A Cry for Complexity
It always proves fascinating to me how desperately we long for simplicity. I don’t know if this has always been a character trait of humanity or if it is just the current trend, but today we long for easy shortcuts and simple answers to anything and everything. Whether it be business models, PTA meetings, or directions to the grocery store, we want simple. Introduce deeper topics of race, faith, and politics, we want to get to the simple truth as easy and scathe-free as possible. We trust ourselves more than anyone else (even the experts) and truth has become debatable.
Let’s make things simple, we think, life becomes black and white, good and bad, right and wrong, winning and loosing. I remember American history being taught to me this way. The British were bad, the pilgrims were good. The pilgrims did take advantage of the Indian’s hospitably, but they were just looking for a place to express their faith. Slavery was wrong. The Civil War was comprised of the North wanting to end slavery and the South fighting to keep it. I’m sure there were more nuanced conversations in my history classes, but you get the gist. I was always taught life came down to two sides, and faith seemed to be no different. There were truth and there were lies. And while I still hold to a more black and white dogma theologically, there is plenty of gray in my Christian faith. Sure the Bible is clear in some things, but in other moments it seems incredibly blurry. How much of my Christian tradition, I began to wonder, is just tradition? I digress.
As I’ve grown older, I have found that life (and race, and faith, and politics) is rarely as simple as desired. In fact, life is messy. Good people do bad things, and bad people do good things. People are messy.
This year, more than any other I have seen a dramatic rise in the desire for simplicity. We have reduced fellow humans to their worst day and their best day, their thoughts on an issue and their beliefs on another. Monolithic thought has been applied to any and every people group. Tribalism in the worst way has reared its ugly head. As I stare this beast in the eyes the hope in my heart dwindles. It’s no wonder there has been a rise in meme sharing over the last 5 years. Complex ideas communicated in extremely simple terms is the new truth telling. The memes are so simple that it only takes 10 words to express said complex idea. Please understand, the truth is never that simple. Before you share that meme, remember that, no matter how much you may agree. Confirmation bias is a cancer.
“In a paradox, opposites do not negate each other, they cohere in mysterious unity at the heart of reality. Deeper still, they need each other for health, as my body needs to breathe in as well as breathe out. But in a culture that prefers the ease of either-or thinking to the complexities of paradox, we have a hard time holding opposites together. We want light without darkness, the glories of spring and summer without the demands of autumn and winter. ”
— Let your Life Speak - Parker J Palmer
Race and faith and politics fill my social media feeds and conversations. While not typically my go-to topics of choice, I have been trying my best to educate myself over the last few years. With each dead-end I arrive at, I go back and try to find another way. I’m looking for what I think we are all looking for: truth. To the people of faith reading this, I’m not talking about the Truth, I’m talking about correct facts. Perhaps there is more to the conversation of being pro-life than just anti-abortion. Perhaps Republican’s outspoken rejection of cancel cultural is a good thing? Perhaps the Democrat’s fight for everyone to have access to a doctor is not impossible? Perhaps there is more to the history of racism than just the Civil War, and the Civil Right Movement? Perhaps history is built on the shoulders of impossibly complex humans and always will be? Perhaps the destruction of the nuclear family is a real thing and something to stand against? Perhaps black and brown people still do not feel safe in this Country that promises freedom for everyone? Please understand even in these rhetorical questions, I am oversimplifying complex issues. That’s the point! Simplicity is the easy way. Complexity is hard.
The reason why we want life to be so simple is because we need it to be. Anything complex would require more thought and more energy and more time. It would require us to say that we don’t know as much as we think we do. It would require us to read more, to disagree more, to dialogue more to listen more. No one political party is mostly good and no one political party is mostly bad, it is just not that simple. How I long for it to be that simple so that I can just choose one side or the other and know that I’m standing on the correct side of history. How nice, but how terribly misguided.
While not easy, complexity is worth it. Yes, sometimes the complexity of life keeps me up at night, but I would like to think that, that same complexity also keeps me humble. In your search for the “correct facts” will you listen more than you talk? Will you read books and listen to podcasts, not just scroll social media? Will you try to learn something new everyday? Join me as I do the same. Let’s embrace the uncertainty of learning and in turn, embrace complexity.
-L
Check out these books on race, faith and politics:
*A note to my Bible believing, Christ following, Church attending (this includes me) brothers and sisters. May we be careful the battles we fight in this generation. When we look at the life of Christ I never once see him self-preserving. We serve the Wounded Healer. God was killed by the state. When Peter goes to defend Jesus and even gets violent in doing so, Jesus rebukes him. Let us remember that this world is not our home. Jesus said, ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)” Understand this statement does not give us permission to fight the hate (haters). This instead just lets us in on the reality of following The Way. Jesus also said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)” We do not show our devotion to Christ by fighting for democracy, or socialism, or free speech, or political correctness, or religious liberty, or capitalism, or political power (none of these Jesus had, by the way), our devotion is proved by our love. Are we loving? Are we listening? Please understand, this love Christ calls us to, ends in death to ourselves and death on this earth with the promise of life everlasting. The worst thing that could happen to us here will never be the final thing to happen to us. I hold to that. I pray you will to.
-L