Olasky’s Books For September: Anger, Courage, Dignity And Enlightenment
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(ANALYSIS) Elizabeth Neumann’s “Kingdom of Rage” (Hachette, 2024) clearly shows, as its subtitle states, “The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace.” She shows that development of in-groups is natural, but “the problem arises when a group begins constructing narratives about an out-group’s … beliefs, traits and practices, relying on information that may be unreliable, exaggerated or based solely on an in-group member’s negative experience with the out-group.”
Neumann shows how today’s “outrage industrial complex” teaches in-groupers to believe “that the out-group poses a threat to them.” Neumann notes that “prominent among Christian nationalist advocates is a willingness to set aside the teachings of Jesus that call for patience, meekness, and turning the other cheek.” They adopt a “stop being wimps” attitude that escalates both emotions and subscriptions: “For social media, anger is money.”
Another problem, it seems to me: lots of writers, not enough editors. Neumann says many publications “had journalistic standards that precluded them from airing or printing stories about conspiracy theories. … With the atomization of news and social media, we no longer have gatekeepers.” She recommends psychological, social, and religious “protective factors” including a sense of humor, healthy marriages, a diversity of friendships and strong community ties.
READ: How Religion Influenced Some Of The World’s Greatest Writers
Neumann rightly advises us to abandon three great untruths: That we are fragile, that we should always trust our feelings and that life is a battle between good and evil people (rather than a battle against the sin within all of us). She also offers ways to engage with those already radicalized: Be calm, be curious, be empathetic concerning legitimate grievances without validating extremist “solutions.”
John Ellis’ “A Short History of Relations Between Peoples” (Encounter, 2024) describes our natural tendency to sprinkle rage onto disagreements and cultural differences: Ellis shows that tribalism is deep-rooted and equality hard to achieve. Gens una sumus — we are all one people — is a belief worth cherishing (and one the Bible emphasizes), but it’s not natural.
These days, tribalists slam their critics as fascists and reactionaries, or as woke and paid off by “Big Eva.” Shirley Mullen offers an alternative in “Claiming the Courageous Middle” (Baker Academic, 2004). She recommends groups that meld compassion and conviction, including the And Campaign, the Heterodox Academy, the 1st Amendment Partnership, and the online publication Current (for which I write occasionally).
Polarization is also evident in battles over welfare: Social Darwinists (who oppose any help to the poor) fight social universalists who help some move toward dignity but others toward self-destruction. In my humble opinion, compassionate conservatism was a “courageous middle” alternative that became sausage-like in the Washington meatgrinder. Ismael Hernandez’s “Rethinking Charity: Restoring Dignity to Poverty Relief” (Acton Institute, 2024) explains why charity should be person-centered, with an emphasis on the creativity of all who bear God’s image.
Here’s a catch-up hat-tip to David Sorkin’s “The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews and Catholics from London to Vienna” (Princeton, 2008). Sorkin undermines the frequent claim that the Enlightenment was a rebellion against Christianity: Rather, it was Bible-based. Sorkin shows how John Locke (in his 1695 treatise, “The Reasonableness of Christianity”) and other thinkers in the eighteenth century distinguished “reasonable” (including belief in God) from “rational,” the exaltation of our brains above God’s.
Sorkin writes: “Religious enlighteners thought that unaided reason engendered immoral skepticism and unbelief. They were certain that morality without belief was neither desirable nor possible.” Sorkin’s six chapters profile six enlightened Europeans: three Protestant (including William Warburton, a pioneer in “heroic moderation”), two Catholic (including Adrien Lamourette, guillotined in 1794) and one Jewish (Moses Mendelssohn, who defended the existence of God by emphasizing intelligent design).
Readers wanting to know more about Locke should read Joe Loconte’s “God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West” (Lexington Books, 2014). Those who follow a different kind of struggle — baseball’s pennant races — may relish Andy McCullough’s “The Last of His Kind” (Hachette, 2024), a sensitive biography of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw.
A Christian and a child of divorce, Kershaw took to heart advice from a teammate who flamed out: “Use your platform to do something great in life, not just in baseball.” Kershaw is a future Hall of Famer who learned to accept post-season playoff defeats with dignity rather than rage. Politicians, pay attention, please.
Briefly noted: Two books from 15 years ago are out in new editions. Scott Klusendorf’s “The Case for Life” (Crossway) offers valuable training for pro-lifers hoping to engage American culture and not just boss it. Makoto Fujimura’s “Refractions” (NavPress) are a wise Christian artist’s reflections on faith and culture.
Marvin Olasky is the author of thirty books, including this year’s Moral Vision and Pivot Points. His foundation awards Zenger Prizes for street-level journalism.