It’s not a good thing to self-sort ourselves in parishes according to our beliefs. The usual reason is to be with people who think the way we do, and to avoid people whose views we don’t like. When we do this, though, we miss out on the chance to learn from our disagreements. We lose that opportunity to fine-tune our contributions to God’s on-going creation of the universe.
Some think this kind of self-sorting is happening in American politics. It’s definitely happening in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, where implacable traditionalists want to split the church because of differences over theological speculations. At Entangled States, Nick Knisely points us to a New York Times article, The Elephant in the Room. The article describes how Americans are increasingly socializing solely with people who share their political views. Fr. Knisely sees a similar phenomenon happening in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, and thinks it’s a bad idea. He’s right on both counts.
A good bit of this self-sorting phenomenon seems to be happening at the parish level. In my own parish, traditionalists have immigrated from so-called liberal parishes. A number of my moderate- and liberal friends have gone in the other direction. As a result, our parish seems a lot more theologically conservative than it did 10 years ago.
About a year ago, a friend and I were in the parish hall chatting with our bishop, Don Wimberly of the Diocese of Texas, who was there to do confirmations. I told him we appreciated the challenges he was facing in trying to deal with so many divergent views within the diocese. I explained that my friend and I were theologically more liberal than the majority of our parish, so we had some idea what it was like to try to co-exist with people we disagreed with.
The bishop immediately responded that he was glad we hadn’t left our parish. He said (I paraphrase) that it wasn’t a good thing for people to leave their church homes in search of new ones that they imagined would hold more-congenial views. That kind of self-sorting, he said, causes parishes to become too one-sided, too polarized.
Here’s a quote from Fr. Knisely:
[I]f we do manage to figure out someway to break the Episcopal Church into two separate provinces, it will be a tragedy not just for the Episcopal Church, but for the Anglican Communion as well.
If there’s no need to interact with people with whom you disagree, then there is no need to learn to live with difference in your own community. If you don’t learn to live with difference, you quickly lose your ability to tolerate even a little difference. (In other words, once you vote someone off the island, it becomes easier and easier to do again and again until you are in fact the only one left.) [Emphasis and extra paragraphing added.]
And an excerpt from the Times article (by Anne E. Kornblut, published Oct. 29, 2006):
But as the fissures that opened after the 2000 election have become more extreme over the last six years, the divisions are playing out in small and personal ways, influencing friendships, acquaintances and even family dynamics. In some cases, the divisions have caused painful rifts. In others, they have simply produced a wary quiet.
Many people said they are simply tired of debating the policies that have split the country so thoroughly. They know where they stand; they know where their friends, neighbors and colleagues stand.
Rather than shift their views or even play along in a show of tolerance, many said they have opted for retreat and the safe harbor of friends who agree. [Emphasis and extra paragraphing added.]
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