We Vote Our Loves and Fears

Last updated on: January 4, 2017 at 10:49 am by Paul Louis Metzger

We Vote Our Loves and Fears 2017-01-04T10:49:46-08:00 Paul Louis Metzger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo Credit: Call4Beach

In a March 1st New York Times article, “What Wouldn’t Jesus Do?” Peter Wehner writes about how incomprehensible it is that many Evangelicals support Donald Trump. For example, Evangelicals highlighted the significance of “moral probity” during Bill Clinton’s presidency (a trait many Evangelicals believed he lacked). Now many are saying they are not voting for a pastor, but a politician (Trump). Such shifting “exposes them as hypocrites” and “is difficult to fathom.”

It should be noted at the outset that Wehner is an Evangelical, who served in the last three Republican U. S. Presidential administrations. In seeking to provide a rationale for the shift, Wehner notes:

Part of the explanation is that many evangelicals feel increasingly powerless, beaten down, aggrieved and under attack. A sense of ressentiment, or a “narrative of injury,” is leading them to look for scapegoats to explain their growing impotence. People filled with anger and grievances are easily exploited. As the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote, “We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement and where everyone has a grievance.”

It is not just Evangelical Christians who can feel this way. All humans have the potential to feel “…powerless, beaten down, aggrieved and under attack.” My Zen Buddhist friend and author, Sallie Tisdale, reflected upon this article in correspondence with me. She had this to say: “I wonder if part of the incredible divisiveness in American politics comes from this feeling by not one, but many groups, all of whom are viewed as actually powerful and threatening by other groups.” There appears to be no question that divisiveness rules the day in American politics. All too often, wounded and beaten down people wound and beat down others. If and when this is the case, how do we proceed to cultivate community that allows us to be engaged in reasoned and impassioned discourse that accounts for significant differences, while at the same time seeking to build bridges rather than walls with those who differ from us. We must account for what shapes people, including their affections involving love and fear.

In a TED Talk titled “The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt spoke of five moral foundations (“five sources of intuitions and emotions”) that register in people’s minds: harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, in-group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. Haidt argues that we must account for these “foundations” when seeking to address society’s moral concerns. While liberals may emphasize the first two foundations, conservatives account for all of them to some degree (though emphasizing the latter three) in making political determinations such as how to vote. Haidt writes, “We can say that liberals have a kind of a two-channel, or two-foundation morality. Conservatives have more of a five-foundation, or five-channel morality.”[1]

Even so, I maintain that all of us long to be cared for, be approached with fairness, experience loyalty, receive respect, and be treated as ‘holy ground’ (my language). To the extent that such qualities are lacking, we disconnect, pull away from one another, and return the dysfunctional ‘favor’. When such tensions intensify and cultural warfare ensues, we experience trauma. As a result, we are no longer able to carry on rational conversations.

It is important that Evangelicals, Buddhists, Secularists and others cultivate a sense of security for public discourse. Without mutual respect, we will only increase hostilities. We always vote what we love and fear, in my estimation. But how often are those loves and fears rational? Rationality will only result from relational security and lead us to vote more virtuously.

The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins will be co-hosting a forum at Imago Dei Community, in Portland, Oregon, on April 13th, 7:00-8:30 PM titled “You Vote What You Love: Being Peacemakers in the Culture Wars.”

The blog post introducing the forum states,

Drawing from research in social psychology, and the theology of the affections, this forum will highlight how people make their decisions. We are more than just rational creatures, in this political season we must account for people’s emotional states in affecting change and cultivating civil discourse. Augustine argued that the whole world runs on love, be it ordered well or disordered and chaotic. How are we ordering our loves? How are our loves shaping us, for better or for worse? If you are what you love — what are you?

Come to the forum and find out more about your “righteous” mind.[2]

______________________

[1]More recently, Haidt and his colleagues are giving consideration to other intuition and emotions that may function as “candidates” for moral “foundationhood.” One that comes to the foreground is liberty. See the homepage of http://moralfoundations.org/.

[2]Haidt wrote a book titled The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (New York: Pantheon Books, 2012); http://righteousmind.com/.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 22, 2016

I Like Bunnies, But I Prefer Lions and Lambs at Easter.

Next Post

March 31, 2016 Celebrate Science and Faith

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz