Liberal or Conservative? Herding at the Poles of American Society and Religion.

I encountered something interesting the other day, which I think is worth writing about. I hope I am not the only one writing about it. In fact, after I get my thoughts down here, I am going to do some research to see who else is writing about it.

Here's the story of what I encountered the other day: as I was leading a group of seminary interns in their Fall Cluster Gathering, I was given the task of simply being a listening post in their small group and a mouth piece for their conversations as we gathered in a larger group. Interns met with me in one room and supervisors met with the Luther Seminary Contextual Education guru, Steven McKinley in another room.

What interns were asked to share was essentially their happies and crappies of internship so far. Happies were very general, and for the most part, what I expected. Crappies, however surprised me.

I've served the Con. Ed. office of Luther in this capacity for about 3 years now. It's a very, very simple job, though I do believe it is important. It certainly was a job I appreciated someone having when I was an intern. In 3 years, I can almost predict the kinds of things interns will come up with. They are usually pretty standard. This time, however, there was a slight twist. What I discovered was really not all that new. In a way, I've heard it before. This time though it had a different flavor.

Interns were struggling to find their voice as intern pastors. They were going through the typical motions of finding out what their place is in internship and what role they should play. They were trying to figure out how to be leaders when they weren't really sure how much of a leadership leash they had.

What was different was the fact that their struggle to find their voice was coming in some very complex, hot button issues. Homosexuality and the church/faith, racism, Right Wing/Left Wing political discourse, immigration, poverty and the government's role to care for the poor.

Don't get me wrong, these are not new topics. We hear about them everyday on the news. In fact, since August/September (when these interns started) these topics have been in the news quite often. What is different is that these interns were being placed in conversations about these things, struggling with them, and then actually taking the risk of sharing their struggles in that Cluster meeting to a degree that I haven't seen before.

Without giving away too much, they were very quick to identify themselves and their congregations or the denomination in one category or the other: Liberal and Conservative. And their categorizations were political, social, and theological. They could easily rank themselves and the people they served in one category or the other.

It seems to be the nature of American society (maybe even global society) to polarize itself. The tendency to "herd" at the extreme ends of a spectrum, whether that be political, social, theological, or otherwise, is a fascinating concept/reality to me. On the whole, we like black and white, in and out, this and that kinds of thinking. There is very little room for the middle ground; and worse yet, there is very little room for someone to be an individual.

I wonder how this happened? I wonder if there are any people around anymore who want to be individuals? I wonder what the implications are if we don't have anyone who wants to be an individual, but only part of the herd at one end of the spectrum or the other?

As for the question of how this happened, Edwin Friedman writes something interesting in his book, "Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix." Friedman's thesis, that some systems are chronically anxious and they need leaders who focus on managing their own anxiety and not the anxiety of others in the system, is brilliant. Leadership is an emotional process. In chronically anxious societies, like pre/post/and currently-in-recession America, the system will display very predictable patterns of behavior. One predictable pattern in a chronically anxious system like ours is the "herding instinct."

Friedman says in his book, "In the herding family [or any system; i.e. government, society, institution, etc.] dissent is discouraged, feelings are more important than ideas, peace will be valued over progress, comfort over novelty, and cloistered virtues over adventure. Problems are formulated in rigid either/or, black-and-white, all-or-nothing categories" (Friedman, Edwin. "Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix." 2007, The Edwin Friedman Trust, Kindle ebook, Location 1285).

Chronically anxious systems "herd" together like cows, horses, or sheep that are frightened. This herding takes place in our society, especially in American politics and religion, at the poles of liberal or conservative.

When I was meeting with the interns the other day, their tendency to classify themselves as liberal or conservative, either theologically or politically, was very evident. It was like cows herding at the gates of a pasture. Above each gate was a sign that said either, Liberal or Conservative. Their nonverbal ques were the most interesting, each taking a very carefully postured, almost dominating position in their chair when they self-identified which herd they were with. We might as well have gotten out the branding irons: Liberal Ranch in this pasture and Conservative Ranch in this pasture.

It was fascinating to watch and be part of. I know that interns always struggle to find their voice on internship. But it seemed that what they were really struggling to find was the herd's voice with which they most identified and how to share that voice when placed in the same pasture as another herd. 

If leadership really is about self-differentiation and managing your own emotions in a chronically anxious system of church or society, we'd better be careful. Perhaps we need to teach our interns how to remain emotionally self-differentiated and how to take a well-defined stand while remaining connected to the system. Perhaps they would be better pastoral leaders if we encouraged them to be emotionally stable, self-differentiated individuals, rather than herding at the poles.

In fact, perhaps everyone in a leadership role could be encouraged to do be self-differentiated, to manage their own anxiety. Pastors could use this encouragement. Government leaders could use this encouragment. Company executives could use this encouragement. Everyone could. Check your pulse, manage your anxiety, be well-defined and connected.

For God's sake, don't spend all your time herding at the poles. Get out into the pasture and play!