losing my religion

I don’t agree with everything in this. However, the point of the Intramuralist has never been to all agree; in fact, whoever assumes that unity only comes when everyone all agrees — or, colloquially, “all agree with me,” so-to-speak — most likely has a false sense of unity. We see that a lot these days. We also see a lot of angry people.

I’ve never associated angry people with being happier or healthier — in fact, quite the opposite. But where do we learn to surrender anger? To embrace goodness, kindness, and justice? …humility, compassion and more? I can think of nothing better, timeless and noncontradictory than Judeo-Christian values.

But we have a problem. We are increasingly forgoing the wisdom of said values. We are more untethered to religion and faith and Christianity than ever before. The “nones” are growing — not those cute, respected women in homogenous habits, but rather, those who don’t identify with any faith in particular. It’s as if it’s become ok for those once accepted values to matter less. It’s as if we think we can learn virtue elsewhere. It’s also as if politics has become our religion.

Hear from the words of author and a contributing writer at The Atlantic, Shadi Hamid, in an insightful piece from March of this year. Remember I don’t share all of his entire opinion. We also learn from those opinions we fail to share…

“The United States had long been a holdout among Western democracies, uniquely and perhaps even suspiciously devout. From 1937 to 1998, church membership remained relatively constant, hovering at about 70 percent. Then something happened. Over the past two decades, that number has dropped to less than 50 percent, the sharpest recorded decline in American history…

But if secularists hoped that declining religiosity would make for more rational politics, drained of faith’s inflaming passions, they are likely disappointed. As Christianity’s hold, in particular, has weakened, ideological intensity and fragmentation have risen. American faith, it turns out, is as fervent as ever; it’s just that what was once religious belief has now been channeled into political belief. Political debates over what America is supposed to mean have taken on the character of theological disputations. This is what religion without religion looks like…”

Religion is an organized system or a pursuit to which someone ascribes supreme importance. Hence, one can be religious absent any reputable, proven faith. 

Hamid offers further, undoubtedly divisive but poignant examples…

“… On the left, the ‘woke’ take religious notions such as original sin, atonement, ritual, and excommunication and repurpose them for secular ends. Adherents of wokeism see themselves as challenging the long-dominant narrative that emphasized the exceptionalism of the nation’s founding. Whereas religion sees the promised land as being above, in God’s kingdom, the utopian left sees it as being ahead, in the realization of a just society here on Earth. After Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, droves of mourners gathered outside the Supreme Court—some kneeling, some holding candles—as though they were at the Western Wall.

On the right, adherents of a Trump-centric ethno-nationalism still drape themselves in some of the trappings of organized religion, but the result is a movement that often looks like a tent revival stripped of Christian witness. Donald Trump’s boisterous rallies were more focused on blood and soil than on the son of God. Trump himself played both savior and martyr, and it is easy to marvel at the hold that a man so imperfect can have on his soldiers…”

The hard place we’re in, as Hamid — not a Christian — suggests, is that “Christianity was always intertwined with America’s self-definition. Without it, Americans—conservatives and liberals alike—no longer have a common culture upon which to fall back.”

We didn’t just fall back upon that common culture; we also practiced and learned to rely upon it. We not only learned but knew that kindness, goodness, peace, patience, justice, self-control, and respect for our brother/sister/neighbor — whoever they are — are good. They are values to be vigorously sought after and held in high esteem. This is thus perhaps the only means capable of unifying us now. Politics pales woefully in comparison.

Hence, let us continue to seek humility over any pride — potentially veiled as anger, remembering what will always be wisest to fall back upon.

Respectfully…

AR

tell me: do we really value accountability?

Hang around me for only a small while and you’ll quickly know there’s about 37 things I love passionately. For brevity sakes, I’ll mention a mere 7 today:

(1) Jesus, (2) football season, (3) my gifted sons, (4) respectful dialogue, (5) “Friends,” (6) authenticity, and (7) accountability.

