Charles E. Gutenson Quotes

We have been seduced by sound bites. It is difficult to imagine how we are going to have an intelligent conversation around complex theopolitical issues as long as the average news consumer in America is willing to be sound-bite driven. We face a sorry state of affairs in our culture when few people seem willing to take the time for nuanced discussion on the complicated challenges we face. Politicians of all parties have been willing to foster this sound-bite mentality because it has worked for them. Most Americans work hard and are faced with too little time and too many distractions to study the issues well enough to make an informed judgment on them. As long as news consumers are willing to be manipulated by sound bites and are unwilling to commit the time to understand the complexities, we will continue to see artificial and simplistic distinctions drive too much of our conversation, resulting in divisions and disagreements that rarely get at the substantive issues.

We seem to believe that passionate disagreement is itself an indicator of our sinfulness. When we see things this way, we have a strong tendency to do anything we can to avoid disagreement, even to the point of covering over our disagreements in an attempt to create an artificial and false unity. Let me say this clearly: disagreement between Christians, even passionate disagreement, is not a sin.