Hmm. Let me explain!
We all thought that the internet would draw us closer together. That it would open our eyes to other ways of thinking and POVs. Well we know that hasn't happened, in fact, just the opposite. The little wormy things that follow our searches come to know what we like and we are feed more of what we like and we seek out what we like and what we know and we can turn out or turn away from those things we don't like. And so when I saw the book The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America by Robert Wuthnow, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't falling into some garbage like this piece of trash. Like the Vox interviewer, I think it was the title that really put me off. Listening to Pulpit Fiction this week it all linked together. White people in our country who consider themselves among the "left behind" or the afflicted are getting it wrong! Whoa getting it WAY wrong and I didn't want to read a book that got it THAT wrong!
As I listened to the book I really didn't get the impression that it was biased, either way. This made me irritated of course! Because I wanted the book to be right! You know, I wanted it to agree with me! But it didn't agree or disagree with me. It really was not leaning to one side or another, it just reported the facts! Then at the very end, Wuthnow comes clean and admits that he is one of "us" and so of course, I loved the book. (This is all said sheepishly b/c I know I am just being ridiculous and biased in my own way- of course, I am biased the correct way!)
I still can't conceive of people who follow Jesus and support our current president. I still can't conceive of people who claim to follow Jesus and believe that capitalism is a good thing. Or war. Or the death penalty. So it is hard for me to put myself in the place of those who believe these things. But I know I need to remember that both right and left are two sides of a very thin coin. And so I will not judge. But I will continue to pray for "them" and "us" and the world.