Not in any certain order, of course. 🙂

I’ll admit… it wasn’t until later in life that I realized the joy, benefit, and sagacity of accountability. When you’re younger — and let me throw only myself under the proverbial bus — I didn’t really see the need… Sure, I made my share of mistakes — no doubt I still do — but I’ve got time to grow in that area. And while I may be wrong sometimes — having some inaccurate, maybe even unhealthy perspectives or behavior I accept or engage in, it’s only sometimes, not often and certainly not all the time…

Accountability didn’t seem like a necessary thing. Note: I’ve since changed my mind. I’m not certain, however, that the change in my opinion is a popular one.

To be clear, accountability isn’t just taking responsibility. It is also the state of being answerable. When something doesn’t mesh with what we know to be good and right and true, it’s a willingness to be present, still accepting and answering the tough questions; it’s a commitment to communicating honestly even about what’s hard. To avoid the question, therefore, is to refuse accountability. It is to refuse what is wise.

It’s no secret, friends, that the Intramuralist is not a card-carrying member of either of the two most recent Presidents’ fan clubs. I sincerely mean no disrespect to either; I simply believe that neither character nor competency should be in question in the highest office in the land, and regardless of partisan leanings, I am unwilling to minimize or ignore that which I believe to be important.

Not wanting to minimize or ignore, my current concern focuses on our acceptance of a lack of accountability. In other words, why won’t Pres. Biden take questions?

I’m not talking about the questions his team plans ahead, when the reporters and inquiries are scripted. I’m also not attempting to fuel any existing conspiracy theory. I’m simply asking the obvious: why is Joe avoiding the press? Is there a reason he is avoiding the accountability the so-called Fourth Estate provides?

To continue to be clear, I also don’t believe it to be good and wise and true to answer dishonestly. That’s not authentic — my 6th passionate love above. It is also equally inauthentic to punt to the press secretary who — with all due respect to Intramuralist faves, Dana Perino and George Stephanopolous — seems to have evolved to sharing less about an administration’s reaction and more about making an administration look better than they really are.

When Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Pres. Biden in the Oval Office last week,  only Johnson took questions. Conservative and liberal outlets are acknowledging the reluctance. 

On the incident, from the editorial board of the Boston Herald: “Johnson took care of his nation’s media as he should. But when U.S. reporters tried to question their own leader, Biden’s communications team, in this instance better understood as a non-communications team, basically drowned out their own boss and hustled reporters out of the room. At that point, the Biden administration’s lack of transparency and the president’s unwillingness to hold a news conference became too much even for sympathetic reporters. All over New York and Washington, the righteous indignation of a trained journalist trying to do a job crucial to American democracy kicked into gear. The memory of Biden not taking questions after major addresses on Aug. 16, Aug. 18, Aug. 31, and Sept. 9 started to smart, and many reporters took to Twitter to say, in essence, why the heck is this administration so afraid of questions? We’re amplifying those observations here: Why indeed?”

On the bigger issue, from Yahoo!: “Biden, 78, often declines to interact with the press and has suggested that he is not in control of when and from whom he can take questions.”

Where’s the accountability? 

Accountability and authenticity are always good, friends. Also true, no less, is that sometimes it takes a long time to realize that… and to not allow any of our leanings to minimize or ignore.

Respectfully…

AR

the death of expertise

As we near the fourth quarter of the year, I began evaluating last year’s resolutions — how they’re shaping up, noting any ditched long ago, and how I might be motivated with three more months in the year. As noted, my previous, most prominent goal was simply to read more. And what a joy and growth opportunity it’s been. From “Called to Forgive” by Anthony B. Thompson — husband of Myra, who was gunned down by Dylan Roof in the 2015 AME church massacre — to Chad Veach’s “Help! I Work with People” — a fun, light-hearted, relational tool for leaders, learning how to steward influence wisely — to “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore our Nation” by Intramuralist fave, David French. Embracing neither a Democrat or Republican approach, French takes a logical yet sobering look  at how the two competing political narratives are significantly hurting us.

What’s wrong with us? Why has conversation become so hard? Why are we so seemingly, quickly, easily offended? Sometimes it seems we can’t even joke anymore.

Such has lead me to “The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters,” by Thomas M. Nichols. Nichols, a professor of national security at U.S. Naval War College, examines our respect (or lack of it) for facts, how uninformed and expert opinions have become entangled with one another… how “policy debates sound increasingly like fights between groups of ill-informed people who all manage to be wrong at the same time”… how universities are part of the problem… how journalism is, too…

Note more of Nichols’ insight that prompts my attention…

“These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything.” 

“While expertise isn’t dead, however, it’s in trouble. Something is going terribly wrong. The United States is now a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance.” 

“Learning new things requires patience and the ability to listen to other people. The Internet and social media, however, are making us less social and more confrontational. Online, as in life, people are clustering into small echo chambers, preferring only to talk to those with whom they already agree.”

“We are supposed to ‘agree to disagree,’ a phrase now used indiscriminately as little more than a conversational fire extinguisher. And if we insist that not everything is a matter of opinion, that some things are right and others are wrong … well, then we’re just being jerks, apparently.”

“Journalism is now sometimes as much a contributor to the death of expertise as it is a defense against it… This fusing of entertainment, news, punditry, and citizen participation is a chaotic mess that does not inform people so much as it creates the illusion of being informed…This morphing of news into entertainment stretches across every demographic.”

“The modern media, with so many options tailored to particular views, is a huge exercise in confirmation bias. This means that Americans are not just poorly informed, they’re misinformed.” 

“One of the most common errors experts make is to assume that because they are smarter than most people about certain things, they are smarter than everyone about everything… Entertainers are the worst offenders here… This creates bizarre situations in which experts in one field—entertainment—end up giving disquisitions on important questions in other fields…” 

“What is different today, and especially worrisome when it comes to the creation of educated citizens, is how the protective, swaddling environment of the modern university infantilizes students and thus dissolves their ability to conduct a logical and informed argument. When feelings matter more than rationality or facts, education is a doomed enterprise.” 

“College is supposed to be an uncomfortable experience.”

“At the root of all this is an inability among laypeople to understand that experts being wrong on occasion about certain issues is not the same thing as experts being wrong consistently on everything. The fact of the matter is that experts are more often right than wrong, especially on essential matters of fact. And yet the public constantly searches for the loopholes in expert knowledge that will allow them to disregard all expert advice they don’t like.”

“Americans no longer distinguish the phrase ‘you’re wrong’ from the phrase ‘you’re stupid.’

Looks like we have a little more to read this year…

Respectfully…

AR

the current COVID crisis… sort of…

Many of our posts here have a definitive beginning, end, and bottom line point — sort of as if, when complete, it’s all wrapped up in a nice, neat, figurative bow. This will be no such post.

I want to talk about COVID-19… the vaccine, masks, mandates, our individual and collective response. Let’s face it; it’s messy. It’s also hard for the masses to talk about respectfully. 

One thing I know for certain is that Covid is still a thing. It is still affecting us… what we do, how we act, how we interact. There are so many questions that continue to swirl…

What stage are we in? … are we still in a pandemic? … or in an endemic now?

What’s our end game? … complete annihilation of the virus? … or reducing it to an endemic?

And what’s with the messaging? … why do the words/behavior of the administrations (current and past), the CDC, and FDA not always agree? … are there political motivations in play?

Part of the problem, it seems, is that we can’t agree on even the questions above. So let’s attempt to approach this from a different angle… We have a crisis.

Let me be more specific: we have an empathy crisis. We’re selective in whom we choose to actually extend empathy — to those arguably most often associated with Covid…

… to those who are sick… The U.S. has experienced almost 43 million cases of Covid. Near 700,000 have died. I can only imagine. A dear friend who wrestled with it called it nothing short of a “literal hell”; she said it was like an elephant sitting on her chest for three weeks. True, the fatality rate is less than 2%, but every person has a story, and every story matters to God. How heartbreaking indeed.

… to our friends in the healthcare industry… Many hospitals are overloaded. There’s a shortage of workers. More continue to quit. As a trusted professional shared with me, some quit because they’re downright exhausted. Some quit because they’re exhausted and frustrated; they’ve lost faith in the system; they’ve lost faith in humanity — in people trusting the science, doing what they believe is proven to be wise. “We all want to do good,” she said. “We want the healthcare system to be able to flex and be able to deal with this. But it’s not.”

Then there’s the friend who is routinely called in for extra nursing shifts in the nearby, very full NICU, and at the end of those long, draining shifts, is often confronted by protestors… Caution: soapbox comment coming… Why is it protestors always go after the wrong people? Protestors/activists seem to go after who’s easiest to attack — not necessarily who’s most responsible.

… to the vaccinated who are high risk… For those for whom the virus would be immediately life-threatening including friends and family for most all this is really hard. It’s scary… don’t other people see how their choice affects me?…. We don’t all have the same fears, but wisdom doesn’t make the unlike fears of another any less valid. So I’ll say it again: this is really hard.

… to the unvaccinated… (Remember: we said this was messy.) I listened to another intelligent friend share his family’s choice not to receive the vaccine. It’s not that they don’t believe in immunity. It’s not that they don’t love and care for their community. They are pained by the thought that countless times they’ve been told they are a “threat” to society — that because of them “millions are going to die.” That’s the farthest thought from their mind. They don’t question the efficacy of the vaccine; rather, they question the speed at which this was produced and thus its safety. They want immunity, too; they simply, genuinely believe that natural immunity is safer than manufactured immunity. They are also confused at why the conversation is so focused on the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated, omitting the believed even greater effectiveness of natural immunity.

Let’s be honest; it’s easier to give empathy to some people more than others. Have you noticed the number who have offered mockery instead? Or anger instead of empathy? But what if solution actually began with empathy? What if truth trumping conspiracy was jumpstarted by empathy? What if we recognized that relationship and conversation are healthier and more productive when we choose empathy? Empathy doesn’t mean agreement, friends; empathy means we work to understand.

Writes columnist and Intramuralist favorite, David French: “… Becoming empathetic does not mean that we forsake the search for truth. In fact, it can often empower us and motivate us to seek greater knowledge and insight. It means, however, that we shouldn’t prioritize our fallible and frequently-mistaken perception of the truth over the humanity and experience of the person before us.

Even if we’re dealing with something as simple as ‘vaccines work,’ or ‘a vaccine likely would have saved his life,’ the person who lacks empathy is often stunningly ignorant of another person’s heart or motivations or the full context of their lives. There is so much they don’t know.”

There’s so much we don’t know, friends. What if we got that? What if we were less selective? 

Hence, no nice, neat, figurative bow.

Respectfully…

AR

what are we unaware of?

Follow me here. It was crazy scary…  

It started mildly; it was first observed to be only a tropical depression. A tropical depression is a tropical cyclone that has maximum sustained surface winds of 38 mph or less. But within 48 hours, there was an unexpected, rapid intensification. Sustained winds began to exceed 180 mph. It was a Category 5 hurricane.

To be labeled a Category 5, that means forecasters don’t suspect there will be damage; it means that “catastrophic damage will occur. A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.”1

Note that to reach such a severe, sobering categorization, sustained winds need “only” reach 157 mph or higher. We are talking at least 20 mph more.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), only five storms on record have jumped from a depression to a Category 5 in such a short time period. It then was expected to make a direct hit in a heavily populated area. Not only was it expected to hit, its path was so unusual — one that would seemingly maximize the time spent over the affected land area — that maximum damage potential was also feared. Hundreds of thousands of persons were thus evacuated prior to landfall.

From those who were aware when it was happening…

… absolutely stunning…

… nothing short of explosive…

… very impressive imagery of this beast…

Friends, I continue to conclude that while we think we’re knowledgeable and well-informed, we are often only well-informed about that which is closest to us. Things that aren’t on our radar — meteorological or otherwise — are totally capable of instead being the object of our ignorance.

The storm identified above — one of the strongest storms ever recorded on Earth, with gusts approaching 200 mph — didn’t happen years ago; it happened at the end of last week.

Were we aware?

Maybe we are paying tons of attention to Afghanistan. What’s going on there is awful, whether people want us to pay attention to it or not.

Maybe we are paying tons of attention to Covid, the masks and the mandates — also an awful situation — infusing a whole new energy into the emotionally-charged “my body/my choice” debate.

