I’ve never been much into hell. I mean, I don’t believe in Hell, not that I’ve never been there, mostly of my own making. Though I think of Hell as a symbol of alienation and estrangement, it feels more real every day in America. The search for faith and hope that Love has the final word led back to this sermon from a decade ago. I am less the preacher than a listener now, in need of reassurance that cruelty and criminal insanity will not prevail.
Christus Victor: the Harrowing of Hell
Thanks for coming by Views from the Edge. Grace and peace,
Gordon
Gordon C. Stewart, PC(USA) minister (HR), public theologian and social critic; host of Views from the Edge: To See More Clearly; author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), 49 brief meditations on faith and the news; Brooklyn Park, MN, January 25, 2025.
I stammer and stumble, searching for words. Some days, I am like the stranger I recently saw standing on wobbly legs, hollering and pointing at someone across the street who isn’t there. I wobble and shake my finger at those on the other side of the street. On other days, or later the very same day, I see other strangers rush into the street where the man on the corner has fallen or laid down in the middle of the street. It’s morning rush-hour. Two men stop traffic to protect the man; the other four rescuers struggle to get the man to his feet, one on each arm, and pull him to the curb, the way soldiers often do in times of combat.
The rescuers didn’t see themselves as rescuers. They just did the right thing, the compassionate thing, the kindly thing. None of us, so far as I recall, introduced ourselves before or after pulling the man from the street. A month later, it dawns on me that the courage and goodness of that day had acted out the spirit of the words that dismiss worshipers to live in the Way of Jesus:
Go out into the world in peace; have courage; hold on to what is good; return no one evil for evil; support the weak; help the suffering; honor all people; love and serve the Lord; rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Book of Common worship, Presbyterian church (USA)
As a pastor, I’d like to think worshipers take these words as a description of the Way of Jesus, and as a call to put our feet where our mouths have been.
Talk of revenge – “I am your revenge” – hurts my soul. The applause hurts more, like watching the sword pierce Christ’s side again. “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” In Jesus’s name, we say Yes to the seduction of power to which Jesus says No. “Then the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,” and tells him it can all be his, if he will bow down and worship him. Jesus tells Satan to take a hike: “Begone, Satan!”
Stamping out evil with evil is not the Way of Jesus, and is out of sync with the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . .”. “You have heard that it was said ‘An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist one who is evil.’” “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of my Father in heaven, for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’” Pushing aside one’s enemies, calling them communists, socialists, traitors, pedophiles, kidnappers, or Democrats, is out of accord with the Way of Jesus. Kindness, not meanness, is the Way of Jesus.
Good and evil are rarely easy to define or separate. We live in an ambiguous world where the temptation of hubris overwhelms us. Some days I find myself lying in the middle of the street only to be pulled to the curb by strangers and friends who, whether they know it or not, manifest the Way of Jesus.
Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN. November 11, 2023
Apologies to By-the-Wind Sailors for calling them jellyfish. They are not jellyfish. A by-the wind sailor has a sail. Jellyfish have no sail; they just bob around.
My life is blown up and down in all directions. Right-side up, down-side-up north, east, south, west. But I am not a jellyfish. I am not a gelatinous blob.
Like the by-the-wind sailors along the Pacific coast, I have a sail that catches the wind. But what use is a sail without a keel and rudder?
I am not a by-the-wind sailor: I don’t get to choose my neighbor
The winds of time blow in different directions and are forever shifting. When it comes from the south, it blows me north. When it comes from the north, it blows me south. Most often it’s the west wind that pushes me and my by-the-sea sailors community east. No one can break ranks! Did I mention that by-the-wind sailors live in colonies. Like members of a political party in 2022, they live in colonies at the mercy of the wind.
But I have a mind that can, and does, make decisions. “Don’t just do something,” said Fr. Dan Berrigan, “stand there!” Sometimes I’m feel torn the Golden Rule (Do to others as you would have them to you) and “standing there” on things that matter, even at the risk of driving a wedge between my neighbor and me. To be loving does not mean becoming a by-the-wind sailor or a jellyfish. It takes a keel and rudder to tack against the wind. By-the-wind sailors have neither the heart to love nor the courage to move against the wind.
Don’t just do something. Stand there!
