How Christians Can Overcome Polarization and Engage in Culture with Civility

Let Us Reason Together Everyone has suggestions for moving forward through the sludge of cultural animus. I won’t claim that my suggestion is the best way or the only way; rather, it is a component of what I think we need as a civilization—a serious commitment to an open and honest airing of viewpoints that do not fit neatly into our culture-destroying social media and cable-news boxes. Allow me to specify. There is a relationship between the reality of division, the need for reason, and the possibility of reconciliation. In a well-known passage of Scripture, the prophet Isaiah declares: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isa. 1:18–20) Understandably, going to these verses to explain what is at the heart of America’s continued polarization may seem odd. Stay with me. Notice what Isaiah says: “Let us reason together, says the Lord.” God calls us to reason together, which is ...