Christianity has never felt so polarized. Dividing walls have been drawn, made political, economic, racial, biological, and doctrinal.
Web MD and Psychology Today say this about black and white thinking or what is called Dichotomous Thinking. It is a thought pattern that makes people think in absolutes. For instance, you may think you are either always right or the world’s biggest failure. Psychologists consider this thought pattern to be a cognitive distortion because it keeps you from seeing life the way it really is: complex, uncertain, and constantly changing. Black and white thinking doesn’t allow you to find the middle ground, which can be hard to sustain in life at those extremes. It can also lead to or be a root of mental illness including narcissism, anxiety/depression, borderline personality disorder, OCD and have severe impact on your relationships and other areas of your life. .[1]
Now, I am not saying that there is not right and wrong or absolutes in this world, but I am proposing a perspective of humility in our thinking that allows us to see humanity as Christ did, to exemplify his self-sacrificing love on behalf of those who disagreed, ridiculed, and eventually killed him.
Humility breaks down dividing walls that have been erected in our society and is made fully possible when the story of Christ’s own humility is absorbed into our own stories. Christ’s story of humility echoing throughout the Bible gives humanity the ultimate example of bringing unity to a polarized world.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ”
This is the story that we as humanity partake in. This is what unifies us as God’s people. It is not our doctrine, not our political affiliations, our freedoms, or even who we follow rather it is in the emptying of ourself and the recognition that the cross is sacrificial love.
May we reflect Christ’s own emptying to a polarized world.
[1] Kristen Carter, Black and White Thinking Can Affect Your Health, Psychology Today, Nov. 10, 2020, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/health-and-human-nature/202011/black-and-white-thinking-can-affect-your-health