He [Jesus] said to him [the lawyer], “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Stand Firm
I have what no by-the-wind sailor or jelly fish has. I have a rudder. I can go with the wind, or, by trimming the sail, tacking, or putting down anchor, I can go with, or resist, whatever wind is blowing. I can go with the flow or tack to a distant shore when the wind would drive me back, or I can put down anchor. I can do nothing but stand there.
"For freedom Christ has set you free; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." [Letter to the Galatians 5: 1].
To move with the wind is neither free nor responsible. It is a peculiar form of slavery. The freedom of Christ breaks the yoke of slavery. Slavery to what? The 59th chapter of the Book of Isaiah expresses in vivid metaphors the anguished heart of God over how poorly we treat each other. How do I love those “who rely on empty arguments and speak lies,” when they “conceive trouble and give birth to evil, when they hatch the eggs of vipers and spin the spider’s web”? How do I love those who seem like by-the-wind sailors, going with a colony blown toward destruction by storms of misinformation, disinformation, lies, misplaced faith, and certainty?
Prayer as Political
A recent week on Block Island, Rhode Island, the home of theologian, lawyer, civil rights and peace activist, author, and friend, William (Bill) Stringfellow and poet Anthony Towne, drew me back to A Simplicity of Faith: My Experience in Mourning when Bill, at the invitation of the Block Island Writers Workshop, remembered Anthony:
I consider that Anthony regarded the use of the languages the distinguishing feature between that which is civil and human and that which is brutal and dehumanized. The culture, he had noticed long since, had gone the latter way, and its debasement of language, indeed, its promotion of jargon, verbosity, redundancy, deceit, doublespeak and similar babel is evidence of a profound decadence.
His vocation -- as distinguished from his occupation -- was, in principle, monastic, as is my own. (That is the explanation of our relationship.) That is, he and I have understood that we had been called to a life of prayer, and that the practice of prayer is essentially political -- a matter of attention to events and of advocacy for the needs of human life and of the life of the whole Creation. Prayer, in this sense, is not pietistic, but, on the contrary, radical involvement in the world as it is, prompted in the Word of God. -- William Stringfellow, A Simplicity of Faith (Wipf and Stock), p. 51-2.
November 8 and the Practice of Prayer
The 2022 national election is its own kind of prayer. Either we will vote to surrender our humanity to the prevailing wind of brutality, deceit, nationalism, authoritarianism, violence and hate, or we will choose to tack against the wind toward the horizon only prayer as politics can take us.
Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR), Brooklyn Park, MN, October 21, 2022.
Those who have had to say good-bye to the dog in the family understand. Others may wonder how a pet’s death can cause such deep sadness.
August 22, 2020
Yesterday morning it became clear that Barclay, our nine year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, was laboring and less able to enjoy life. We knew he has the heart condition many Cavalier King Charles Spaniels develop and have seen signs Barclay is slowing down. He isn’t his playful self.
Barclay took his last ride in the car, wagged his tail going into the veterinary clinic, and sat on my lap while Kay and I faced the decision we did not want to make. As he did the first time I held him — he was (3.5 lbs.), he licked my face and nibbled my left ear, expressing that same love and trust with Kay before they gave him the first shot that tranquillized him.
Five days later, August 27
The feeling now is emptiness and the irrational sense of guilt for “putting him down,” as they say. Kay and I are teary and sad. I have a flood of tears behind the dam of denial. I miss his presence: the morning kiss and nibble on my ear; walking one step behind me going down the stairs, like a paramedic ready for a rescue; his delight chasing light and shadows, moths and butterflies; throwing his ball at our feet for a game of soccer (he was a goalie; you couldn’t get the ball past him); alerting us when it was time to watch Ari, have a cocktail, and play two or three minutes of soccer; his gentleness with grandson Elijah; practicing the training commands he liked — sit, down, heel, leave it — while regarding the rest as suggestions to consider; sitting patiently to lick the peanut butter from our fingers.
To call Barclay “precious” understates his sweetness and goodness.
Six days later, August 28
It’s been six days since Barclay died. I haven’t been able to shake the sorrow. The tears remain locked behind the dam in the reservoir of sorrow filled by the tears a lifetime. These feelings are particular to this moment in time, but the reservoir feels deeper and darker than the loss of Barclay. The picture of his last moment —lying on the veterinarian’s table with his paws hanging over the edge, trusting us with his life — still haunts me.
These feelings are what they always are: neither rational nor irrational. Reason can measure the width and depth of things, but it has no access to the depths of the non-rational, known only to the heart.
