In this hyper-political age, stories of division and friction abound. Maybe you have one. That relative you muted on social media; the couple who no longer sits in the pew behind you at church; the loved one you pray won’t bring up the latest cable news controversy at dinner; or the coworker who has barely said a word to you since the day you spoke your mind about a hot-button issue.

All the strife and hurt can be exhausting, which is why it’s important to tell the other stories, too. The friends who disagree respectfully and patiently; the families who overcome political differences with genuine love; and the churches that come together and rally around Jesus amid all the chaos. This is one telling of a story from around the campfire that can inspire us and fill us with the hope that relational practices and genuine connections can overcome disagreements over policies, parties, and politicians.

2020 was a rough year for all of us. It was also the year Kelly, a Good Faith listener, reconnected with an old friend. Kelly had known Ryan since high school but had fallen out of touch over the years. They kept up with each other via social media but wouldn’t have considered themselves close.

For Kelly, living in media-saturated, 21st-century America is something like being under siege. “You’re just bombarded,” he told me. The news is constant and sensational. Partisan identity and culture war opinions are worn on sleeves. He spoke of being “inundated” with a constant barrage of hyperpartisanship but considers himself lucky the chaos hasn’t affected him more deeply. “I’ve heard horror stories of people whose parents don’t speak to them anymore,” he lamented. It’s enough to make anyone exhausted, to hunker down and turn inward, shunning anyone who disagrees.

Kelly describes his presence on social media in years past as hostile and angry. “I wasn’t trying to see all angles,” he said with a sigh. All those social media arguments, he says, are driven by the algorithm-induced rage of online life and accomplish little in the real world. “It doesn’t do anything. People argue with you. You lose friends.” He paused. “Sometimes you lose friends and you don’t even know you lost them.”

Eventually, Kelly “got tired of it,” as he shared with a hint of frustration in his voice. He had had enough of the bitterness Americans have grown used to in the past several years. When his old high school buddy posted support for the Republican presidential nominee in 2020, Kelly wanted to understand where Ryan was coming from. Rather than replying to voice his disagreement, Kelly reached out with the hope of cultivating a genuine relationship across political differences. Reconnecting with Ryan wasn’t about persuading his old friend to change his mind on policy issues or convincing Ryan to reconsider supporting his candidate of choice. In fact, it was motivated by more than merely understanding how folks on the other side of the aisle think. Kelly was looking for a corrective to his own biases, an opportunity to see things from another perspective. “I’ve got to have blindspots. I’m not perfect,” he admitted. So he messaged Ryan on Facebook and tried to have an open mind.

A risky undertaking, Kelly’s friend could have rejected the opportunity to connect or there could have been an angry conversation that pushed one of them to the brink. Instead, both of them exercised patience as they tried to understand one another’s views and kept the conversation going, renewing a friendship in the process.

“We’re still close now, and it’s four years later. Really close friends,” he told me. The pair message on social media regularly and grab lunch when Kelly returns home to Oklahoma to visit family. And as their friendship has deepened, politics has become a less frequent topic of conversation. “I don’t think we’ve talked about politics in probably a couple months, honestly. We’ve been talking about more personal stuff.” Rather than overtaking and snuffing out a friendship, political differences were for Ryan and Kelly a spark that grew into a deeper relationship. Kelly says the friendship has helped him see those on the other side of the aisle as image-bearers of God rather than disembodied voices of contention and disagreement.

Kelly’s story is a hopeful reminder of the reconciliation and genuine friendship that’s possible in relationships that have broken down because of political differences. Amid the chaos of this election year, we all need help following Jesus and making sense of the world—and that’s what the Good Faith podcast is all about.

We want to hear more stories like Kelly and Ryan’s. If you have one to share, let us know here. If political differences have caused pain in your life, consider checking out The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics. Created by Good Faith host Curtis Chang, “Founding Friend” David French, and Christianity Today’s Russell Moore, this project may be the beginning of your own story of reconciliation.

Here is a quick test for you:

1. Who is the best NBA player of all time: LeBron or Jordan?
2. Who makes a better burger: Five Guys or In N’ Out?
3. Which label best describes Barbie the movie: Underrated; Properly Rated; Overrated; Grossly Overrated
4. The most comfortable men’s sweatpants are made by: Champion; Nike; Vuori; Lululemon
5. Should you tell your young kids that their Christmas presents are from Santa: Yes or No?