My point is that we pick and choose what we pay attention to. The media picks and chooses what they — hopefully for them, we — pay attention to. And there are so many serious things happening on this planet of which most of us aren’t even aware.

What are we missing, friends? 

We’re in the middle of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season. There are no set seasonal boundaries, though most tropical cyclones develop between May and October. Super typhoon Chanthu (same as a hurricane) developed off the coast of the Philippines on Sunday, Sept. 5th. It quickly intensified in the Philippine Sea area of the Pacific. Having family in that area, noting the thunderous, dangerous winds, we were very aware.

But the storm was over 9,000 miles away. And even though it was predicted to be “catastrophic,” I didn’t hear or read a single word about it from any lead news host nor post. I had to Google what to know. I was thus only aware because the issue was near and dear to me. That tells me there is undoubtedly far more of which we are unaware.

What are we unaware of? What don’t we know?

And what — as we’re distracted by other, even valid passions and objects of attention — are we simply ignorant about? What other stunning, serious “storms”?

It’s scary, friends… crazy scary. And I’m not talking about a hurricane.

Respectfully…

AR

1National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center, NOAA, Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale

the day after…

Oh, how I long for a September 12th mentality…

… a day we came together…

… a day we knew that life was short…

… a day we knew what was good and right and true…

… a day we knew all lives mattered…

… a day we weeped together…

… a day we cried out to a holy God, recognizing we need help and we are not Him…

… a day we encouraged one another…

… a day we listened well to others…

… a day we loved our neighbor…

… a day we focused on the big picture…

… a day social media rants were recognized as unhelpful…

… a day we knew being divisive wasn’t wise…

… a day politics didn’t matter…

… a day we weren’t so polarized…

… a day we respected firemen and law enforcement…

… a day leaders led…

… a day leaders fought the real enemy and not one another…

… a day leaders knew who the real enemy was…

… a day we knew shaming all Democrats or all Republicans was shortsighted…

… a day even in disagreement, we respected our President…

… a day where collectively we knew that love is always stronger than hate…

… a day where we learned hate was only associated with evil…

… a day in which we kept the main thing, the main thing…

… a day where we were kinder…

… a day we knew the Taliban was bad…

… a day we all knew sports was just a game…

… a day we always shook hands at the end of the game…

… a day when imperfect as we are, we still respected the flag…

… a day we were humbled as a nation, but full of resolve…

… a day we knew what mattered most…

As Jeff Parents, founder of the New York Says Thank You Foundation — an organization which is devoted “to build hope and provide healing to people around the world to continually ‘pay it forward’ for the humanity, kindness, and volunteer spirit New Yorkers — and all Americans — experienced on 9/12 — as Parents said…

“We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12.”

Let me say that once more…

“We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12.”

May we not forget either 9/11 or 9/12.

May we not lose sight of what’s most important.

May we stop allowing lesser things to get in the way.

Respectfully…

AR

thoughts from 20 years ago and today…

20 years ago today, I was attempting to grapple with a coming new reality. It wasn’t expected, wanted, nor bound to be easy. While simultaneously thrilled and overwhelmed with the thought of soon raising another child, it never ever occurred to me that the plan for my life would include a son with a perilous heart defect and potentially special needs, too. The number of thoughts swirling in my head and the pace at which they swirled were far more than I could comprehend.

Three days later, hiding in my home somewhat, preparing to soon somehow balance all the ‘new’ on my plate, my friend, Cathy, called — knowing I never turn on the TV in the morn — emphatically imploring me to turn it on now.

The North Tower had been burning for several minutes, with American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into floors 93-99, killing everyone on board and still hundreds more inside the building.

Succinctly said, it was impossible to make sense of what we were seeing.

I walked out of the room briefly (since two already born toddlers also needed tending to). Soon then United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into floors 75-85 of the South Tower, also killing all on board and hundreds more inside.

That made comprehension harder, as now we knew this was not an accident.

The President spoke 28 minutes later, identifying the scene in lower Manhattan as an “apparent terrorist attack on our country.” Innocent people were intentionally murdered. All in the name of evil.