Twelve Days Later, September 3
It’s time for the evening news. Barclay is missing; Donald Trump is not. I’m struck by the contrast. Barclay never lied. There was no pretense in him. Lying and pretense were as far from Barclay’s character as honesty and humility are from the former president. During Barclay’s nine years with us, he never had an accident. Not once. Donald Trump made a mess of the White House, and continues to smear the media with his excreta every day. There is no good reason one would confuse the stench from a pigsty with the aroma wafting from a bakery. When everything is shaking, reason does not stop the quivering. Shaking and calmness are matters of the heart.
At my age, the reservoir has its share of grief and sadness. Much of the sorrow is of my own making, things I have done and left undone that hurt others and myself. Mixed with those tears are the gasps of a global lament: the mess we are leaving to our grandchildren; the horror of January 6 and the relentless disinformation that erodes the public trust on which the survival of democratic republic depends; the Big Lie swallowed and promoted by those who know it’s not true; the return of the hangman’s noose and the hanging tree, weapons of mass destruction, war, and guns concealed and carried freely in public; the insanity of the Strong Man pummeling Ukraine into submission, and the former American president who, like Putin, knows no other words than MINE; the fundamentalist churches’ exchange of the gospel of the crucified Jesus, the Loser, for the prosperity gospel for winners.
How much the reservoir is personal and how much is public is hard to tell, but I also know there are tears of joy and love in my deepest self. All that’s left at the end is love. If my DNA follows my parents’ lifespans, I have six or eight years left to release the sorrow, guilt, and shame, and re-fill the reservoir with tears of joyful thanksgiving for the gift of Barclay and of life itself. Love never ends.
Gordon C. Stewart, Brooklyn Park, MN, September 7, 2022
Moments ago Andrew Long gave Views from the Edge permission to re-publish his pastoral letter to the people of First Presbyterian Church of Watertown, NY. If you read nothing else, I call attention to the fourth and fifth paragraphs that offer a peek into the new world of his five year old son and his peers.
Dear Friends in Christ,
I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. I didn’t sleep very well last night. The smallest sound in the cool evening air through our open bedroom widows roused me. And these words from Scripture kept circling my mind:
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.–Jeremiah 31:15
We wept last night watching the news from Uvalde, Texas. We wept at the sight of parents frantically searching for their children. We wept for the dead. We wept over the immediate shenanigans coming from the talking heads.
And we wept because we have an elementary-aged son who has told us about the shelter-in-place, active-shooter drills they routinely have at school.
I wish I was exaggerating. God, I wish I was exaggerating. It almost sounds comical. I had fire drills when I was in school and was told not to pick the paint off the radiator because it likely had lead in it. Our son has had to learn, before age five, how to hide and keep silent so that an active shooter in his school won’t find him.
Are you OK with that? I’m not.
Frankly, I don’t think God is OK with it either. I know Jesus isn’t. He nearly excommunicated one his disciples when that disciple tried to keep children from coming to him. And in a society where laws are made and/or reversed to ‘protect’ the unborn, but only ‘thoughts and prayers’ are given to the families of children who are gunned-down at school, we must look at ourselves deeply and question what we truly value in life. Right now, sadly, life for every one of God’s children does not seem to be at the top of the list.
Right now I’m thinking of the statue of Jesus that stands across the street from the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. Jesus has his head in his hands and his back turned to the site of the bombing. He stands on a pedestal made from the same number of polished marble stones as the number of children who were murdered in the bombing. Jesus weeps.
We should, too.
Feel deeply the intense sadness of this moment. As people of faith, we do not have the luxury of turning away. Our faith is founded on the truth that all people are created equally in the sacred image of God. When one of those beloved image-bearers is taken from this earth, all of us are diminished. It is no longer ‘out there’ or ‘somewhere else’; it is right here, right now. We must not turn away.
And in our weeping, maybe the Lord will fill us with just the right amount of righteous anger to truly work for a more just and peaceful world.
A world where children can learn their ABC’s before they learn about active shooters.
A world where thoughts and prayers are followed by action and policy.
A world where idolatry gives way to true, robust faith in God.
A world where every person can fully access the abundant life Jesus Christ came to give us all.
Come, Lord Jesus. Make it so! +andrew
P.S.–Secondary Traumatic Stress is a real concern in times such as these. STS happens when we witness the first-hand trauma of others. Please know that I stand ready to pray with you, visit with you, even sit with you in silence if you are struggling right now. Please reach out to me at (Phone numbers and emails deleted by Views from the Edge) if I can be of assistance.
