By: Akwese on March 9, 2024
Years ago I was a part of an Intentional Living Community. We came together around our commitment to both God and social justice. To live in the house required us to share a set of core values while also adhere to certain rules and community norms that included things like splitting house chores, rotating who…
By: Elysse Burns on March 8, 2024
The Identity Trap hits a raw nerve. Not because Mounk’s thoughts challenge strongly held convictions, but because I am once again reminded of humanity’s brokenness. We live in a broken world filled with injustice. Dr. Sandra Richter speaks to our fractured reality in Stewards of Eden. She writes, “Yahweh’s world was a world in which…
By: Daren Jaime on March 8, 2024
As my 2-year-old son slept across my chest in our Westchester County apartment, my life would change by this morning. I was awakened by my sister’s call; a plane had hit the World Trade Center. She wanted to know if I got called into work. I usually would work the day shift, but on 9/11,…
By: Kari on March 7, 2024
“He’s the best thing God could ever give to America!” It is a rare moment when I am speechless. It took me a moment to respond. I was at a church speaking to the children about my life in Africa. One of the teachers was telling me of the “horrific” state of America. His comment…
By: Julie O'Hara on March 7, 2024
When doing some research for undergraduate assignments I ‘discovered’ that my home state has incredibly deep racist roots. In 1857 Oregon voted for statehood and adopted a constitution which explicitly said that no free negro or mulatto could legally move into Oregon, own property, or make contracts. Further, the state would make laws to punish…
By: Shela Sullivan on March 7, 2024
Here is an individual I like to have coffee with! Yascha Mounk’s book, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time refers to a situation where rigid adherence to group identities, whether based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, or other factors can hinder meaningful dialogue and understanding between different groups. Here are…
By: Joel Zantingh on March 7, 2024
I am appalled at prejudice and injustice based on race or ethnicity. I did not come to this conviction initially from any social or political movements that were seeking to address it, but it was formed in me from my Christian worldview, stemming from the heart of God. In Psalm 67:4, the Psalmist writes “May…
By: Chad Warren on March 7, 2024
My teenage daughter and I recently discussed the book she just finished reading for school, Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451.”[1] What we both found fascinating was how, nearly 75 years ago, he imagined much of the situation we find ourselves in today. Written in 1951 Bradbury portrays, he imagined a world where people are entertained…
By: Ryan Thorson on March 7, 2024
Hi, I am a follower of Jesus. My given name is Ryan, my family name is Thorson. I have lived almost all of my life in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America in the late 20th and early 21st century. I have been married to my best friend for almost twenty years…
By: Graham English on March 7, 2024
“The Identity Trap” by Yascha Mounk is a book that I didn’t want to read but, ultimately, I’m glad I did. I was born and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa in the darkest days of apartheid. I was born with a number assigned to me that identified my gender as male and my…
By: Christy Liner on March 7, 2024
In 2021, my family moved to Austin, the most liberal city in the state of Texas. I love it here. I love the diversity and honestly have no intention of leaving this city as long as I live in Texas. I laugh when my conservative family worries about the influence this city has on us.…
By: Diane Tuttle on March 6, 2024
Author Yascha Mounk in The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time starts his book by reminding the reader that throughout history there have been small groups of people who have mistreated, enslaved, and otherwise wielded power over other large numbers of people who have been deemed to be less equal.…
By: Chris Blackman on March 6, 2024
To all reading this, what would go through your mind if, prior to meeting someone for your first date, they sent you an email or a text that says, “Before we meet, there is something I need you to know. I am an ex-felon and served three years in the Nevada State Prison.” I had…
By: Jennifer Eckert on March 5, 2024
The year was 1995. I was 22 years old, and it was a regular Wednesday morning. Nothing was out of the ordinary. The skies were clear with a soft, cool April breeze. The typical rush hour traffic had subsided, and people had successfully shuffled themselves nicely into their cubicle workstations for the day. Tick tock…
By: Nancy Blackman on March 5, 2024
“Wer bin ich? Der oder jener? Bin ich denn heute dieser und morgen ein andrer?”[1] ——Dietrich Bonhoeffer Who am I? This one or that one? Am I then this one today and tomorrow another? The Identity Trap by Yashca Mounk covers six concepts: identity politics, group identity vs. individual identity, social fragmentation, intersectionality, tyrannies…
By: Debbie Owen on March 5, 2024
“I’d say that it’s one short step from ‘Wizards first’ to ‘Purebloods first,’ and then to ‘Death Eaters,’” replied Kingsley. “We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.” — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [1] I was applying to colleges during the fall of 1980. My father…
By: Glyn Barrett on March 5, 2024
The challenges associated with the Identity Trap make leading a faith community increasingly tricky. We see increased tension when we add the complexity that the Bible is often at odds with popular societal thinking. In 2013, the Telegraph printed an article in which Amber Dillon writes, “I can’t help thinking that some of the Bible’s…
By: Jeff Styer on March 4, 2024
Have I fallen into The Identity Trap? In his book, The Identity Trap, Yascha Mounk identifies and discusses the seven main themes of what he calls “Identity Synthesis.”[1] Mounk states that Identity Synthesis was “deeply shaped by the triple influence of post modernism, postcolonialism and Critical Race Theory.[2] I teach a course titled Cultural and…
By: Adam Cheney on March 4, 2024
I am white. I am male. I am heterosexual. I am middle-class. I am Christian. I voted for Bush, and I voted for Obama. These traits are identifiers, some outside of my control. Yet, none of them speak to my true identity. My true identity is found in Christ, as a child of God.…
By: Akwese on March 2, 2024
As I continually examine my current state of leadership, I find myself reminiscing about the days when I could truly live out what I believe, putting it into action. Now, more often than not, I find myself frustrated that much of what I know and think about leadership, I am failing to move into action,…
