Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last while, you’re aware there was a relatively important election south of the border. Like me, you’ve perhaps had a political convo or two with friends or family that may have revealed a perspective that left you confused and bewildered. Like, “How on earth do they see reality like that?” There are a number of reasons for this utter disbelief, but maybe at the top of that list is the collective media each of us consume on a daily basis. Because don’t kid yourself, the goal of the media will always be to make bucks even at the expense of truth. The more division they sow, the more dollars they make. Whether it’s social media or a favourite news source, our media now weeds out anything that might cause us to stop viewing or consuming, giving us only what we want to hear and thus making it exceptionally challenging to attend to any unbiased take on what the other side might say.

So… what do we do with this? Well, it just so happens I listened to a podcast this week that might offer some help. The podcast shares the story of an older American couple on opposite ends of the political spectrum who found themselves in a challenging season due to frustrations with how each perceived reality based on the different media they consumed. And then one day they came across a daily newsletter called “Tangle” which bills itself as “unbiased news for busy people.” 

From its website, Tangle writes “Political news is broken. We’re fixing it. We’re a non-partisan politics newsletter that gives you a 360-degree view on the news. No spin. No clickbait. Opinions from the left, right, and center so you can decide.”

Practically, Tangle works this way: each daily newsletter consists of a major political news topic with a brief summary of all that the right leaning media and the left media has said about it and then they accompany a very transparent and, admittedly, vulnerable “take” on the topic. The opinion piece always ends with a caveat along the lines of: “this is my opinion and you don’t have to agree with it.” After several months of reading this newsletter, the couple found this approach doesn’t guarantee they’ll agree on which “side” to land on but it does guarantee they’re both working from the same, agreed upon, set of info/data, thus allowing for conversations that avoid speaking past each other and throwing hands up in frustration. Having this agreed “source” to inform them has helped their relationship survive.

So why am I writing about this this week? Shouldn’t I just stick to the spiritual stuff? A few reasons. First, even though the election was in the States, we likely all know people who are on a DIFFERENT side than “our” side which, if we’re honest, causes us to view them in a new, less flattering light. This leads to self-righteousness and an us vs. them mentality which is NOT what we want to be about at Grassroots. Second, Paul writes in Romans 12:18 ““If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” and I take this to be a pretty important dictum for how we are to conduct ourselves as followers of Jesus. This means when we see tools like Tangle with its vision to transcend either narrative of the left or right and its exacerbation of the polarization of our times, the Church should pay attention to such tools and utilize them as means of becoming more like Jesus.

Maybe the words of Jesus Collective Executive Director Adam Dyer from his recent blog post entitled, “Power, Peacemakers and Politics” is the best articulation of why we need tools like Tangle:

A polarized church has nothing to offer a polarized world, but a church of grace that models unity amidst diversity, difference and disagreement is a church that has something powerful and beautiful to offer the world.​Let’s be people who cross the divide and bridge the gap. Whenever we draw a line between us and them, remember that Jesus is on the other side of that line.

That’s it, really. If our goal is to “cross the divide and bridge the gap” then any tool that seeks to transcend “left” or “right” ideological talking points should be embraced by us. So….. all that to say, we’d do well to go and subscribe to Tangle today 😉