{"id":40584,"date":"2025-02-12T22:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T06:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40584"},"modified":"2025-04-23T07:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T14:25:33","slug":"social-gatherings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/social-gatherings\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Gatherings"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Madison wrote about the dangers of faction\u2014a group passionately united for one cause at the expense of the rights of other citizens\u2014and the ability for the Union to control this threat.[1]<\/a> Madison felt that the size of the nation would prohibit widespread faction. \u201cThe influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States.\u201d This belief generally held true for over 200 years.<\/p>\n

The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt observes that technology advancements have removed the protections that Madison relied upon. Since 2010, developments in social media platforms, for example, retweets and likes, have enabled outrage and mutual animosity to spread virally.[2]<\/a> Geographical distance can no longer prevent faction.<\/p>\n

Haidt says that social media is weakening the three forces that bind democracies together: social capital, strong institutions, and shared stores.[3]<\/a> The institution of the local church is not spared. Studies show that the majority of Americans want a church aligned to their political views.[4]<\/a> A recent survey found that 81% of Evangelical Christians have looked for a new church where members vote the same way.[5]<\/a> As local churches realign according to political preferences, the message of the church gets lost. Half of Americans believe that religion is losing influence and the outcome is bad. Only 8% believe that religion\u2019s influence is growing.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Statistics become meaningless when I am one of them. I watched many of our church\u2019s congregants emotionally head for the door due to differences in how to respond to COVID-19 mandates, George Floyd protests, and cries to defund the Portland police department. In contrast, very few left when the elders clarified our position on women in church leadership. Doctrine took a back seat to politics. Madison\u2019s fear of faction occurred in reverse. The deep national divisions brought the flame to my neighborhood. Our church body suffered. We were hardly unique.<\/p>\n

My friend Josh claims that numerous Christians have converted to new political religions, recognizing that the root word of religion has a meaning similar to \u2018devotion\u2019.[7]<\/a> He characterizes the political landscape as four quadrants, defining these political religions in terms of their creeds, priorities, concerns, and modern-day prophets, the loudest voices on social media.[8]<\/a> Josh\u2019s message is that Jesus is the author of each one of these leanings. None are inherently evil. We can bring our political bent, but our bow belongs to Jesus alone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the elections, our churches taught on the biblical basis for each quadrant, how each can serve God, and where there might be areas to keep in check. We prepared leaders with tools to promote dialog and address conflicts, then utilized the old-school social media of small groups meeting in homes to let people hear and be heard. No likes. No retweets. Our pastors said that they would pray for the elected officials on the Sunday after election day regardless of who won. Something amazing happened that morning. Though emotions were visibly present, no one left the church in search of their political allies<\/em>! Social gatherings silenced social media (or at least turned the volume way down).<\/p>\n

Nicholas Smyth encourages us to smash the technopoly\u2014a society reliant on technology above all cultural, moral, and social values. This is not a directive to become a Luddite destroying smart phones and social media platforms. It is a call to \u201cre-acquire the moral resource to constrain and direct our technology.\u201d [9]<\/a> This isn\u2019t easy. It does not happen quickly. It requires a commitment to dialog, a willingness to discover that the person wanting guns to be banned from schools and the person wanting classroom teachers to be armed share the common value of protecting their children no matter what. Fostering that one-to-one openness can bring some anxiety to this introvert. That anxiety is small compared to the one I have for a factious society driven by rage and embolden by anonymity.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. \u201cThe Federalist Papers No. 10.\u201d Text, December 29, 1998. https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed10.asp.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. \u201cThe Dark Psychology of Social Networks.\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, November 12, 2019. https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2019\/12\/social-media-democracy\/600763\/.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt. \u201cWhy the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, April 11, 2022. https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2022\/05\/social-media-democracy-trust-babel\/629369\/.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Aaron Earls. \u201cChurchgoers Increasingly Prefer a Congregation That Shares Their Politics.\u201d Lifeway Research, November 1, 2022. https:\/\/research.lifeway.com\/2022\/11\/01\/churchgoers-increasingly-prefer-a-congregation-that-shares-their-politics\/.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Bob Smietana. \u201cShopping for a New Church? Your Politics May Determine Which Pew Fits.\u201d RNS<\/em> (blog), December 12, 2022. https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2022\/12\/12\/shopping-for-a-new-church-your-politics-may-determine-which-pew-fits\/.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Michael Rotolo, Gregory A. Smith, and Jonathan Evans. \u201c8 in 10 Americans Say Religion Is Losing Influence in Public Life.\u201d Pew Research Center<\/em>, March, 2024. https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/03\/PR_2024.3.15_religion-public-life_REPORT.pdf.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Joshua Ryan Butler. The Party Crasher: How Jesus Disrupts Politics as Usual and Redeems Our Partisan Divide<\/em>. Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2024, 4-5.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Butler, 18.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Nicholas Smyth. \u201cSmash The Technopoly!,\u201d March 9, 2023. https:\/\/www.afterbabel.com\/p\/smash-the-technopoly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Madison wrote about the dangers of faction\u2014a group passionately united for one cause at the expense of the rights of other citizens\u2014and the ability for the Union to control this threat.[1] Madison felt that the size of the nation would prohibit widespread faction. \u201cThe influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[3397,3428],"class_list":["post-40584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp04","tag-postman","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40584","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\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41787,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40584\/revisions\/41787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}