Do you have your answers? Now check yourself to see if you got the correct answers:

1. Jordan (it’s getting closer but the GOAT is still the GOAT!)
2. In N’ Out (I mean, unless you like overpaying for messy, sloppy fare…)
3. Grossly Overrated (sorry, but it’s true – the plot is incomprehensible.)
4. Vuori (the five pairs in my wardrobe prove it.)
5. No (why would you set yourself up for your kids to discover you’ve lied to them all along?!)

OK, it’s obviously ludicrous to assert that my answers are universally correct and should set the standard for everyone else. But imagine if I didn’t stop there. Imagine if I insisted that if you didn’t share my exact answers, you’d fall into the category of wrong or impure such that if we disagree on any of the answers, you and I couldn’t live together, work together, commune together. You’d be required to unsubscribe from this newsletter, stop listening to The Good Faith podcast, and I’d have to refuse to sell you copies of my books.

Applied to sports, food, entertainment, or parenting, such a purity code would be laughable. And yet, this purity code is increasingly being applied to politics. Host a campus event with a political conservative as a speaker and you risk getting canceled by some liberals. Receive funding from political progressives and you risk being portrayed as “tainted” by some conservatives.

That the same code — which is patently ridiculous when applied to most other realms of life — could be upheld by some in our political realm should give us pause. If the immediate justification for this difference is, “Well, politics makes things different,” we ought to ask, “Why? Why should politics make things so different? Why can our understanding of purity accommodate differences in other realms but not in politics?!”

It’s a question I’ve been pondering because we have recently been attacked for our moral purity around The After Party curriculum. Our critics have taken issue with some of our funder-partners by calling them “left-wing” as if this somehow makes the curriculum itself tainted. Note that they are not critiquing the actual content of The After Party material (our curriculum advances a non-partisan approach to politics centered on Jesus, where we are calling for obedience to Jesus’ teaching on hope and humility) but rather than discuss the content itself, their attack zeroes in on the alleged impurity of our funding.

It is important to recognize just how extreme this political purity code is. The New Pluralists, the consortium of foundations that gave the initial support for The After Party, includes some funders that could be characterized as left-of-center. It also includes Stand Together, a foundation of the famously conservative Koch brothers. The New Pluralists also includes the Wal-Mart Foundation, a corporation that could hardly be termed “left-wing” and additional funding for The After Party comes from the Defending Democracy Together Fund, an initiative of pro-democracy Republicans (and former Republicans). But these extremist critics insist that any financial partnership with any progressive funder automatically makes the entire effort morally impure. In their mentality, one drop of progressive funding taints it all.

This extremist mentality reveals the idolatry of partisan identity. Whenever you hear that a particular identity demands a special purity code — one that would be implausible in other “normal” realms of life — consider it a warning that this identity has become an idol. In the ancient world, the worship of pagan idols was usually accompanied with especially severe demands for special handling and cleansing practices. Correspondingly, the Biblical vision of repentance from idolatry involved rejecting this purity mentality imposed by idols. For instance, Colossians 2:20-21 (NIV) declares:

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’

Jesus — and his followers who “died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world” — practiced a vastly different code. Remember that Jesus, too, was attacked for crossing lines of political difference. He routinely ate with tax collectors, who were politically aligned with the Roman occupying regime. The Pharisees, who were politically opposed to the Romans, labeled Jesus’ association with their political enemies as a violation of their extremist purity code: to the Pharisees, Jesus was guilty of “eating with tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 9:11).

But not only was Jesus willing to let tax collectors pick up the check for his meals, he was open to having his ministry funded by them. We know that his ministry included a “common purse” (administered by Judas per John 13:29). Who were the big contributors to this “common purse?” If the original Jesus movement had to file 990s with the ancient equivalent of the IRS, we would probably see the names of many tax collectors. For example, Zaccheus is named as a major donor (Luke 19:8). Within his inner circle, it’s a safe bet to assume Matthew, the former tax collector, contributed much more than former fishermen like Peter.

Jesus refused to obey the Pharisee’s shouts of “Do not handle! Do not touch!” He recognized that they were making worldly political identities into an idol. Instead of bowing to their idolatrous purity code, he practiced God’s physician’s code. In response to the Pharisee’s critique “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners, he declared simply, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matt. 9:12)

This physician’s code defined what Jesus did throughout his ministry: touch those that need healing and partner with those that share in the healing agenda. The sickness of political enmity still afflicts our world today. The same physician’s code applies to those that follow Jesus today.

As I long-ago revealed to Tim Alberta in chapter 18 of his book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, secular funders are partnering with us because they desire our help to heal the political sickness of our day. No funder of ours has ever made even a suggestion about content and, if they did, we would refuse.

