The Big Sort

There has been a good bit of coverage lately on a book published in May called The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop. As much as we like to talk about diversity and multiculturalism in the church and in the United States more generally, the findings of this book make me question just how well we are winning this war to be inclusive and understanding of other people's lifestyles, etc. In a nutshell, the thesis of this book is that there was a time not too long ago in America when people of diverse political/religious/whatever other label lived right next to each other and had to deal with each other on a daily basis. Today, this dynamic has changed. More and more people are living in clusters of like-minded people, whether this be Republican/Democrat or Evangelical/Mainline. It is moving beyond this idea of blue states versus red states to segregated neighborhoods.

One of the main proponents of this book lately has been former president Bill Clinton. In a recent speech he had the following to say about The Big Sort:

"We can maximize our impact if we reach out to people who are different from ourselves . . . I want to recommend a book . . . He says . . . we are growing more isolated in our communities because we are living more and more only with people we agree with, and we are growing more isolated in our political debates because . . . we look at the television news and we read the Web sites of people who confirm what we think already. This is not good in a democracy. And so I urge you to read it."


"I’ll just give you one little factoid about it: In 1976 when President Carter and President Ford had a very close race for president. It was close in America. There were only thirty-two percent of our counties that voted for either one of them by more than twenty percent. Everywhere else in America there was a raging ongoing debate among friends and neighbors and people who went to church or synagogue or mosque or wherever together; they were all sitting there talking about this, and they were trying to build a sense of national unity out of their genuine concerns and debates. By 2004 ... it was also very close, but forty-eight and half percent of our counties voted for one or the other of them by more than twenty points."And Bishop has got a story in here, unbelievable story, about a brilliant developer in Southern California who did a market survey, and he found that in the area where he had the property, so he had to do the development, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats were almost evenly divided, so, and he had one gated community he had to build, so on the left side he built houses that suited conservative Republicans, and on the right side he built places where you could have yoga and meditation and everything (laughter) that suited liberal Democrats, and he actually sold it out immediately, divided exactly as he had predicted, from his market surveys. Now, we’re laughing about this, but some of us are gonna have to cross the street, folks. That’s the last thing I want to say to you. I, we gotta --- "(applause)


"It was an amazing thing. So that’s the other thing I would say to young people: Do public service, not just with somebody who looks different that you do, but who thinks differently than you do. The way to --- we don’t need a phony unity in this country. The founding fathers understood that debate and differences were healthy, but you have to have them in a way that allows you to see the person who disagrees with you as a human being. Once we start doing big things together, we’ll figure out how to do it and we’ll do just fine. . . . "

I think this is significant for those of us who are trying to look past their specific demographic in order to see a more universal church rather than the white bread one I normally get. I guess the greatest concern I have is how polarizing issues tend to be. In the recent past we have seen the rise of evangelicalism in the military to a point that non-religious cadets at the Air Force Academy and West Point have brought charges against these institutions for catering to evangelicals and making it almost impossible to be successful if one is not religious in the military.

What this shows me is there is coming a point when our country will have to deal with two starkly contrasting positions: those who have grown up with no religious leanings at all, and those who have grown up with a fundamental/evangelical background. Both sides think they are absolutely right and constitutionally protected, and neither considers the rights of the other side. This alarms me because I don't think that Jesus was about infringing on others' rights. He knew what was right without having to knock people over the head with it. If this is not the case, then I cannot explain why he chose the disciples he chose or had dinner with the folks he came to call to repentance.

This has been a concern of mine for some time and is one of the reasons I left my former denomination. My biggest problem was that there was no room for dialogue on issues. There was the right answer and the wrong one and nothing in between. I am all about moderation and think it might be a good idea for us to try to come back to the center, meet people half way. But meeting people in the middle means we each have to take a step.