Believing What We Claim

The problem of "double-mindedness"

This morning I came across a very interesting piece by the Washington Post’s Paul Waldman. Titled “The bizarre contradiction in the GOP’s view of America”, it had appeared over the weekend and considered the dual vision that Republican presidential candidates exhibit in their public statements. He wrote:

These are the two faces of Republican rhetoric, especially that offered by the party’s presidential candidates: America is the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth, but it’s also a hellhole. It’s a place of limitless opportunity but also limitless woe. Even the lowliest among us can achieve anything they wish, yet we all struggle under the boot heel of an oppressive state. Our hearts overflow with virtue, yet we are a nation of perverts and reprobates. We are envied throughout the world, yet virtually all of our institutions are corrupted nearly beyond repair.

Partisan ideology certainly seems to play a role. Our side is great. Their side is horrible. They won’t admit America’s greatness. We have to be on-guard against catastrophe.

There’s been a great deal of analysis lately about the public’s view of the economy. That partisan view says that we’re on the verge of recession, that the economy was better three years ago¹, that inflation is out of control, and that unemployment is rampant. The general sentiment is that this is the dominant media narrative, regardless of what the actual data points are. These analyses point to the number of stories who simply site public opinion polling on these matters as if THOSE were the important data points.

The media narrative quotes Republican politicians talking about the cost of gas² or eggs³. They quote their statistics about public opinion, which in turn shapes answers to the next wave of polling data.

This partisan frame shows up clearly in polling data about the economy. The Associated Press reported out a poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center in late June.

For over a year — from March of 2022 through May of 2023, ten percent or less of Republicans rate the economy as “good”. The AP summary reads as follows:

Biden can boast of a series of bipartisan achievements. He signed into law investments in infrastructure and the production of computer chips, which hold the promise of making the U.S. economy more competitive. But Republicans are unimpressed, with only one in 10 approving of the president’s performance.

The University of Michigan survey of consumer confidence shows the same patterns. This asks people if their situation is better or worse, subtracting the former from the latter and then adding 100 points, so 100 becomes the balance point. Look at what happens when they break the data out by partisan identity.

On the one hand, everyone is impacted pandemic in 2020 and by the rise in inflation that occurred in late 2021 and most of 2022. But on the other hand, Republicans go from a high of approximately 125 in early 2020 to less than 40 in mid 2022.

The partisan motivated reasoning argues that everything must be horrible in spite of claims about the generic strength of the American economy. Wait until after the next election and everything will shift if the right candidate prevails.

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Waldman’s observations made me think of another venue where this same “double-mindedness” is evident: White evangelicals and their supporting institutions. Think of all the times we hear scripture cited in sermons, memes, and instagram posts.

We regularly hear great promises: All things work together in God. I can do all things through Christ. God is in control. If my people, who are called by my name….⁴

But when we see issues in the broader society, we react in fear. We see threat and worry that we’re hopeless to do anything about it. David French called this out over the weekend in the New York Times.

The motivating force behind this transformation is a powerful sense of threat — the idea that the left is “coming after” you and your family. This mind-set sees the Christian use of power as inherently protective, and the desire to censor as an attempt to save children from dangerous ideas. The threat to the goodness of the church and the virtue of its members, in other words, comes primarily from outside its walls, from a culture and a world that is seen as worse in virtually every way.

French argues that the church needs a better understanding of the doctrine of original sin. I prefer to argue that the church has an undeveloped skill at exercising trust.

What happens as the church continues to lose power as a social institution? If we believe what we claim, we continue to have church and worship God in Christ. If we don’t, we must circle the wagons and align with Christian Nationalist figureheads. What if we’re asked to create a hypothetical wedding website for a hypothetical same-sex couple? Is this too big for God? Is he still in control? Or is the Gospel we claim only as big as what we can manage?

David Gushee sent me a story he had in today’s Baptist News. It is an interview he conducted with Kelsey Morrison, former assistant women’s soccer coach at Geneva College. She is a celibate queer person who agreed to abide by the College’s lifestyle agreement. When two of her instagram posts were discovered, she was fired.⁵ Toward the end of the interview, she says “..I think there was a loss there because of fear that people could get confused and think Geneva likes gay people.”

What would happen if people thought Geneva “liked gay people”? Would God no longer be in control? Could the Geneva community no longer pursue the Gospel?

We don’t get to play on both sides of the fence, believing in God’s leading when things go our way and believing in our own control when things are tough.

Either we believe what we claim or we don’t.

1. This was an actual claim by Senator Tim Scott who apparently forgot what life was like in the summer of 2020, three months after everything shut down.

2. Latest national data shows gas as $3.65/gallon. It was right around $3.00/gallon in late 2019 before the pandemic and the start of the war in Ukraine. But it peaked at $4.99/gallon just over a year ago.

3. According to Agriculture department, the price of eggs in 2023 is tracking right where it was in 2021. Look at the graph “Cartoned Shell Egg, NY LG White, Price to Retailers”.

4. I know that such proof-texting is dangerous. My point is that we make these claims but then act as if we don’t really believe them.

5. They offered her a severance if she would sign a non-disclosure agreement. She refused.