Conversion or Discipleship? Where should we spend our energies?
The polarizing effect of our incessant moralizing is evident all around us. From the most recent US presidential election to the debates over the morality of same-sex marriage. From the disagreements over illegal immigrants and ‘DACA’ status to the food stamp and unemployment benefits programs. 
Let’s be honest, these strong points of view are even evident within our own cohort (though we are all incredibly polite and genuinely care for one another). There are those of us who are clearly on the more conservative end of the spectrum while there are others of us who have a more liberal bias. All of us feel somewhat sorry for the ‘others’ and might even possess a hint of superiority believing that ‘they’ haven’t quite figured it out yet.
It is these divisions that Jonathan Haidt seeks to explain through the use of moral psychology in his book ‘The Righteous Mind’. Coming to terms with the reasons why we seem to disagree so vehemently regarding certain ‘hot topic’ issues such as: sexual orientation, gun control, immigration, biblical interpretation, abortion, social welfare, etc. is the apparent purpose of the text. But, it provides so much more fodder for a plethora of other considerations such as: acceptance of diverse cultures, connection to faith communities, perceived responsibility for the natural environment and the like. To fully grasp its benefit in contemplating these broader issues one must first come to terms with what Haidt believes to be true regarding the development of morality.
First of all, it seems that those raised in the West, and especially in the US, with their individualistic mindset, motivation to achieve self-actualization, and belief that those who think like them are the only ones objectively considering all the facets of any given situation, are particularly susceptible to
feelings of moral absoluteness. Haidt calls these people ‘WEIRD’, an acronym meaning: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, & Democratic.[1] These individuals, which includes all of us in this D Min program, represent a significant minority on the world scale and possess a type of moralistic thinking unique to this demographic. “These conditions [have] made it impossible to conceive that there are other possible moralities and truths.”[2] It is difficult for WEIRD people to understand ‘group think’ or making decisions based on ones subservience to the family or community.
Secondly, Haidt makes the strong assertion that “people are fundamentally intuitive, not rational.”[3] Despite the belief that one’s moral convictions are developed through reasoned processes, he argues that in actuality “Human morality is largely the result of internal predispositions, which Haidt calls ‘intuitions’. These intuitions predict which way we lean on various issues, questions, or decisions. The rational mind….has far less control over our moral frameworks than we might think. Intuition is much more basic and determinative than reasoning.”[4] This idea challenges the oft accepted belief that people reason their way to morality.
While Haidt is largely concerned with the political polarization evident in the US of late, his psychological perspective does offer some means by which we can consider other issues relevant to the Church. What does this intuitiveness suggest then about adherence to the Church? Is it possible that certain people are predisposed to feel comfortable within this moral climate while others simply
will not no matter how much we might try to convince them? If this is the case, then where do these predispositions come from? Christian Smith in his notable nationwide research on the religious life of adolescents in the US suggests that almost all adolescents who have any significant connection to a faith community do so as a direct result of the involvement of their parents.[5] While this does not eliminate the possibility that young people have come to their own rational conclusions about faith involvement, it does suggest that perhaps this connection has more to do with their innate predisposition and familial socialization.
This leads to the question regarding the effort to ‘convert’ those outside the faith to a new way of thinking, believing, and living. Are these efforts simply an example of the Church spinning their metaphorical wheels in an effort to convince those in a rational way of something that they might 
intuitively deny? To put it another way; Are all the people who are likely to have a meaningful connection to a Christian faith community already there? Perhaps greater effort should be placed on discipleship and generational transference than trying to convince those who currently are not predisposed to faith to adopt a new worldview. For, there is little doubt that the Church has a significant problem when it comes to transference of faith from one generation to the next. Again, Smith is helpful here. “Interviewing teens, one finds little evidence that the agents of religious socialization in the country are being highly effective and successful with the majority of their young people.”[6] The Church is failing even to transfer faith adequately to the next generation who are raised within the community. What real hope do we have of convincing those without any God-frame to adopt this worldview?
I am not suggesting that there is no room for evangelism or that we do not have a responsibility to share the Good News with all. However, I do wonder whether or not the way we go about it fails to take into consideration Haidt’s findings regarding intuition and rationalism. Much of our evangelism is based around apologetics – the rational and considered exposition of the Gospel in order to convince someone of its universal truths. It is my contention that Millennials are far less concerned about the truth of the Gospel and far more concerned about its goodness.[7] Millennials come to reconsider world views experientially far more than they do so through reason. If we desire to alter the minds of people regarding the truth of the Christian faith reason should not be the focus of our efforts. “Appeal to reason’s boss: the underlying moral intuitions whose conclusions reason defends.”[8]
The biggest criticism of Haidt’s work fits well here and may provide us with the necessary understanding to continue sharing the Gospel in a meaningful way. It is his lack of a telos or end goal. Ultimate truth and happiness can only be found in knowing and loving God. And, in reality can only be partially known in this material world. It will only be fully realized in the world to come.[9] While the Gospel we preach must be more than simply selling tickets to heaven we would do well to help all people understand that the world in which we live is only part of the story.
[1] Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Vintage Books, 2013. P. 112
[2] White, Christopher. “Making Nice or Making Good? Politics, Religion, and Our Righteous Minds.” Catholic World Report. November 5, 2012. Accessed April 05, 2018. http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2012/11/05/making-nice-or-making-good-politics-religion-and-our-righteous-minds/.
[3] Saletan, William. “‘The Righteous Mind,’ by Jonathan Haidt.” The New York Times. March 23, 2012. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html.
[4] Roberts, Kyle. “Riding the Moral Elephant: A Review of Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind.” Biola University Center for Christian Thought / The Table. June 28, 2017. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://cct.biola.edu/riding-moral-elephant-review-jonathan-haidts-righteous-mind/.
