We Have Far More in Common
With increasing levels of polarization, Clapham Principal, Mark Rodgers explains Clapham’s focus for this upcoming year: Common Grace, Common Ground and Common Good.
Image from Toyota’s “One Team,” Superbowl Commercial
In our world divided by differences, comedy and humor can serve as bridges, reminding us of our shared humanity. Comedy can also be a mirror of our society; comedians often providing a cultural commentary through irony, or satire – shedding light on issues of today. Therefore, to illustrate our three convictions, as serious as we are about them, we have included a variety of SNL/Comedy sketches to lighten things up.
“One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling. ”
I was somewhat jarred last year when I interviewed a potential staff affiliate who, after hearing about Clapham’s mission and work, asked whether there was common ground worth pursuing any more. She wasn’t being unnecessarily provocative from what I could tell, but from her vantage point as a Gen Zer, she was questioning from her experience whether a deeply divided society could find a path forward to flourish together.
My guess is that she’s lived through some tense Thanksgiving family dinners.
I had never questioned my own assumptions about the value of pursuing common ground before. Have we become so divided that our lines can’t be crossed? Have our worldviews become so worlds apart, that common ground no longer even exists?
Thankfully, despite the persistent red/blue narrative from the media (which at times is deeply invested in and rewarded by promoting the narrative), surveys show that we have more in common than we do not. According to More in Common’s Hidden Tribes report, 77% of those sampled agreed that “[t]he differences between Americans are not so big that we cannot come together.”
Anticipating a contentious year ahead, Clapham Group as a team has decided to reframe our work around our commitment to embrace Common Grace, uncover Common Ground and cultivate Common Good. And to even find a way to celebrate our diversity and differences.
Since 2007 we have been building bridges between the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans, between secular and faith institutions, and between those with power and those without. This is our core mission, and was a hallmark of the original abolitionist Clapham Group from whom we take our name. One of our first projects, in fact, was The Poverty Forum which brought policy experts from the right and left together to determine a set of proposals that they could make to the incoming administration, whichever party it might be.
Our clients have included secular foundations and faith institutions. We’ve worked to find common ground on the wealth gap, animal cruelty and foster care. Recently, we have even been exploring where pro-life groups have common ground with those who support legal abortion to address the material needs of pregnant women and families with newborns.
The good news is that when I tell friends and family from the left and right, no matter how settled they are in their convictions they share a common response: “Good. It’s important that someone is trying to find common ground.” We all know deep in our souls that holding the current battlelines indefinitely is unsustainable, and one “side” trying to defeat the other is a zero sum gain game. But there really aren’t winners, only losers when this is the case.
Embrace Common Grace
As the son of a Seminary dean and professor, I can’t think of common grace without thinking of its theological implications. According to Ligonier Valley Ministries, the doctrine of common grace “encompasses the biblical teaching about the universal and undeserved goodness of God toward sinners. By common grace, God restrains sin, evil, misery, and wrath in this fallen world, while conferring general, nonredemptive blessings on all mankind.” At Clapham, we apply the concept of Common Grace in two different ways: first, the assumption that people we differ with may have access to valuable insight and truth and second, that we should treat people with whom we differ with grace. It is inevitable that we will disagree with one another, which has been the case since not just the founding of our nation but of the fall of the world. The question is not whether we will disagree, but how we will disagree. We believe that embracing common grace means assuming best motives and treating others with respect, which will lead to the conditions necessary to uncover common ground.
Uncover Common Ground
Our founding fathers were deeply suspicious of power, and despite a radical experiment in self-governance, they assumed a fallen nature that would require checks and balances in government. The three branched, bicameral legislature and filibuster are just three examples of ways in which they would force our passionate electorate to uncover common ground. Sadly, the far left and far right have turned “compromise” from a virtue to a vice. Anyone willing to give a little to get a little, thereby creating a win-win, is viewed to be a compromiser, and will either lose tenure or their Speakership. Our public language is militaristic, we call each other the enemy, we use aggressive, combative terms, and some even talk about civil war. We all know what battlegrounds looks like: desolation, scorched earth, destruction. Nothing can flourish. By identifying common concerns and giving permission to discuss them together, we can affirm the virtue and value of exploring, uncovering, seeding and even protecting common ground, for only then do we have the social capital (relational trust) needed to pursue the common good together.
Cultivate Common Good
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 1906-1909) the common good is “to be understood the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily."1 The common good concerns the life of all. At Clapham we believe that by gathering diverse stakeholders to uncover common ground, specific “common goods” can be developed and promoted, creating the opportunity to pursue a common cause together. At Clapham we are seeing this take place now around the promotion of the Child Tax Credit. From national pro-life and conservative pro-family organizations like Students for Life of America and American Principles Project to faith left and center groups like Sojourners and the Center for Public Justice. The common good needs to be cultivated for this to be possible, and as we know, social capital (relational trust) is hard to build in a polarized society, and easy to lose. To cultivate the common good, therefore, we need common grace to believe the best in each other and truly desire to listen and understand.
And thus we are back to the beginning. To flourish and thrive together, a common good must serve to better society and will require some sort of societal sacrifice that will require common grace to be pursued and thereby common ground revealed.
Over the course of the next nine months leading up the election, Clapham plans on reflecting on these three convictions, and we would be blessed if you join us in our journey as well. And possibly, along the way, laugh together a little as well.