{"id":17281,"date":"2018-03-30T02:33:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T09:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17281"},"modified":"2018-03-31T00:09:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T07:09:02","slug":"wearing-the-right-ha-t-for-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wearing-the-right-ha-t-for-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearing the Right Ha–t for Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Jonathan Haidt\u2019s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion <\/em>is a frustrating read for people who are unwilling to consider radically opposing points of view.\u00a0 The Righteous Mind<\/em> is an evolutionary biased book that says humans have \u201cprimate minds with a hivish overlay\u201d and that life is simply a game. [1]<\/a>\u00a0 The author\u2019s goal is to relate modern politics and religion to human morality. Haidt says morality is more than relationships between harm and fairness and as a self-proclaimed moral psychologist he holds that there are at least six other \u201cmoral cuisines\u201d that influence human morality.[2]<\/a> He believes humans are born to be righteous and \u201cmorality is the extraordinary human capacity that made civilization possible.\u201d[3]<\/a> While I am open to examining radically opposing worldviews, I strongly disagree with the author\u2019s thesis.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I will use Bayard\u2019s \u201cfocus on ideas\u201d and Elder\u2019s \u201ccritical thinking perspective\u201d to examine Haidt\u2019s work while watching for the evil schemes underlying his narrative to help my dissertation research into the Problem with Spiritual Warfare.<\/p>\n

Haidt is said to be an atheist, liberal, left-wing Democrat who after an introduction to Buddhism transformed into a moderate post-partisan who finds value in religion.[4]<\/a> Haidt\u2019s narrative is the epitome of Douthat\u2019s idea of \u201cunchecked heresy.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Haidt\u2019s heresy extends to his use of Scripture (Mat. 7:3-5) to support his evolutionary development of enlightenment.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cReligion is key to the bee\u201d metaphor according to Lucas who reviewed Haidt\u2019s \u201c90% chimpanzee (selfish and individualistic) and 10% bee (altruistic and hivish)\u201d model of humanity.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Pearson says Haidt\u2019s view on human nature is \u201cits ability to transcend self-interest through more knowledge and moral evolution.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Haidt\u2019s argument holds three major ideas: (1) moral intuitions precede moral reasoning, (2) values are implicit in judgement, and (3) moral communities restrain chaos.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Fraatz\u2019s two criticisms for Haidt\u2019s work is his lack of moral theology from the likes of Augustine and Calvin and his use of \u201ctenuous\u201d historical references.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

What are the positive take-a-ways for a book like this?\u00a0 First, my B.S. in Psychology gives me context to read and understand the secular biased viewpoints on Haidt\u2019s moral psychology.\u00a0 I concede that some knowledge and understanding of these viewpoints, I call spiritual warfare schemes, may in some cases be useful in establishing common ground between ministry leaders and their congregants when trying to address modern morality issues.\u00a0 Second, I guess I would call it movement in the right direction for a Jewish atheist to move toward a God believing Buddhist variant who quotes Scripture, incorrectly and out of context, but at least acknowledges a god and values some forms of spiritualism.<\/p>\n

What are the ties, if any, to my research on spiritual warfare?\u00a0 I found 17 references to evil in the book.\u00a0 One resembled the idea of spiritual warfare in his Manichaean description of the battle between good and evil.\u00a0 Haidt says that humans are the \u201cfrontline in the battle; we contain both good and evil, and we each must pick one side and fight for it.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 He alludes to the \u201cforces of darkness\u201d as absolute evil and says the forces of light are \u201cabsolute goodness.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Biblically speaking, which he is not, the concepts of light and darkness mirror the Scriptural metaphors of Christ as the light of the world and goodness versus the forces of darkness, which represent the evil of Satan and his demons.\u00a0 So, could I find a way to use this book for God\u2019s glory?\u00a0 Yes, there is enough theological space to generate discussions, as differing as they might be, to help point and draw Haidt readers towards Christ.<\/p>\n

I found another link to Haidt\u2019s analysis that people are \u201cintrinsically moral.\u201d\u00a0 He says it is because of a type of moral evolution that is part of the \u201cnormal human condition.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Haidt\u2019s conclusion is derived from his thesis that people are nothing more than chimps that evolve into humans who get a bee size dose of religion that transforms them into moral agents. \u00a0While I disagree with his analysis, his conclusions that humans are wired with a sense of right and wrong is correct, Biblically speaking.\u00a0 Here is another example, radical as it may be for many of us, to use another Haidtism as a point of discussion to extend love and reflect Christ.<\/p>\n

Finally, I think as Christian leaders we must be well versed in what I will call a Dr. Seuss \u201cCat in the Hat\u201d type of theology.[14]<\/a> What I think I am saying is that as Christian leaders we should be willing to juggle may issues and wear many hats when responding to the needs of ministry.\u00a0 I think our LGP8 reading list is forcing us to not necessarily be open-minded, because I think that is an invitation f\"\"<\/a>or the devil, but instead I think we are being asked to know our own lived theology better, so we can reach, lead, and minister to a variety of worldviews that are not what we agree with or feel comfortable with.\u00a0 What ha–t are you wearing?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stand firm,<\/p>\n

M. Webb<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
[1]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion<\/em>. (New York: Random House, 2012) Kindle location, 122.<\/h6>\n
[2]<\/a> Ibid., 108.<\/h6>\n
[3]<\/a> Ibid., 53.<\/h6>\n
[4]<\/a> Margery Lucas. 2013. “Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.” Society<\/em> 50, no. 1: 86.<\/h6>\n
[5]<\/a> Ross G. Douthat. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em>. (New York: Free Press, 2013) 29.<\/h6>\n
[6]<\/a> Haidt, Righteous Mind<\/em>, 135.<\/h6>\n
[7]<\/a> Lucas, Society<\/em>, 87.<\/h6>\n
[8]<\/a> Andrew L. Pearson. 2014. “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Religion and Politics.” Religious Studies Review<\/em> 40, no. 3: 168.<\/h6>\n
[9]<\/a> William Fraatz. 2013. “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.” Anglican Theological Review<\/em> 95, no. 3: 548.<\/h6>\n
[10]<\/a> Ibid., 549.<\/h6>\n
[11]<\/a> Haidt, Righteous Mind<\/em>, 361.<\/h6>\n
[12]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[13]<\/a> Ibid., 73.<\/h6>\n
[14]<\/a>Dr. Seuss. Seuss’ ABC<\/em>. (HarperCollins UK, 2003).<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Haidt\u2019s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion is a frustrating read for people who are unwilling to consider radically opposing points of view.\u00a0 The Righteous Mind is an evolutionary biased book that says humans have \u201cprimate minds with a hivish overlay\u201d and that life is simply a game. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"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":[1214,1039],"class_list":["post-17281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-haidt","tag-spiritual-warfare","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17281","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\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17281"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17289,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17281\/revisions\/17289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}