The other day I wrote a post, in response to another article, concerning the new Disney version of Snow White. You can read my post here. The article being responded to is linked to in that post too. I don’t have much more to add to that, but I did want to think about why we so often seem to be falling for labelling and tribalism.

I think these are two of the besetting sins of our time. If I can label you – particularly with some bogey-word or pejorative – I don’t actually have to engage with anything you meaningfully say. You may have a genuine point that is made entirely reasonably, but if I can detect some wokeness, or cultural marxism, or leftism, or some such anywhere at all, I can label you – and everything you might say – this way before simply dismissing it altogether. It is quick, easy and saves me the trouble of figuring out valid concerns stated from undesirable sources.

This kind of tribalism causes problems of its own. I noted some egregious examples in my previous post regarding the #MeToo movement. Whatever one might think of the people fronting it and the foundational assumptions driving it, it is difficult to deny the presenting concern – the sexual assault of women and the broader culture of sexually inappropriateness that attends it – is somehow NOT of concern to faithful Christians. I never thought, 20 years ago, Mary Whitehouse – once denigrated as a puritan kill-joy of the very worst kind – might be recognised as ‘ahead of her time’ in mainstream press. And yet, the spectre of “wokeness” rears its head, and broader irritation with those fronting the Me Too stuff, essentially meant this was a matter that could be rejected entirely by Christians regardless of any biblical ethical merit in the concerns themselves. The question is, what causes faithful Christian people to deny the very biblical ethics they purport to hold this way?

One part of the puzzle appears to be a denial of common grace. Despite the existence of sin in the world, despite the radical corruption of the created order, God’s grace is still at work. Unbelievers are not as sinful as they might be; many are really quite good in a relative sense. But just as that is true in respect to their general behaviour, it is equally true in the exercise of their abilities and the thoughts of their mind. The unsaved physician can still heal the sick, the unsaved physicist can still make true observations of the material universe and the unsaved philosopher may still articulate truth as it really is. Common grace means you don’t have to be a Christian to observe what is true, to analyse the world and understand on some level and to do many other good and helpful things.

Some of the Christian rejection of the observations of unbelievers may rest in a rejection of common grace. Maybe not an overt denial, but in practice. For some, God’s grace may touch the unbeliever’s hands as they practice medicine but doesn’t appear to touch minds that think and observe the world. It is certainly true that if the foundations of our thoughts are faulty, we’re likely to make many missteps. But just as a house with flawed foundations may still have many layers of level bricks on top of it or still have some nicely finished bathrooms inside, so the thinker with faulty foundations may still make some helpful and astute observations.

But in truth, I don’t think this is the root of our problem. For those who are quick to label and dismiss even the valid and legitimate thoughts of some unbelievers, they seem quite willing to parade the thoughts of other unbelievers. There doesn’t seem to be any denial of common grace when unbelievers happen to line up with what they think. If common grace is the issue, apparently it only exists on one side of the political, cultural or philosophical aisle as some seem to judge it. That suggests a denial of common grace is not the primary driver. It may sometimes be at play, no doubt. I’m just not convinced it’s the root of the problem. For that, I suspect we need to look a little closer to home and, not so much without, but within.

For what is it that leads people to insist on their rightness and to only accept the views and insights of those who line up with their self-asserted rightness? What is it that causes people with no training or background in a particular field to affirm that they see more clearly than all and can reject the view, thoughts and insights or those with much more knowledge of the thing at hand? What is it that causes such people to decry even their Christian brethren, who demur on the issue at hand, and label them with pejoratives so that they can dismiss every view they might hold no matter how reasonable or biblically grounded? What is it that causes hard lines to be put down, tribalism to set in and no dissent to be brooked, no matter the validity of the alternative viewpoint presented?

It seems to me the issue is less about the affirmation of common grace or the over-application of total depravity. I suspect those are really the tools by which we might diagnose some of the problem. The issue seems to cut deeper. For common grace applies where it suits and total depravity is over-applied wherever disagreement and those not of my people can be found. Which tells me the problem is less the application and understanding of our theology and a more basic issue of a problem with our own hearts. Or, to put it bluntly: sin.

For, what is the answer to those questions posed a couple of paragraphs up? What does cause all those things? The answer is fairly straightforward and biblically evident: pride and arrogance. It is pride and arrogance that says ‘I know all’. It is pride and arrogance that denies the knowledge of any who demur. It is pride and arrogance that can brook no dissent. It is pride and arrogance that make us too brittle to accept ‘I just don’t know’ or ‘maybe they’ve got a point’ rather than doubling down and pejoratively writing off every observation another might make because they come from a stable you have determined not to tolerate, no matter how accurate the analysis in question might be. It is pride and arrogance that make us worry if we affirm this we will necessarily soon have to affirm that because we cannot see where the actual missteps lie. It is pride and it is arrogance and, let’s be frank, it is sin.

I think our refusal to see the good in any arguments outside our tribe, and our unwillingness to frame those arguments in the most positive way – and even acknowledge what is true in them – is not a result of rejecting common grace. I don’t think the way Christian denigrate their dissenting interlocutors – who often aren’t even actually ‘enemies’ – is not a failure of our doctrine of sin. I think these things ARE sin. When Jesus calls us to love our enemies and our only line is ‘we love people by telling them the truth’ – specifically ignoring the direct examples of what love should look like that are mentioned in scripture – love does not seem to be the driving principle. This is not the love of enemies (if that is even what these people are) that Jesus calls believers to. Rather, it seems to be driven by something more sinister in ourselves; sin that lies in our heart.

Unless we admit the problem, I don’t think it is ever going to go away. The apparent denial of common grace is not the fundamental problem. The problem lies in us. That much should be evident when we jettison biblical mores because they are being advocated by people whose other beliefs we don’t like and are unwilling to even countenance might get things right some of the time. When we similarly tar believing brothers and sisters who agree with them with the same brush, we are not dealing with a a misunderstanding of common grace. We are dealing with a different theological issue: sin. Unless we are prepared to repent of the sin at the root of the issue, talk of common grace is not going to get us very far.