{"id":17275,"date":"2018-03-29T10:27:30","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T17:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2018-03-29T10:42:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T17:42:48","slug":"how-i-responded-to-the-stephon-clark-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-i-responded-to-the-stephon-clark-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Responded to the Stephon Clark Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind<\/em> lays forth a convincing argument for why people choose emotional heart decision or judgments, and then\u00a0quickly use their head and reasoning to back up what they\u2019ve already decided. This has been written about before within other topics such as Emotional Intelligence<\/em>\u00a0and Begin with Why, <\/em>but Haidt applies this principle on a larger scale. He shows how people are making\u00a0moral judgments not just in the interpersonal communications of everyday life, but also with the macro-political core values. Because people now have moral and emotional ties to their political ideas, it can polarize them by causing them to see the other side as the devil, and themselves as righteous.<\/p>\n

Where this is problematic.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This suggests that we can\u2019t always trust our own logic because we might actually be using our emotional brain and simply acting out of moral convictions. And even when I am using logic, I wonder if I’m just finding fancy footwork to explain my way around difficult contradictions. You might even think an argument is true because a very intelligent person believes this, but the truth is that the smarter person has a greater likelihood to find more \u201cevidence\u201d to back up their pre-conceived emotional conclusions. This brings up a big predicament for people. This could very easily stunt the progress of all people if we continue to use our brain to figure out all the reasons we should not change.<\/p>\n

Before I jumped into political implications my first thought goes to how can we use this as Christians? This Righteous Mind tendency is problematic for Christianity because it is one of the barriers that those who don\u2019t know Christ or don\u2019t believe in God have to break through to make a decision for Christ. This gives further explanation for why it is difficult for people to submit their hearts to Christ when the heart is already convinced He is not real, or that they themselves are the most important thing in their universe. This reinforces what many have already shown; that most people become Christians before they are 18.<\/p>\n

This principle is also problematic because many people have placed their communities, both imagined and real, at the very top their heart, and begin to send out preconceived ideas based on that.<\/p>\n

Where this is helpful.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We should be intentional about speaking to the emotional brain or moral convictions first when trying to be persuasive or influential. Whether this is leading an altar call, pitching a program to your board, or presenting a dissertation we should speak to the emotional brain first because that\u2019s just how the brain works. Once you have the heart of the other person convinced, their own brain will begin to help them argue the point for you. This explains why you see more emotionally persuasive commercials for fundraising for charities.<\/p>\n

For everybody, I think this book is immensely important as the five moral foundations values that Haidt identifies are all virtues in themselves. No one would say that they are against Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Respect, or Sanctity (or a possible sixth foundation, Liberty). However, some people value freedom over fairness and there will be inherent conflict when valuing the other one more. When our core values are threatened and we see people attacking our core values, we are only able to see them as monsters. We can begin by being aware of these core values and realizing that the other person is not the devil but they simply just value something a little bit less than you.<\/p>\n

How I used this.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>The Stephon Clark Shooting.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This concept of the Moral Foundations Theory became suddenly very important to me this last week as I had to address the shooting of Stephon Clark to the small church I am helping revitalize in the Sacramento. Clark was shot 8.8 miles from the church, and protests followed throughout that next week. I had to address this situation which was so close to our home. But I knew as soon as I stood up and the topic was clear, I was going to be judged. Some people might be dismissing immediately based on what I look like, others might dismiss because of my assumed political persuasion.<\/p>\n

In the group that I would be addressing this Sunday there was going to be a young Korean man on a student visa for college, a woman who grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa, a Fijian woman, a white pastor in training, his African-American wife, their half-black daughter, two white men released from prison within the last two years, half a Chinese church, and a handful of Caucasians. How could I speak in such a way that would unify<\/u><\/strong> our church of fewer than 30 people?<\/p>\n

Here is a rough script of what I was able to say because of The Righteous Mind, Imagined Communities, To Change the World, <\/em>and all of our conversations have been refining me this year.<\/p>\n

—————<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city of Sacramento had a national spotlight this week. <\/em>I sense God\u2019s providence in some of this though. I sense God preparing a way for our corner of Sacramento to be shepherded in a complex time.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cConsider this\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019ve shared with you that we are in the process of placing a couple, Grant & Tiffany as the teaching pastors here at Sacramento Christ Fellowship.\u201d They have always told me from the beginning, \u2018we are called to share our testimony and we are called to racial reconciliation.\u2019\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>(Grant is white and his wife is African-American.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same day that we had Grant shared for the first time at SCF, that night Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police. 8 miles away from this church a grandma had the worst day of her life.<\/em> And this week there are multiple protests in Sacramento.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now people are arguing everywhere.<\/em> People are arguing what should have been done, if they were they right, should there be protests, how should they protest, how it should be handled now, and on and on.<\/em> People are becoming more and more polarized and more and more separated… or they become more quiet and withdrawn staying out of the whole discussion for fear of saying the wrong thing and being called racist.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our reality in Sacramento.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What will we do to love and serve the needs represented here? Many people here don\u2019t know how to respond to something like this.<\/em> What can you expect from us? <\/em>The pastors here, we will lead.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this is providential not because we will be the new activist church that will change all of Sacramento. It\u2019s providential because God sent the right person to shepherd this congregation to lead us in right the way in this complex and unsettled time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo what do we do? What can do we do today.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cToday what we need to do is pray for his grandma, Sequita.\u00a0<\/em>I imagine his grandma is suffering today.\u00a0<\/em>The whole family is having a bad day.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGrant would you please lead us in prayer for Grandma.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

—————<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you can see in this brief address before I started my sermon, some of the different influences the last year of our learning had on my life.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I was courageous enough to address a racial issue because of Capetown. Now, what will I say?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. I knew people were drawing lines because of Imagined Communities.<\/em> Would they feel community with me?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. I knew Idealism was not enough because of To Change The World. <\/em>So, what were we to do?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. I knew why people were being more and more polarized over this issue because of The Righteous Mind<\/em>. Now, how do I unify?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How do you think I handled this situation? What would you have done differently?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind lays forth a convincing argument for why people choose emotional heart decision or judgments, and then\u00a0quickly use their head and reasoning to back up what they\u2019ve already decided. This has been written about before within other topics such as Emotional Intelligence\u00a0and Begin with Why, but Haidt applies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1214,1017,1215],"class_list":["post-17275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-haidt","tag-lgp8","tag-righteous-mind","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17275"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17279,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions\/17279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}