In The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt describes different ways morality is perceived by those on the political “left” and “right.” For instance, when discussing fairness, which he identifies as one among six moral foundations (care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity), Haidt notes, “Everyone cares about fairness, but there are two major kinds. On the left, fairness often implies equality, but on the suitable, it means proportionality—people needs to be rewarded in proportion to what they contribute, even when that guarantees unequal outcomes.” These different perceptions of ethical foundations create differences of opinion that drive disagreement and confusion. As Meek and Wydick note of their recent Christianity Today article, “these deep moral differences make it nearly not possible for liberals and conservatives to know one another.”
Fortunately, Christians don’t (or mustn’t) approach political matters from the left or right but as Christians. Christians can acknowledge when those holding differing political beliefs are pointing toward “the nice.” Neither the left nor the suitable represents “the nice” in all its fullness, nor do their positions produce it. Rather, our political arrangements allow the goodness of God to shine through in certain ways while resisting or blocking it in others.
Think of political positions like a Lite-Brite. The source of the sunshine lies behind a dark sheet of paper and shines through, where translucent coloured pegs are pushed through the paper to create a pattern. God is the sunshine or source of goodness. Political parties and their positions are paper and translucent coloured pegs. They form patterns through which God’s goodness shines through while, at the identical time, blocking elements of God’s goodness. The trouble isn’t that no goodness ever shines through, but that political parties assume that (a) they create the goodness by instituting certain patterns and (b) the goodness that shines through the political arrangements is (or ever could possibly be) complete.
Christians can assist navigate the divisive political climate by giving those with differing political beliefs their due. When the left or the suitable discover and pursue good, we should always acknowledge it, whilst we recognize that the nice they pursue is incomplete. For Christians, avoiding political polarization is comparatively easy because, while we acknowledge and have fun “the nice” we see on the planet, we at all times seek a fuller sense of “the nice” rooted within the Triune God. Christians recognize “the nice” wherever we discover it, but we don’t accept it. We know that the nice on this world is just a shadow of what’s to return.
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