When Good People Disagree – Bob Turner
Have you noticed that we sometimes argue most strongly about things that are not central to who we are? Bob Turner looks at Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind* and Krister Stendahl’s Three Rules for Religious Understanding to give us a better framework for talking with people with whom we disagree. *(Amazon affiliate link – As an Amazon Affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases made using our Amazon affiliate code.)
Here are the six basic values in Haidt’s work.
- Care vs. Harm
- Liberty vs. Oppression
- Fairness vs. Cheating
- Loyalty vs. Betrayal
- Authority vs. Subversion
- Sanctity vs. Degradation
Here are Stendahl’s Three Rules for Religious Understanding
- When you are trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
- Don’t compare your best to their worst.
- Leave room for “holy envy.”
This is a remake of a 2017 video updated for today’s environment. You’ll find the original here.
Bob Turner, HST Library Director, preaches twice each month at the Church of Christ at White Station in Memphis. He has been with HST since 2009. He publishes a newsletter of curated resources for ministers called Footnotes. Subscribe here.
Harding School of Theology (HST), a seminary in Memphis, TN, has been equipping ministers since 1958. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, and offering degree programs at the master’s and doctoral levels, HST equips Christian leaders to higher standards of ministry scholarship and challenges them to a deeper faith in God. Combining academic rigor and interpersonal connections, HST emphasizes student engagement in ministry as they study. HST is associated with Churches of Christ, is part of the Stone-Campbell Movement, and is part of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.