Bumpa (Grandpa): Tomorrow’s your birthday, Elijah!
Elijah: Yeah, tomorrow I’m gonna to be five! I’m gonna be a BIG boy tomorrow!!!
I remember when you walked with your hands behind your back, like Grandpa. You don’t remember because you were little. I don’t think you’ve seen this video Grandma took.
Elijah at 15 month
You were only 15 months back then. You’re much bigger now, but you’ve always been big in my eyes. Tomorrow you’ll be another year older.
Yeah! I’ll be five! I won’t be four anymore. I’ll be big a big boy!
Great expectations
Elijah opens his eyes with great expectations, checks out his hands, his feet, his arms and legs, and bursts into tears. Hearing his sobbing, Mommy does what good mothers do. She comes to console him.
Mommy: What’s wrong, honey? It’s your birthday. Did you have a bad dream?
No.
Does your tummy hurt this morning?
No.
Does your throat hurt?
No. Don’t ya know? You know!!!
I don’t, honey. I won’t know unless you tell me.
Uh-uh!!! You know everything. Mommies always know.
Well, I don’t unless you tell me. Today’s a happy day. It’s your birthday. You’re not four anymore. Today you’re five! You’re a big boy now!
I’m not! Bumpa lied!!! I’m just the same. I’m not bigger! I’m still four!
Honey, Grandpa wouldn’t lie to you. Did he tell you your arms and legs would get bigger over night?
He did. He said I’d be bigger on my birthday. Bumpa lied!!!
Did he say you’d wake up bigger on did he say you’d wake up older today?
Whatever! Bumpa’s confused and confusing. I’m not walking like him anymore!
Elijah 5th Birthday
Gordon C. Stewart, Public Theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), 49 two to four page social commentaries on faith and life. Writing from Brooklyn Park, MN, May 23, 2022.
WHEN ALL THAT'S LEFT IS LOVE
When I die
If you need to weep
Cry for someone
Walking the street beside you.
You can love me most by letting
Hands touch hands, and
Souls touch souls.
You can love me most by
Sharing your Simchas (goodness) and
Multiplying your Mitzvot (acts of kindness).
You can love me most by
Letting me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.
-- Rabbi Allen S. Maller
Rabbi’s Maller’s website — rabbimiller.com — is a treasure trove of Jewish tradition and biblical interpretation.
Rabbi Allen S. Miller
Gordon C. Stewart, Public Theologian and social commentator, host of Views from the Edge; author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Feb. 8, 2022.
Second in a four-part series on BLIND BIASES 2 by Harry L. Strong
If you joined me for “Biases 1,” welcome back!
If you didn’t, you may be wondering: “So then, why should I keep reading?
Not a Problem. Let me “catch you up” in a hurry.
“People can’t see what they can’t see.” Brian D. McLaren
Catching Up
Author, activist, and public theologian Brian D. McLaren has created a remarkably helpful way of assisting us in understanding what makes us see things so differently from one another. McLaren has identified thirteen (13) biases that contribute to the way people view life and the world and lead them to such polarizing conclusions from one another. For our convenience, he has managed to categorize them, each beginning with the letter “C.”
Previously, we took a quick look at how McLaren labels Biases 1 through 5: Confirmation Bias; Complexity Bias; Community Bias; Complementarity Bias; & Competency Bias. In a moment we’ll consider Biases 6-9. I’ll choose one and tell you what I learned about myself as I considered my own reflection in my “Bias Mirror.” Then, if you so choose, you may do the same. Chances are, we’ll be much more charitable and effective in inviting another into a conversation about why we view a topic so differently if we’ve tried to remove our own “blinders” first.
A Conversation with Larry
But before I share with you Brian’s second set of Biases, let me tell you about a brief conversation I had with a neighbor last week. While I was out walking my dog, I ran into Larry who asked me what I’d been up to lately. I told him I was writing a series of articles about “Biases.” Can you guess what he said next? “I’m not biased or prejudiced about anything. I have my opinions and my perspectives, but I try to be as objective as possible about everything!”
I don’t think Larry is alone. I’m guessing most folks become defensive if someone insinuates they are biased or prejudiced. The conversation prompted me to come home and “ask Mr. Webster” [1} how he would define all four of Larry’s words. Here’s what I learned:
Bias: “a mental leaning or inclination; partiality; bent.”
