Much has been said about our increasingly polarized society. It seems we are becoming more entrenched in particular ideologies and less capable of understanding others. But are we as polarized as we think we are? Tim Dixon, co-founder of More in Common, joins Today’s Conversation to discuss what we do have in common, and how we can find more in common with others.

In this conversation, NAE President Walter Kim and Tim Dixon discuss findings from More in Common’s report, “Promising Revelations: Undoing the False Impressions of America’s Faithful.” The research sheds light on common misperceptions about communities of faith in America, including evangelicals.

You’ll also hear them discuss:

  • Where these misperceptions come from and what’s at stake if they continue to be believed;
  • What can be done to build bridges and find unity;
  • How small moments of connection can shift perspectives; and
  • Why this work is especially worthwhile for followers of Jesus.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: What role do you believe the Church has and followers of Jesus have in bringing healing to the division and polarization we see?

Tim: I think it’s such a critical role. I mean, partly because churches have reached into the community that really isn’t equaled by any other institution in society. Thinking a little bit more theologically, I also think God’s people have always had a prophetic role to speak to whatever the dysfunctions of the society were. The prophets often spoke about the profound inequality of the society they were in, and you think of, you know the great social reformers in the more recent centuries, who built the hospitals, the universities and the social institutions. Evangelicals have had such a significant role in that. So I think in the same way, there is a prophetic role.

Now, that is part of how we should be, as evangelicals, thinking about what difference can we make, and I think there are two elements to it. One part is just living out the story of the multiethnic church. I thought that the conversations you had with Caleb Campbell and Derwin Gray in the Difficult Conversations series, and the experiences of Mark DeYmaz was another of churches that are demonstrating in real life the capacity for people from different backgrounds to be unified together. This is what Jesus prayed in John 17, that they may be one. It’s such a critical part of what can be distinctive about churches in a divided society.

But you know, the tragedy right now is that — as we discuss in the report — churches are perceived as accelerants to the country’s division rather than as off-ramps to to the division. So I do think that we need imagination to a vision for something that’s different and we need to live that out. But also, we can draw a lot if we turned off our social media feeds and allowed that to form us less and allowed the biblical story to inform us more.

Think of Jesus’ time. Jesus lived in a time that was profoundly polarized, and think of the extraordinary thing that the division in that time among Jews was about: How do you respond to the Roman occupation? And you had Simon the zealot who was one of his disciples. The zealots wanted violent overthrow and they believed in violent revolution. They wanted Jesus to be that revolutionary leader. And you had Matthew the tax collector, who was like a kind of political lobbyist of today — somebody who was totally sold out to the system and would be perceived as being treasonous and totally betraying his country. And yet that’s the story. The disciples and Jesus followers were incongruous in the way that they brought together opposing sides. But their identity, once they followed Jesus became transcendent to those differences. So I just think there’s an opportunity to be that.

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Tim Dixon

Tim Dixon is the co-founder of More in Common, an organization that works to build stronger and more inclusive democratic societies that are resilient to the threats of populism and division. He is a social entrepreneur who has started businesses and nonprofits in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Dixon has co-founded seven organizations since 2010 including The Syria Campaign, Purpose Europe and the Jo Cox Foundation. He has worked as a chief speechwriter to two prime ministers in Australia and has advised political leaders, CEOs, philanthropists, activists and organizations on strategies to engage new audiences and achieve positive change. Dixon is a graduate of the University of Sydney.

Walter Kim

Walter Kim became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in January 2020. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver, Canada and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes and engages in collaborative leadership to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He regularly teaches in conferences and classrooms; addresses faith concerns with elected officials and public institutions; and provides theological and cultural commentary to leading news outlets. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief and consults with a wide range of organizations. Kim received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and his B.A. from Northwestern University.