tons of of 1000’s of individuals understand and accept the religion.

The idea is that you simply come to have a look at Jesus, his life and teachings, with an open mind. Questions are welcome and encouraged. 

That seems a good distance from how most of our society is working just now. 

Instead, we appear to be shouting at one another from our silos or social media accounts. All of us are so sure that we’re right, and that everybody else has the flawed ideas or motives.

One side pronounces they’ve a ‘easy solution’ to the issues facing the town, the country or the world. Everyone else shouts it down as unworkable and unrealistic. We stand apart, increasingly distant and divided. Suspicion reigns.

The algorithms that control a lot interaction online are designed to bring out strong reactions. Posts or opinions that make us offended – or possibly strongly agree – are those served as much as us.

Organisations upload posts designed to get a pointy response and increase traffic to their site. In contrast, it’s good when groups avoid clickbait stories and promote a variety of viewpoints.

But what should I do if I come across someone with views which might be massively different to mine? What can I do after I hear or see an opinion that makes me respond strongly?

That brings me back to the pondering behind the success of the Alpha Course. Stay Curious.

It takes some doing, but possibly our response ought to be: Take a deep breath … pause for a couple of minutes … after which ask the query, ‘Why does this person hold this view?’

Instead of viewing the person or woman airing this opinion as an enemy to be challenged, confronted and corrected … perhaps we must always simply stay curious.

How would this work? It is likely to be about gently asking the query – in a non-challenging way – about why they hold this view. It might be then you definately’d learn something in regards to the person and their life experiences that explains their viewpoint.

It might be they’d give some more statistics or information that might justify their position. Who knows, chances are you’ll even find areas on which you agree. Or not. 

Either way, you could have entered right into a conversation. You have seen the opposite person as a human being, not only ‘an enemy’, a social media account or the author of an anonymous comment. 

Someone said to me that he could never turn into a Christian, because he asked too many questions. And yet Jesus faced query after query during his time on earth. Much of his teaching was in response to challenges.

Questions are good. They help us understand the world around us. They help us to learn more. They keep our minds agile and open them to recent opinions and concepts. They help us see other people as human beings, quite than stereotypes.

The alternative is closing down our minds, listening only to individuals who agree with us, and opinions that chime with ours. That sounds dull, and possibly dangerous.

In our twenty first century world of echo chambers and shouty politics, where is the space for real discussion and debate? Where are the opportunities for people’s views to be challenged and adjusted?

Maybe wider society could learn from settings just like the Alpha Course where people can bring their viewpoints and opinions and discuss them with others holding different views.

Or are we already too embedded in our silos, with our own opinions and the people who agree with us? Is all likelihood of meaningful dialogue already lost?

For the sake of our shared lives, for our communities and our nation, I hope and pray that enough of us can ‘stay curious’ in order that open debate and discussion can still be held.

Curiosity. Maybe it’s the best way of the long run. Or possibly, the one way.

Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK and a former communications director with the CofE. He is the creator of ‘Responding to Post-truth.