Prejudice: “a judgment or opinion formed before the facts are known (or in disregard of facts that contradict it); preconceived idea, favorable, or, more usually, unfavorable; unreasonable bias.”
Opinion: “a belief not based on absolute certainty or positive knowledge but on what seems true, valid, or probable to one’s own mind.”
Perspective: “a specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events, especially one that shows them in their true relations to one another.”
Fascinating! I couldn’t help but notice the phrase “unreasonable bias” in the definition of prejudice. That would seem to suggest that there IS such a thing as “reasonable bias.” Granted, most of us, as we ponder our conclusions about life and the world, are far more comfortable with the less judgmental and less inflammatory terms “opinion” and “perspective.”
McLaren’s Biases Six through Nine
I’ve likely devoted far too much time to this little grammar-aside. Let’s invite Brian McLaren back to the lectern to tell us about Biases 6 through 9 that he has identified.
Consciousness Bias: Some things simply can’t be seen from where I am right now. But if I keep growing, maturing, and developing, someday I will be able to see what is now inaccessible to me.
Comfort or Complacency Bias: I prefer not to have my comfort disturbed.
Conservative/Liberal Bias: I lean toward nurturing fairness and kindness, or towards strictly enforcing purity, loyalty, liberty, and authority, as an expression of my political identity.
Confidence Bias: I am attracted to confidence, even if it is false. I often prefer the bold lie to the hesitant truth. [2]
I’m choosing to confess what I perceive to be the most potentially controversial and explosive bias of the four: Conservative/Liberal Bias. I concede, without apology, that I bring a “Liberal Bias” to my keyboard. Having said that, I want to underscore McLaren’s phrase “lean toward.” (Remember, Mr. Webster used the same term.) To quote my neighbor, Larry, in trying to be “as objective as possible,” the Conservative/Liberal Bias definition may seem to imply that if I champion fairness and kindness, I discount, purity, loyalty, liberty, and authority OR that if I focus my attention on purity, loyalty, liberty, and authority, I’m unfair and unkind! Remember, McLaren is about building bridges, not walls! He clarifies this point in Chapter 24 on Conservative/Liberal Bias, when he discusses how Jesus might have wrestled with this issue: “Jesus neither absolutized nor ignored the four primarily conservative moral values, but instead, he included them and integrated them with the values of fairness and kindness, or justice and compassion … all in service of love.”
It’s BOTH/AND – not EITHER/OR! Again, it’s “lean toward.” It’s a matter of “where do you put the accent?”
My Conservative/Liberal Bias
I spend a lot more time viewing CNN and MSNBC than I do watching Fox News or the 700 Club. I subscribe to Christian Century and Sojourners. I do not subscribe to Christianity Today or Christian Living. I realize that puts me at odds with a number of my sisters and brothers in the evangelical Christian community as well as those in the Republican Party. It also means that many of them have access to “opinions” and “perspectives” that I do not. If, bravely and vulnerably, we risk entering into a conversation with one another to try to build a bridge of understanding, I won’t say neither of us is “playing with a full deck,” but we definitely are not “playing with the same deck.”
Invitation to Lean Forward
If you’re willing and able to spend the time, would you please take one more look at those above Biases (Consciousness; Comfort or Complacency; Conservative/Liberal; and Confidence Bias) and then ask yourself: “Does that sound like me?” The next step is even harder. In quest of peace and understanding, would you be willing to share what you learned with someone you know who may not view the world quite the same way that you do?
If not, maybe one of McLaren’s “final four” Biases might be easier to address. Could we make a date to sit down together again in Blind Biases 3? Harry
——————————————
[1] Webster’s New World College Dictionary: Third Edition; Macmillan USA, 1997.
[2] Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself) (Self-published: 2019), e-book.
Most of us are having a hard time talking with people on the other side of fence from us. A conversation with classmate, colleague, and friend Harry Strong led to this series on Blind Biases. Thanks to Harry for his willingness to do what I could not. — Gordon
Harry L. Strong is a retired Presbyterian Church USA pastor, originally from Chicago. Over the past 50 years, since his graduation from Blackburn College and McCormick Theological Seminary, he has served congregations in Iowa, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Colorado. Harry and his wife, Anna, currently make their home in Montrose, Colorado.