[5] Denton, Melinda Lundquist., and Christian Smith. Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. P. 34
[6] Ibid. P. 27
[7] McLaren, Brian D. More Ready than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.
[8] Saletan, William. “‘The Righteous Mind,’ by Jonathan Haidt.” The New York Times. March 23, 2012. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html.
[9] White, Christopher. “Making Nice or Making Good? Politics, Religion, and Our Righteous Minds.” Catholic World Report. November 5, 2012. Accessed April 05, 2018. http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2012/11/05/making-nice-or-making-good-politics-religion-and-our-righteous-minds/.
About the Author
Dan Kreiss
Former director of the Youth Ministry program at King University in Bristol, TN and Dean of the School of Missions. I have worked in youth ministry my entire life most of that time in New Zealand before becoming faculty at King. I love helping people recognize themselves as children of God and helping them engage with the world in all its diversity. I am particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in their surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education, economic status, etc. I am a husband, father of 4, graduate of Emmanuel Christian Seminary, an avid cyclist and fly-fisherman still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.9 responses to “Conversion or Discipleship? Where should we spend our energies?”
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Hey Dan, as I missionary, I obviously think a lot about evangelism. But I totally agree with you that apologetics can’t be our only approach. The French love an argument, so while they’ll engage fully in an apologetic-type conversation, they aren’t looking for resolution or even attempting to be convinced, they are enjoying the verbal sword play of it all. The place where we see most people (most of which are millenials) becoming convinced of the truth of the Gospel is after being in community with our community of faith. They experience the grace, the kindness, the love, the joy, they notice that we care fore each other genuinely and serve each other selflessly and forgive each other readily. They know that this is not their experience in other contexts. The truth of Jesus is not hard to accept when one has aready had the experience of Jesus (through His body). That being said–if we ere simply better at being the Church–at being the Body of Christ, I wonder if evangelism would be more like a natural outgrowth of who we are rather than a separate activity in an of itself.
Thanks for calling us out even in our politeness with one another.
You wrote,”difficult for WEIRD people to understand ‘group think’” I think this is the hardest in our context especially for westerners. Not fully understanding why something was done or a particular way of thinking.
I think even when we believe we are being culturally sensitive we have the tendency to revert back to our “elephant” way of thinking. Great conclusion sentence.
As I read your excellent post, I reflected on how youth in my generation were given Josh McDowell’s “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” as a text to influence our minds. And yet, Haidt demonstrates that it’s our intuition not our rationale that determines our morality.
You mention that millennials require goodness not truth to be discipled. So the responsibility is ours as a church to live our lives with humility, forgiveness, and grace. Lord, help us all!
Hey Dan,
Thanks for the challenging post and for highlighting some of the issues at work in Haidt’s book. I think you’re totally on point about how WEIRD we all are in this DMin group, and among many of the folks that we mix and mingle. That’s a great and useful description, I think.
I see the kind of distinction you are trying to make about focusing on discipleship over-against outward “evangelistic” activities. I do think a focus on growing and developing our own folks is a key, but I’d worry that we might become inwardly focused, rather than having that zest for the outward movement of the good news. What do you think about this?
Really excellent summary and critical engagement of the text. Thank you. I like how you engaged with Christian Smith and you have caused me to now ask so many questions about my church in light of Haidt’s thinking. I wonder why some want to remain a “country club” in a changed neighborhood while others want to be “missional.” Interestingly, you’d think based on Haidt’s analysis that the liberals want to be missional and the conservatives want country club, but it’s not the case. I will say that conservatives and liberals disagree on what missional looks like, but I have both conservatives and liberals who wan to preserve the country club and conservatives and liberals who want to change in order to adapt to the new neighborhood. I’m not sure what to do with that.
Dan, thank you for bringing to light one of my biggest grievances with this reading. Your second point demonstrated Haidt’s view stating that “people are fundamentally intuitive, not rational.”
In the view of religion, especially Christianity in the sense, I believe the goal is to be a biblical, or at least for some, a Godly rationalist. We do not just decide how we feel about something, but rather weigh the situation compared to our understanding of God’s Word. Though the interpretations are not always the same, I believe the efforts are similar. I actually believe that bringing “intuition” into the equation can be dangerous.
Could you share your opinion on this issue?
Dan,
Great job in covering the overall view of this book. I agree that we should be focusing more on discipleship but in the end what is the goal of discipleship, to make a disciple who can disciple others, to that end evangelism is and always will be a part of discipleship. I think we have put to much emphasis on the evangelism part to the detriment of the discipleship, and the result is what we have, people whose best reason for following Christ is because my parents where followers. We as pastors and teachers must do a better job.
Jason
Hi Dan,
Again I say, your writing is rising up! Well done.
As I thought about your post, I wanted to say that I think, unfortunately, that evangelism has turning into telling folks about Jesus so folks can get a “get out of hell free card”.
I believe evangelism is one facet of discipleship, as is baptism, communion, etc. Therefore, to answer the question in your title, Discipleship!
Dan, thanks for asking the question about evangelism vs discipleship. This was one of my primary questions in my research with pastors recently. I have found that almost all of them emphasize discipleship and consider evangelism as part of the process. Much of my work is coming out of a motivation to see the generational transference of discipleship into leadership in the church. I am looking forward to hearing more about how your research comes together.
I also appreciate your mini analysis at the beginning of our cohort. You are probably right and it’s becoming a little more obvious by each post, this one in particular, where people stand. I am trying to have an open mind to my cohort members but sometimes my elephant wants to lunge away from what others think that I cannot justify.