Thursday 26 February 2015

Finding common ground--the second step in effecting culture change

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.
Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State

I think the most effective forms of critique are ones that establish a common ground for people to occupy, and then appeal to the best nature of people on that common ground.
Mohsin Hamid, Pakistani novelist

While attending seminary in Illinois in the 1970s, I was exposed to some of the more curious American Christian leaders whose reputations had not crossed into the Great White North. These included such notable fundamentalist Protestants as John R. Rice, Bob Jones (both Sr. and Jr.), and Carl McIntire. 

John R. Rice was particularly intriguing to me. He struck me as a flat-out nutbar, but he had a considerable following among very conservative fundamentalist Americans. His books included such titles as What's Wrong with the Dance? (plenty, apparently), What is Wrong with Movies?, and the unforgettable Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives and Women Preachers. His newspaper, The Sword of the Lord, hit a high of 100,000 circulation.

In addition to their fundamentalist understanding of New Testament teaching, all of the aforementioned leaders had this in common--they dismissed the iconic Billy Graham as a traitor to the true faith. He was hopelessly compromised because of his willingness to cavort with the dreaded liberals (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Rice).

One would assume that the set of common beliefs, values, and religious objectives that Billy Graham shared with these men would be sufficient for them to get along while agreeing to disagree on that one significant issue; i.e., that Graham was willing to work with non-evangelical Christians in putting together his famous crusades. But this was not possible for the fundamentalists. Either there had to be total agreement on all points, or no common ground could be found.

Seems ridiculous, doesn't it?

Many people who have been successful in achieving important goals--whether religious, political, even economic--strongly argue that finding common ground with other parties who might have an interest in the matter at hand, even if they bring very different values and practices to the discussion, is indispensable to achieving that success (see the quote from Madeleine Albright above).

That has caused me to wonder what common ground I, as a member of the life sub-culture, could find with, say, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Planned Parenthood, or the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Could I learn anything from  organizations such as these? Should I ever consider borrowing from their ideas? Or should I shun and condemn them at every turn?--which is in fact what the pro-life movement tends to do (while getting it back in spades).

Do I do the John R. Rice thing? Or go Billy Graham?

Stay tuned.


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