Let’s talk politics! After the frenzy of the recent election, you may be thinking: “Politics? No thanks! I am ready for some peace and quiet!” I can understand that. The terrible state of political discourse doesn’t make me long for quiet, though; it makes me long for better political discourse.
I have had some fun, lively and invigorating political conversations in my life, with both people who agreed and with those who disagreed with me. I love the kind of conversation where we bat ideas around, hear different points of view and get new information.
Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, and sometimes we even (gasp) change our minds, if only just a little. These kinds of conversations are energizing, not depleting.
Good political conversation is life-giving. It is also a crucial form of peacemaking.
We live in diverse communities and in an unbelievably diverse world. The plain fact is that we are going to disagree with each other. That’s part of the cost of freedom.
The question is whether or not we will let our differences lead to unbridgeable division, hatred and even violence, or if we will learn how to disagree better so we can live in peace.
An essential element of learning to disagree better is knowing “quiet” is not synonymous with “peace.” Pseudo-peacemaking that depends on just “going along to get along” often leads to rage, tyranny, or both.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Have you met a child?
They are not quiet! I have noticed in recent years, when children resort to yelling or fighting to get their way, a common parental refrain is “Use your words!”
Peacemaking, learning how to live together without hating each other just because we disagree with each other, is not quiet! We, children of God, need to learn to use our words.
Children of God can lead the way in approaching political conversations with an attitude of fellowship and a hopeful desire to learn and share ideas. We don’t have to join in with the grim girding of loins for battle.
I don’t even think it would be that difficult to change our approach. Here are some practices that can help.
- Ease into it. We don’t have to start with the most intractable controversy from the daily headlines. We can start with important issues that have not been fully demarcated into partisan war zones. We can begin with topics where people might still have some psychic wiggle room.
- Start with curiosity instead of conviction. We don’t have to dive straight into arguing. We can listen and ask questions first then collect and share some information as we develop a common base of understanding.
- Begin at home. It’s easy to overgeneralize about “them,” those other people we don’t know in places where we don’t live. We can have better, richer conversations if we start with what’s happening in our own particular communities with our neighbors, those we know to be real, complicated people dealing with challenges that are familiar to us.
- Talk in person instead of typing on a screen. It is easy to be snarky or mean when you can’t see someone’s face. It’s easy to misunderstand when you can’t hear the tone of voice. Face to face is best for productive peacemaking.
- Practice. We can improve at listening, clarifying, asking good questions and reconsidering our ideas if we practice. We can get better at having fun, productive, thought-provoking political conversations if we practice.
A few months ago, I started talking with my church about what our role might be in political discourse. With their blessing, I reached out to some folks from other churches and local organizations. We put together a project called “Light on the Legislature.”
We are hosting sessions once a week for seven weeks on how the decisions made in our state legislature affect us here in McLennan County, Texas. Our goal is to provide a space to become informed about important issues, get to know our neighbors and to practice the art of productive, political conversation.
Our first session was held last Tuesday and the topic was water. We hoped at least 20 folks would show up.
We ended up with 50, and it was not quiet. It was not perfect. However, it was invigorating and felt like a good start.
It was fun to be in a crowded room with around 50 children of God, from here and yonder on the political landscape, engaging in some wonky, noisy peacemaking.