Our eyes remained glued to the TV. Still trying, yearning, aching — something — trying to somehow make sense of it all. That’s the problem; isn’t it? Evil makes no sense.

Still sobered by our senseless shock, rumors were flying of additional attacks. The Pentagon was hit — American Airlines Flight 77. There was talk of the White House and the U.S. Capitol building being next. Some 3,300 commercial flights and 1,200 private planes were quickly grounded.

And then perhaps, when we had mistakenly concluded our shock could swell no more, at precisely 9:59 a.m., the South Tower of the World Trade Center began to crumble. 

I remember watching as it was happening — seemingly in slow motion… increasingly aware of the gravitas of the moment… still carrying that single, new life inside of me… while other lives were dying. As much as I had my own fears swirling up inside, it did not compare to what I was witnessing on TV.

In the days and years past, I have oft reflected on that time — again now, as my son approaches the twentieth anniversary of his birth. I can’t help but remember all the compounding emotions of the season.

Of course, there was continued horror on the actual day… United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Western Pennsylvania… and then again, at 10:28, when the remaining tower returned to dust. 

In our reflection, no doubt there is still so much to learn and glean… so much embedded within the unforgettable, awful tragedy…

One, evil exists on this planet. It existed in 2001; it exists in 2021. There are people who desperately want to kill the innocent. There are people who deeply desire to rid the world of persons unlike them — persons who don’t think like them, believe like them — sadly, in our country, even vote like them. Stop it, friends. That’s pure folly. Unlike thinking does not equate to evil.

Two, life is bigger than self. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own experience — or the experiences of those closest to us — that we become incapable of seeing the bigger picture. While I was pretty rocked in my own emotional world going into 9/11, there was far more going on than what was happening to me. Life will never be defined by a sole set of circumstances. 9/11 made that painfully clear.

And three, it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing. The bottom line of September 11, 2001 is that the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda deliberately attacked the U.S., killing 2,977 people. Our country responded by invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban. That’s part of what’s made recent weeks so incredibly frustrating; it’s not that any “war on terror” needed to be re-waged, but how we exited Afghanistan and who we left behind was once again horrific. Terrorists remain housed there — including al-Qaeda. How we are proceeding? Who are we trusting? We need to remind ourselves what the main thing actually is.

And so I sit here on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in human history… 

Very aware of and thankful for life…

Very aware of innocent lives lost…

And still, very sobered… even 20 years later.

Respectfully…

AR

ignorance is by no means bliss

In recent years I went through the process of becoming my youngest son’s legal guardian. And while an incredibly skilled and gifted individual, as a young man with a few special, special needs, it’s important that another be involved in his personal, financial, and possible medical decisions going forward.

Noting that it’s slightly varied state-by-state, allow me to briefly describe what we experienced, which I believe to be comparable to other state processes. It took months, was a mountain of either actual or online paperwork, included visits and/or records of most every physician ever involved in his care, took multiple in-person appointments with the courthouse, attorneys, etc., interviews, and a few hundreds of dollars. Last but not least, once approved and all requirements were met, I had to attend an all-day class to be officially certified as his legal guardian. I had to do all this, as his mom.

To be clear, if any other would have desired to be my kid’s legal guardian, their process would have been almost, exactly the same.

Let that sit in for a moment. The 18 years I spent shaping, teaching, guiding, directing, disciplining, enjoying, investing in, caring for, feeding, funding, blessing, etc. — granted, all imperfectly so, as outside of heaven, there is no perfect parent — counted for absolutely zero. Zilch. Nada.

I can remember talking with a respected attorney early on in the process. More stupefied than offended, I questioned the credulity of what we were required to do. The legal process, the laws crafted and actions dictated by the governing authorities, were embraced and enacted in order to protect all wards from any potential abuse of care. Some who become the legal guardian of another take gross advantage of their role.

That scenario has continued to prompt extensive pause in me. It’s made me think about how law is crafted and how government proceeds.

Let me humbly rephrase. 

It’s made me think about who and what we prioritize when law is crafted and government proceeds.

