Review of book The Cold Civil War: Overcoming Polarization, Discovering Unity and Healing the Nation. (Amazon Sitestripes link).

Author: Jim Belcher, formerly president of Providence Christian College in Pasadena CA and founding lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach CA. Ph.D from Georgetown University.

Foreword by John D. Wilsey.

Details: 2022, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. 340 pages hardcover, 274 of main text, with three parts, thirteen chapters, and a conclusion. Endnotes.

caption: Beto Gudino interviews Jim Belcher

The author tackles the 'cold civil war' between animus-bearing portions of US society, and certainly would agree that democracy as we know it is in danger. His conclusion (spoiler) is that religion, both as an interfaith effort and in his purview a Christian priority, needs to stand with the political order in bringing about reforms. However, he does not go into the legal details of the reforms (such as how to shore up election integrity and the loopholes and imbalances in our democracy, which seem to favor rural and smaller places).

Caption: Help us heal our divide, interview with Belcher

He presents the core of his argument pictorially on p. 37 with a kind of Nolan chart (remember 'the world’s smallest political quiz'). It is bounded by a square with Left and Right, and with Order and Freedom as the other two edges. There are three concentric circles that pass through each quadrant. 3 is the most extreme, 2 is closer to the ruling establishment, and 1 is presented at the end as his proposed center, which will comprise four souls: Freedom Left becomes the constitutional soul, Order Left becomes the republican soul, Freedom Right becomes the middle class soul, and Order Right becomes the statesman soul.

'Chapter 12 is “Patriotic Citizenship” and Chapter 13 is called 'Christianity: The Second Constitution'.  He argues that Christianity provides a 'soft' but stable, appropriately flexible (and non-denominational but essentially western derivation from what Christianity added to Judaism in his view) set of moral principles to evolve constitutional principles as technology overwrites older ways of doing things.  That claim in interesting to me personally because Chapter 6 of my first DADT book had proposed specific constitutional amendments to add to the Bill of Rights, as a Bill of Rights 2.  Admittedly, since this dates to about 1997 (when my own mainframe I.T. career was in its full maturity according to the world then) some of the proposals are outrun by history.  And that’s the problem with my trying to make such specific prescriptions and why some sort of systemic approach is needed.  (Ironically I talked about the first amendment and about bodily privacy a lot, and even the beginnings of 'freedom of reach', but not about the second amendment).

Belcher is most graphic in describing extremism on all sides. He winds up forcing to conclude that the far Left, with the doctrine of anti-racism interpreted as required indoctrination (and now it seems that 'critical gender theory' has sometimes joined the indoctrination when SEL is implemented in some school systems), becomes as authoritarian as the far Right. They have both evolved into anti-individualism and hyper tribalism. In fact, I think we need a book, or at least an essay, on “individualism v. tribalism”. Probably Dave Rubin would be a good starting point for that effort (book 'Don’t Burn this Book” Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason', 2020, Sentinel, Amazon stripes link). Belcher points out that the extreme Order Right is willing to use violent or illegal means to get what it wants (January 6, and all the 'stop the steal' business) but doesn’t get into the specific weaknesses (like the Electoral Count Act of 1887 which definitely needs revision). The far Left, however, is at least willing to disrupt individuals and small businesses with violence and vandalism in demands for tribute (well, Marxist revolution).

The moral common denominator seems to be how individuals see themselves, how they balance their own utility with greater common good.  As one of the videos below shows, this comes up with some social issues in rather obvious ways:  abortion, vaccination, and end-of-life (as in the Catholic video below), but in some other ways to.  Think about the loss of freedom and implicit sacrifice in the coronavirus lockdowns, and in conscription (just of men?).  Public health particularly pits individual autonomy against the good of the larger community as a whole (and this could have been said about the AIDS crisis in the 80s, which was very different from COVID). 

Authoritarian systems limit the individual by requiring 'em' to personally identify with tribal priorities. Marxist systems pretend that everyone should start out equal and that belonging to a victimized class is a legitimate source of personal identity. Far right ('alt-right') authoritarianism assumes that a ruling class comprises inherently 'superior' people entitled to rule, and follows survival of the fittest (except inside the nuclear or extended family or inner tribe). However often a far-right “order” mentality appeals to the notion that its tribe had one time been abused. This is certainly true in the Old Testament with the Israelites.

caption: the dangers of -my body. my choice-

(Posted Monday, May 16, 2022 at 1 PM EDT by John W Boushka)