BLIND BIASES #1
“People can’t see what they can’t see.” Brian D. McLaren
Former English teacher, pastor and current author, activist, and public theologian, Brian D. McLaren, has created a thoughtful and remarkably helpful way of assisting us in understanding what makes us see things so differently from one another. Given the intensity of hatred, hostility, and violence in our society today, rarely have such tools for bridge-building and healing been so desperately needed.
A Time-Machine Vexation
Perhaps if we had a time machine to take us back to the 1860s, we would be able to observe a similar, or even greater, degree of polarization among the citizens of our nation; however, since none of us was alive during the “Civil War” (or what the Confederacy called the “War of Northern Aggression”), our current divisions provide ample evidence of the need for increased understanding and reconciliation.
Come to think of it, those two different ways of labeling our mid-19th century national conflict (Civil War vs. War of Northern Aggression) provide an ideal opportunity for me to reintroduce Brian McLaren, because those “different ways of seeing” what happened in The United States of America between 1861 and 1865 illustrate our “biases.”
Inside the Walls of Bias
Says McLaren:
“People’s biases get in the way, surrounding them like a high wall, trapping them in ignorance, deception, and illusion. No amount of reasoning and argument will get through to them, unless we first learn how to break down the walls of bias.”
Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself) (Self-published: 2019), e-book.
McLaren has identified thirteen (13) biases that contribute to the way people view life and the world. For our convenience, he has managed to categorize them, each beginning with the letter “C.”
A Window and a Mirror
Before I invite Brian to share these with us, I’d like to propose that we try to “look and listen” with a window in one hand and a mirror in the other.
In other words, as we ponder these various biases that (other) people bring to their perspective on life and the world, let us be open, honest, and vulnerable enough to recognize that we do the same thing.
At the conclusion of this post, I have provided the reference to Brian McLaren’s e-book, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself). I highly recommend Brian’s book if you’d like to explore this topic at more depth! Before he introduces the 13 biases, McLaren quotes these wise words from Francois Fenelon: “Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.”
As your host and guide for this blog and the three to follow, I pledge to try to remember that, and also to trust you with a few less-than-flattering discoveries that I have made about my own biases. In so doing, perhaps, I’ll expose a reflection in your mirror that you had not previously considered.
Thirteen (13) biases seem a bit overwhelming, don’t they? That’s why I’d like to distribute them over three separate posts, and then add a fourth and final piece to try to address what is probably the most important dimension of this subject: What issues do YOU care about? Where do you want to make a positive difference? Where do you want to help others “get it?” And what are your next steps in quest of understanding and reconciliation?
Sounds ambitious, doesn’t it? Indeed – but I hope it will be worth our time together. So – here are McLaren’s first five (5) biases. Then, I’ll close with a personal note.
Introducing McLaren’s bias framework
Confirmation Bias: We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes whatever doesn’t fit.
Complexity Bias: Our brains prefer a simple falsehood to a complex truth.
Community Bias: It’s almost impossible to see what our community doesn’t, can’t, or won’t see.
Complementarity Bias: If you are hostile to my ideas, I’ll be hostile to yours. If you are curious and respectful toward my ideas, I’ll respond in kind.
Competency Bias: We don’t know how much (or little) we know because we don’t know how much (or little) others know. In other words, incompetent people assume that most other people are about as incompetent as they are. As a result, they underestimate their [own] incompetence, and consider themselves at least of average competence. [1]
As promised, before we conclude our first “class” on Blind Biases, let me show you what I saw in MY Confirmation Bias mirror. Soon I’ll be entering my 9th decade on this planet. I’ve been an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA for over 5 of those decades, but I continue to read and learn and be challenged. Almost daily, I’m introduced to new perspectives by names like Bass and Borg, Bourgeault and Delio, Greenway, Rohr, and Wilber, and others. I confess the “new ideas” don’t always “fit in with and confirm” the ones I gleaned from many of my “trusted authorities,” professors, mentors, and role models. Yes, I get it. I can appreciate why my sisters and brothers frequently are confronted by new ideas that don’t confirm their “framing story” and that those ideas are jarring, troubling, offensive, and can evoke resistance and even hostility!
So, which form of “bias” do you choose to reflect on? CONFIRMATION, or one of the others? Remember, if you’d like a “sneak peek” at Biases 6-9, you can always access Brian’s e-book! I’ll “see you” in Blind Biases 2. — Harry
[1] Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself) (Self-published: 2019), e-book.
Views from the Edge 