How spurious to assume that as an active, engaged and pretty decent parent to my kid over the entire course of his life that I still needed one more course. How vacuous to disregard our family history so sweetly and diligently built in those previous 18 years. But I am not the one prioritized by the law nor government. The chosen priority of the law and government — and no doubt an understandable concern — but their chosen priority allowed them to ignore me.

That’s the tension here, friends. When we stand and cheer or tweet or whatever for singular sides of any debate, are we humble enough… insightful enough… shrewd enough to recognize how our passionate position often ignores someone else?

That’s my question: who are we justifying ignoring?

Who are we suggesting as a result of this law, what happens to them is lesser?

Who or what in our priorities, are we saying does not matter?

If we are going to stand behind the mantra and virtue that all lives really do matter, then we need to wrestle with who each of us is ignoring in the passions and positions we hold so conspicuously dear.

Before my guardianship experience, I remember sitting with a speaker, a little frustrated with his teaching, because he justified tailering his teaching to 70% of his audience. He gently but firmly said I needed to recognize I was in the other 30%. He then equated what he perceived as a lesser percentage with no need to pay attention to them. No need, dare I say, to respect or work to understand either.

Let me suggest that a wise and civic society does not ignore the 30%. With absolutely every issue facing our politically polarized and thus paralyzed public — from here to Afghanistan — we can’t ignore the others; we can’t count them as lesser. Unfortunately, though, to justify that ignorance, we often go further, demonizing different perspective and experience instead. Sorry, friends, but that feels even more foolish to me. Actually, inaccurate and unfair, too. Demonization is most often used to embolden our own position as opposed to wisely wrestle with all who are affected by what we’ve chosen to believe. 

Wisdom thus compels us to compassionately wrestle with the different. Wisdom makes us refrain from equating percentage with lesser. And wisdom requires us to not allow priorities to justify who and what we’ve chosen to ignore.

Ignorance is not bliss, my friends. It’s not wisdom either.

Respectfully…

AR

fact checking the fact checkers

It was Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, I believe, who first articulated that “you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” Moynihan was a unique statesman; long before the present days of polarized partisanship, the New York Democrat also served in various advisory positions to Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Ford.

Unfortunately, no less, we often ignore facts. Sometimes they are inconvenient in the binary conclusions we’re tempted to cling to…

This person is all bad… this one is all good…

This party is all bad…

This church is all bad…

And then we compartmentalize the facts in such a way that we never have to wrestle with how they contradict some of our opinions. As has been said here in various ways in multiple days, to conclude that this, the past, or another administration is all healthy, competent and full of integrity — or not — is probably to have misconstrued the facts. Oh, how I wish our government was consistently known for both its integrity and competence. Compassion and financial prudence, too.

Allow us, therefore, to simply provide a tool today from a fact checking perspective. For example, did you know that fact checkers also have known bias? … and that influences the presentation of their conclusions?

Snopes, NPR, Politifact — they each lean left. Breibart, National Review — they lean right.

Understand that bias does not necessarily reflect accuracy nor credibility; bias instead plays itself out in the fact checking world by what or who the checker chooses to cover and how subjective analysis is included.

Writes AllSides, one of the Intramuralist’s favorite, recommended, respectful news sources: 

“Fact check websites like Snopes and Politifact reveal their bias numerous ways. Often, fact checkers will analyze information for the reader and draw a conclusion about the meaning of the facts, which is subjective in nature. Other times, they’ll display bias based on what facts they choose to downplay or to highlight. They also show bias based on story choice — for example, primarily fact checking left-wing politicians, or only fact checking right-wing claims.”

Based on reader feedback, notice AllSides interpretation of fact checkers here:

(To be clear, the above is different that charts we have previously posted; this simply addresses those who claim to check facts. The Intramuralist checks The Dispatch and RealClearPolitics daily.)

I wonder what it would do to the depth and respect level of our conversation — and to the humility we extend to one another — if we recognized the bias even embedded in the so-called “facts.” What would it change?

Would our conversations be better?

Would we make more progress?

If we realized our opinion was emboldened because of bias, would it soften the brash tenacity with which we oft feel compelled to speak? … especially on social media?

Many thanks, Sen. Moynihan.

No doubt we each still have more to learn.

Respectfully…

AR