Listening past the slogan

There is a danger in social media that amplifies a danger inherent in political sloganeering. The danger is that, because we are not face to face, because the medium of mere text flattens the message and the messenger, we read politically charged messages through the least generous prism of our own biases.

I caught a funny instance of this reading a comment from a conservative Christian account on X (formerly Twitter) recently, who was being accused of anti-semitism for stating “Christ is King.”

“I didn’t mean it that way!” she protested. It was a shame, she argued, because the phrase Christ is King is a simple profession of faith for Christians. Sure, some may use the language as a club against Jews, but it’s important to discern the intention behind the phrase when it is used to understand its true context.

I nodded along in approval.

“It’s not like ‘Black Lives Matter’ after all,” she continued, “which is an obvious statement of Black supremacy.”

I’m afraid I had to stop nodding.

There is no limit to tragic irony in the era of the culture wars. Left and right, when we find ourselves stereotyped and singled out by the other side for misunderstanding what we mean by the words we say, bemoan the fact that our meanings are twisted or that we are lumped in with others who may have much more cynical reasons for using the same or similar words as we do to make a certain point.

“Black Lives Matter never meant only Black lives matter,” many have effectively said. “It means Black lives matter too.”

“Yes, but why say Black lives matter then, when you could have said ‘All Lives Matter?’” others have effectively retorted. Suspicion of the original phrase remained as ‘Black Lives Matter’ fixed itself in the political lexicon, after which the counter phrase of “All Lives Matter” itself took on a reputation as being effectively a statement of white supremacy among many.

How, you ask? Because it was a phrase employed deliberately to distract from the unique dangers facing Black lives in America by people who could not possibly have truly believed that Black Lives Matter was a statement of Black supremacy – at least, according to many people who felt this way about the phrase ‘All Lives Matter.’

As slogans collide in a polarized era, the mass of our distrust grows larger and larger. Our ability to communicate craters beneath the weight of it.

In a moment in which antisemitism seems to be on the rise there is certainly a conversation to be had about the phrase ‘Christ is King’ and the context in which some people are using it. But it is a phrase with a larger history as a mere profession of Christian faith.

George W. Bush once said, “too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions.” There is something relevant in that here.

We wish for people to see what we truly meant in the words that we say, the good effect we wished to have even in our mistakes. But when we are polarized across tribal lines, we fail to see anything good in the intentions of others…even at times when we are asking for understanding of our views in the same breath.

The answer to this problem must lie in the golden rule; that you must “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” For this must also imply that you must listen to your neighbor with as much understanding as you would have them listen to you.