Political enmity and its accompanying purity code divides us from each other. Healing of that enmity will require us to reject such division. We must be willing to touch each other and bless each other across the partisan lines. For us at Redeeming Babel, our higher allegiance to Jesus will apply to our funding practices. For you, how will you apply your allegiance to Jesus this year? Will it shape which extended family member you are willing to invite to Thanksgiving dinner? Will it define how you relate to the neighbor bearing a yard sign of an opposite partisan color? Will it influence your conversations with others in your politically divided congregation?

Join us in following Jesus, the Great Physician, the One who associates with “the tax collectors and sinners” in order to bring healing to our divided world.

Glad to be with you in this work,

Curtis

Redeeming Babel is a dynamic non-profit that creates content and fosters conversations to equip Christians to find clarity in a confusing world. Redeeming Babel produces thoughtful material across multiple media types (videos, podcasts, print) to support the deep formation of hearts and minds. We have a distinctive focus on developing innovative video-based curriculum for individuals and small groups.

Our content is driven primarily by Curtis Chang, host of the Good Faith podcast, a consulting professor at Duke Divinity School, Senior Fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary, CEO of a White House award winning consulting firm, and co-founder of Christians and the Vaccine. Redeeming Babel also works closely with our partners David French, columnist at The New York Times, and Russell Moore, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today.

Redeeming Babel’s activities focus on content promotion and creating strategic partnerships for our three small group courses: The Anxiety Opportunity, God’s Purpose for Your Organizational Life, and The After Party: Towards Better Christian Politics. In addition to the courses, the Good Faith podcast and Curtis Chang’s books are incorporated into overall content promotion strategy.

The full-time Assistant Manager of Partnerships & Projects plays a key role on the Redeeming Babel team and is primarily a support role that comes with a clear trajectory for advancement. This position can be described as “organizational muscle” and will focus on all aspects of our partnership strategy, including prospecting, partnership-building, and collaborative project execution.

The ideal candidate will be an entrepreneurial self-starter, ready to roll up their sleeves to meet emerging opportunities and needs, and open to the reality that no two days look the same. This dynamic role touches on strategic thinking/growth, relationship management, project execution, and organizational administration. Prospective candidates should have a willingness to do highly detailed and task oriented work, as well as enjoy the world of ideas, especially at the cultural intersection of theology, politics, and institutions. Critically, they will be a person of strong Christian faith and high character.

Your voice and expertise will play a key role in shaping the future of our work and, with it, key conversations around Christians and their engagement in the world around them.

Responsibilities:

• Partnerships:
  • Support efforts to identify and research potential partners including those at colleges and universities in the CCCU network and beyond
  • Support Director of Content in partner-related content ideation & execution
  • Periodic travel in support of partner efforts and to promote Redeeming Babel’s various content at conferences, events, etc.

• Internal Administration:
  • Manage Redeeming Babel’s internal infrastructure including our website, Salesforce, donor logs, grant budgets, GSuite, etc. (note: several consultants are in place to assist where needed)
  • Lead monthly reporting on social media, course, and web metrics to inform future strategic decisions
  • Assist with social media comment moderation & engagement
    Oversee user access for our online learning platforms
  • Manage inbound queries to info@, media@, etc.

• Marketing:
  • Support the Director of Marketing & Communications in a variety of ways including event execution, promotional campaigns, social media content development & administration, etc.

• Strategy:
  • Join the conversation regarding Redeeming Babel’s future strategy, including new content streams, societal trends we should be speaking into, the evolution of our revenue model, media outreach strategy, etc.

Qualifications & Skills:

• 2-3 years of experience
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Familiarity with the various elements of developing & maintaining external partnerships
• Proactive, entrepreneurial self-starter
• Strong written and verbal communications skills
• Excellent social skills
• Creative problem solving
• Outstanding organizational skills
• Proficient with (and fast learner of) online technology platforms
• Awareness of the mapping of Christian thought leaders & organizations in the U.S.
• High level of missional alignment
• Orthodox Christian faith

Position Details:

• Job type: Full-time
• Salary range: $58-61k/year
• Location: Fully remote, but with a strong preference for Washington, DC for opportunities to meet regularly in person with other team members

To apply: submit a resume and cover letter to Aryana Petrosky at aryana@redeemingbabel.org. In your cover letter, please tell us a bit about yourself in narrative form, why you’re drawn to this work, and how it fits into the work you’ve already done in your life.