Smart People

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
One of the great benefits of being pastor at First Baptist is all the smart people who give me the benefit of their learning, insight, and life experience. On most any theological, moral, or political issue, there are any number of people in our church who know a lot more about the subject at hand than I do (I realize a lot of you don’t find that the least bit surprising!).

Getting to talk to sharp, conscientious people with widely varying views about a given issue is a gift. It broadens my understanding and awakens me to the complexities that attend most matters about which good people disagree.

I hope and believe others in our fellowship find such diversity a blessing, as well as a challenge. For if we are to be Jesus’ people, we must not mimic our culture and only hobnob with others like ourselves. Jesus had an annoying knack for seeking out and welcoming the most unsavory, controversial, counter-cultural folks in the neighborhood: ladies of the evening, IRS men, Samaritans, poor folks, and the like. And every time Jesus put his arms around someone the locals were bred to despise, he turned to his disciples and said, “Now go and do likewise.”

Recently, one of the many “smart people” in our congregation put me on to a book entitled, Going to Extremes, in which legal scholar, Cass Sunstein, analyzes the rise of extreme partisanship in America. Sunstein offers a wealth of evidence to suggest when like-minded people talk only to one another, they become hardened in their views. Liberals who gather to discuss affirmative action become far more aggressive in their demands while conservatives who discuss the same subject with one another become far more skeptical. If Sunstein is right, then one reason people seem to be gravitating toward extremism of both the right and left is that our cable network/internet world allows them to listen to folks only like themselves.

This Sunday night, we will begin the first of three conversations on difficult moral questions (see cover article): capital punishment, homosexuality, and war and peace. The safer course would be to avoid such controversial issues, or only talk about them in predictable, “like-minded” forums. But what if the church is the last place in America where thoughtful, passionate people of differing convictions can have meaningful dialogue? What if one mark of a disciple of Jesus is someone not afraid to open his, her ears and heart to people whose politics he or she finds objectionable?

Ed Friedman, another of the “smart people” who taught me a lot, said the definition of a true liberal is someone who can have a meaningful relationship with a conservative. I believe that more and more even as I see it lived out less and less. Maybe Jesus can help me, help us keep alive the dream of loving and listening to people very different from ourselves.